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Thread: Chomper - C. cranwelli

  1. #1

    Default Chomper - C. cranwelli

    - Honey, let's go to reptile expo, we need to buy mices for our snakes, but don't worry, we will not buy any animals as I only need three snakes for breeding, and we don't have place for new lizards.

    *half hour later after we bought snake food we are looking around what people are having on their tables*

    - Look, on few tables there are these frogs you always wanted, maybe you want early Christamas present?

    - YES.




    Well, that's the story of Chomper, she/he is a small, captive breed, two months old C. cranwelli <3 There was also a lovely mint brother/sister but since it was smaller the breeder told us that it would be better to buy another one from the same clutch (I'm really glad that there are still good people that will tell you that the animal you want may be a little problematic!).

    We have experience with snakes and lizards but this little guy is our very first frog, so I'm looking forward to learning more about them!















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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Hello and Congrats on the new friend. If hes your first if you cover 3 sides of his enclosure it will help him settle for you faster, and sometimes they wont eat for the first couple nights so if this happens don't worry its pretty normal. Try to keep his heat somewhere in between 80f and 85f, I find my guys like it around 82f. At night you can let it drop a few degrees and this should make him wakeup and want to eat. For the humidity somewhere in between 70% and 80% is good, I keep mine at 75%. Make sure he gets a calcium and D3 vitamin and multivitamin but not on the same night, being so small these vitamins will be very crucial to health and growth. For his water dish and expanding his substrate you want to use spring or tap water treated with some kind of declorinator. For misting you can use R/O or distilled, this way you don't get that calcium buildup from the hard water on the glass.

  4. #3

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Thank you Cory! For now he's in a small plastic tub on paper towels as I don't want to scare him with too big enclosure (I'm not sure if this can happen with frogs, but it's very popular problem with young snakes so I'm doing it, haha!). In future I'd like to do more naturalistic enclosure for him (or her... for now I'm going with a boy). Our home is all the time around 80-82F, so I'm not using any additional heating in his enclosure (with all the reptiles it's easier to just keep the home at one temperature and only heat additionally the most exotic ones like ball pythons or bearded dragons.). As for feeding we tried to give him a pinky mice yesterday as the breeder told us that he should eat without problems but I guess he was stressed and didn't want to even look at it. I think I will go with the snake route, few days of leaving him totally alone (beside misting) and then we'll try to feed him. As for water we also have chinese pond turtle so some dechlorinated water is always available.

    Would the same vitamins and calcium used for bearded dragons be good for this guy? We're using Repticalcium and Reptivite for them so it would be cool to just use the same for our frog.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    He will be ok in the tub on paper towel but once he poops if all looks good I would put him in something with some cocofibre so he can bury himself, this will help him feel secure. And yes you are right that some of these little guys get stressed over big enclosures where as some are fine. What I do with mine is I start with a 10 gallon and divide it in half, as they grow I gradually move the divider giving them more space until eventually its the full ten gallons. They grow like weeds so they tend to out grow enclosures fast so it doesn't take long for them to be comfortable in full 10 gallons. You are lucky you don't need additional heat, you shouldn't have to hard of time keeping humidity since you don't have an extra heat source to burn off the moisture. For the vitamins I'm not familiar with the Repticalcium but if it has D3 in it you should be fine, but if it doesn't you will need a vitamin that does have both. The Reptivite should be fine though.

  6. #5

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Thank you for all the tips! Yes, we have calcium with d3, so it should be okay. How can I best give it to him, just sprinkle the mice/roaches with it? Our dragons just eat the vitamins/calcium mixed with some water from bowls, but it woul not work for a frog. And second question, would a dried moss bought in reptile store be okay to add to his tube? I was thinking it could be good at holding some humidity, of course we will add cocofibre too... I just want to make sure that he eats and poops fine firstly. And the breeder was keeping his babies in sterile tubes too so I did not wanted to stress him more with a new substrate that he totally doesn't know.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Hi again, ya when giving him his roaches and pinkies you just sprinkle the vitamin right on the food. For the pinkies I just dip there butt in the vitamin instead of covering the whole thing. For the moss its up to you butt if he happens to eat any while feeding it is high impaction risk. if you plan to feed by tongs the moss risk decreases a lot, its more for when they are hunting on their own. They aren't the most gracefull eaters and are very eager so they tend to miss sometimes causing them to pick up substrate.

  8. #7

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Oh, okay, I totally understand what you mean, some of our reptiles are the same way with being over eager and missing the food! I think we will stick with tongs for now, and when I'll be rearranging his home I'll think how to do it both safely and nicely for him.

  9. #8

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    I tried to feed the little guy today. The breeder told us that he was just rubbing the pinkies on these guys mouths and after few seconds they were opening them enough to slid some of the pinky inside (and from there the instinct kicked off and they were eating themselves). I tried it today but our Chomper just froze in place... The pinky was rather big, so I'll try to give only the head in the evening, maybe it'll work.
    We also gave him a little roach yesterday but he was totally uninterested in it.

    Any advices what could be best to get him started on eating?

    And yeah, I know that after moving they can not eat for a few days, but after talking with the breeder that claimed they should eat offhand I'm curious what I'm doing wrong... It's always stressing when new animals don't want to eat, even after all the picky reptiles we had.

    Edit:
    Woo-Hoo, he ate one mealworm! I know it's not the healthiest of food but we just wanted to make sure that he in fact is teached to eat by himself (and not only by partially force-feeding like in his breeder method). Since one of our beardies was scared to death by fast roaches for a long time (we now teached her that it's food) I thought that maybe this poor frog was just scared too. So now I know that he will eat, just need to teach him the same lesson our beardie girl was taking!
    Last edited by Sylphie; December 20th, 2016 at 10:07 AM.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Hello again, I really wouldn't worry right now because he is just probably adjusting to new surroundings. Just keep trying and if he was eating good before he should start again in the couple days. Rubbing under their bottom lip with the food will sometimes get a reaction, or with my guys when they were small I found if you touch their front foot with it they will strike at it. They don't all react to these things but there things you can try. Did you try feeding him during the day or at night.

  11. #10

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    We tried at night yesterday with the roach, but I guess he was too scared by fast bug (or too stressed from the moving), and in the morning with the pinky today. Well, after he eated that mealworm I'm sure we'll get him eating just fine, I'll try rubbing the pinky in a day or two like you described. I also talked with the breeder today and he said that he was rubbing it lightly from the bottom like you said, so it's possible that I was doing it wrong since I'm not having the proper intuition how to best work with this guys yet.

  12. #11

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Well, for now he wants to eat only mealworms so I'll give them to him few times in a row and then maybe he'll be more eager to try other things too.

    Also, I forgot to spray his tub yesterday because of all the Christmas jumble and today he was all in dried up skin and hiding. I sprayed him immediately with water and now he looks like he will shed... hope it's normal and he will be fine? I certainly won't forgot to spray him in future as I was all terrified when I saw him today. He's now pretty mopish too.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Hi, if it happens again that you forget to check on him through out the day and he looks a bit dry instead of spraying him with the misting bottle you could just place him in a warm bath for a bit. He will like this more then being sprayed, and when hes in there if you just pour some water over his back that dry skin will usually come right off.

  14. #13

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Thanks for the tip, I'll remember it in future! I guess he should get rid of the rest of this skin in a day or two, right? Also, thanks a lot for answering all my questions and have a Happy Christmas (or a very good day if you're not celebrating it)!

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    To be very honest I have never really seen any signs that they are ready to shed, my guys just do it whenever. And its always night and the way I can tell in the morning is because they look so bright and vibrant after a nice shed. And I don't know if you know yet that you wont find skin because they eat it as they shed. And its not a very pleasant thing to watch, they contort there body and stuff and its very weird looking. They use there front legs and hands to pull it over there head and into there mouth. If you have necer seen it you may want to look it up in youtube so you know what to expect, the first time I saw it I thought there was something wrong with my frog. L.O.L And Merry Christmas to you too, and ya I celebrate Christmas. My kids wouldn't have it any other way.

  16. #15

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Quick update for now without pics: He's now switched to normal tub with coco mulch and is much happier. He also started to gain weight even if I'm not seeing him eating at all (but some of his worms are gone so I guess he's just very secret about his eating). Since he still refuses f/t pinkies here is the question: how do I supplement him with calcium? I tried dusting his insects but he let's them walk around for so long that all the calcium falls off them before he eats them. It was okay for a month, but it's now two months since he came to us and still did not received even a single dose of calcium. Any tips how to do it?

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Ya being a baby he needs to get those vitamins. What does he do when you try to feed with tongs? This is the best way to make sure he gets the vitamins before the insects clean it off. You could try liquid calcium. Have you tried feeding him in a separate container that's a bit smaller in size so the food can't escape or stay away from him? Or is he doing the i will let them walk all over me but won't eat them.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Yes, he's the type to let them walk on him and just look around with sad eyes... With tongs he just turns away.... He's like a very picky baby that will eat only after they spend 3 days with him and he has really no other option than just eat them. Maybe I'll try putting him in a separate box for feeding, but I guess he'll be more stressed with moving and won't look at them at all.

    Ehh, and everyone says that they are such monsters with food.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    It seems that I've also done a few things to try and get my juvenile Pacman to eat.

    I learned how to make various sorts of cricket corrals out of pieces of plastic. Cutting a section from a plastic gallon water jug, or cutting the bottom out of a pint container results in a temporary barrier that I can insert into my enclosure to keep a cricket very close to the frog. This greatly increases the chances of a strike whilst the cricket has dust on it.

    Feed one at a time. It irritates the frog to have a cricket climb on them. Feed one at a time and there's only one thing for the frogs little brain to focus on.

    Cricket trap. If I find the frog just won't eat, I put a 16oz water bottle with the top cut off, inverted, and inserted back into the bottom. Placed carefully, a cricket walking around the enclosure will eventually end up here for redusting or replacement to the cricket box.

    My juvenile went from eating every day to eating on his own schedule and usually skipping days, sometimes many days.

    Now, I almost always offer him food, he'll eat when he wants.

    My frog will alert on prey much of the time, but it may take quite some time for him to strike at it.

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    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Hi again, the first thing I would do is get some liquid calcium into him like I suggested before because he really needs some calcium in his system. You never know this might give him some extra energy and he may become more eager to eat. I know sometimes when I don't eat right for a week or 2 when I get busy I start to feel sluggish and exhausted, once I get back to eating properly and get some of the vitamins and protiens I lacked during the 2 weeks I feel a lot better and more energized. For the eating if you try the feeding in a separate container what I would do is scoop him up and put him in the container your going to use, find the darkest room you have in the house and just let him sit in the tub for 10 minutes or so to calm down. When doing this I would just leave room then come back after the 10 minutes. When you go back in put the crickets in then just leave the room again for a little bit then go back in and check if he has ate anything, and I would remove the back legs of the crickets so they cant jump away and they cant rub the vitamins off as fast. For the tongs I had one that wasn't fond of them at first and every time I went close to him with them he would turn or puff up and go into self defense mode. What I did is I would lower the cricket down to the coco fibre with the tongs so the cricket was actually touching it, then I would let the cricket go running in the direction of the frog and most the time he would scoop it up. I started from about 3 inches away from him and over the next little bit I would just go closer and closer, eventually after about 2 weeks he figured out the tongs weren't going to hurt him and they meant food and he was jumping at the crickets because he didn't want to wait. And when doing this I would take the back legs off so they couldn't jump. What does his poop look like? You may want to bring him to vet soon if nothing works for you and get him checked out, you never know he could have some type of worms and this could set him off food.

  22. #20

    Default Re: Chomper - C. cranwelli

    Well, we tried some things today. First of all we bathed him and he did his poop here, it was normal, healthy looking poop, so not worries here. I know for sure that he ate one roach and one cricket as after 2-3 days they were gone, and I also guess he ate some small mealworms that I tossed into his tub. He's also rounder than before, so I know he eats at least a little, even if I don't see it. My main concern is the lack of calcium as like I said he eats his insects after such a time that they rub off all the calcium in the meantime.

    Today while bathing him I cleaned his tub, switched it back to clean-hospital style, and then we tried the separate container method. I leaved him in it for 2 hours with one cricket in a dark room, but he refused to eat it. We decided to try to give him pinky like his breeder told us when we bought him (rub the pinky on the lower lip) and even some teasing on tongs (like "look, I'm just a live pinky walking there"), but again he refused. We'll leave him alone for few days now so he will be able to calm down as I guess he was pretty stressed today after all that. In Friday we'll go for our reptile shopping and just buy him one live pinky to see if he'll react to the movement. I'm normally against feeding live but after breeding snakes I know that it's often the best way to get them to recognize the shape of pinky as a food.

    Edit: Pics I took few minutes ago, to my eyes he looks quite healthy and certainly got more round than before.





    Also, I'll try to feed him some liquid calcium tomorrow. Is there a possibility that I may use too much of it? I'm not really sure how much calcium to water ratio I should use, and how much to give him? Thanks for all the tips, I never imagined that owning a pacman will be so stressing to both me and him!

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