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Thread: Concerned new frog owner

  1. #1

    Default Concerned new frog owner

    Hi, my boyfriend and I got a young pacman frog about 2 months ago from a pet store. (Obviously I'm not sure about the gender since she's young, but we named her Roxy so I use female pronouns) She's having some problems now and after looking into it as much as I could by looking online it could be a variety of reasons, so I wanted to see if anyone here had some advice. She used to eat about 3 crickets every other day and would move around occasionally from her water bowl to her hiding spot.

    About a week ago we took her out and had to move her, and we also cleaned out her tank at the same time. Because of this she spent some time in weather outside that was probably below 65 degrees. When we got her back in the tank we fed her as usual and she seemed very hungry, she snapped at a few crickets when they got close but missed several times, and I noticed her get a mouthful of moss one time. This has led me to worry that she's become impacted. Since then she has not eaten, which is unusual for her, even when I take the crickets and rub them along her mouth and front.

    In the last week she has also stopped moving around as much, generally just hiding under her moss. The last two days she spent completely burrowed, we checked on her once a day just to make sure she was still breathing. Today she has been moving around more, and even started soaking in her water bowl which she hasn't done for a week. I tried to feed her a cricket, and checked her stomach for any hard lumps but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for and it just seemed to agitate her even more.

    Here's the trouble in the enclosure filled out for my tank:
    1.Size of enclosure: 10 Gallon
    2.# of inhabitants - Just the one frog
    3. Humidity: Reads around 60-70 usually
    4. Temperature: This is one of my worry areas, as my thermometer in the tank has been reading at 74 or 75 consistently. I'm currently using a zoomed reptiheat, which was what the pet store recommended. I have tried putting it on the sides and under the tank but neither way seems to be heating it enough. I have done a lot of research on ways to heat frog enclosures and most seem to recommend under the tank heaters. so I'm not sure if I should try a different one, get an overhead light heater, or if I'm just doing something wrong.
    5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish: This is another area where I now believe the pet store was mistaken. We were told that we should only use distilled water for our frog, which I have now learned is a very bad idea, so up until this week she was soaking in a dish of distilled water and being sprayed with it regularly. I feel very guilty for not figuring this out sooner, but we have since switched to bottled water, since that seems to be a relatively safe option.
    6. Materials used for substrate: I think the brand is called reptisoil, it says it is a blend of peat, moss, soil, sand, and carbon. Again, this is what the pet store recommended. I have thought about switching to eco earth coconut fiber since I've read that its the best option, but I'm not sure if that would make a big difference.
    7. Enclosure set up i.e. plants (live or artificial), wood, bark and other materials.:- How were things prepared prior to being put into the viv.: We have an artificial plant covering on side, and the water bowl and moss on the other. Neither the front or back is covered, and I am looking into ways to do that so suggestions would be appreciated. Since she ate the moss I've been planning on taking the moss out and trying to find something else for her to use as a hiding spot that she can't swallow.
    8. Main food source: She's only eaten crickets as long as we've had her, and I believe that's mainly what she ate at the store.
    9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often): I did not know about the importance of dusting crickets with vitamins until recently, and she hasn't been eating since before then so we have not fed her any, however I talked with the owner of the pet store we get crickets from now and he says they are gut loaded, I'm not exactly sure with what though.
    10. Lighting: She is in our dorm room with us so the lighting is generally sunlight in the day and then soft string lights or no lights at night.
    11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure: As I mentioned earlier I'm using a small zoomed heating pad.
    12. When is the last time he/she ate: A week ago
    13. Have you found poop lately: No
    14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine): I tried to attach several pictures but I kept getting problems when I used preview post, so I'm going to try to make another post and get those up.
    15. Describe frog's symptoms and/or recent physical changes; to include it's ventral/belly area: She's thinner, more reluctant to move, burrowing deeper, and not eating. Her sides also look a little more yellow than usual, but I might be imagining this since I'm extra paranoid about how she looks right now.
    16. How old is the frog: I believe somewhere around 5 months, I'm not positive though.
    17. How long have you owned him/her: 2 months
    18. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred: Captive
    19. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats: Mainly crickets
    20. How often the frog is handled: Usually not handled at all, however since she hasn't been eating I've tried rubbing crickets on her mouth which seems to agitate her, I've been handling her slightly more lately since I've been checking to see if her skin is dry or hard, and today I tried to check and see if I could feel any lumps in her stomach.
    21. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area: Relatively low traffic, just me and my boyfriend are in the dorm-room and we try not to disturb her, she is near my desk and the room is small so she's somewhat near the door too.
    22. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc): Just recently cleaned out the tank and changed the soil, we change the water once or twice a week normally, depending on how dirty it is.

    I've also included a few pictures of what she looks like now, she looks like she's lost weight recently. It's Saturday today but I think I'm going to try to get her into a vet as soon as I can, which will likely be Monday, so I wanted to know if there's anything I can do in the meantime.

    Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to be detailed, thanks for the help in advance!

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  3. #2
    100+ Post Member monster's Avatar
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    Default Re: Concerned new frog owner

    Hi, I hate to be the one to tell you but you were given some very bad advice. The best way to heat your tank is overhead heating, if your air temp is reading 75f the ground by the glass is way hotter. You want the ground to be cool and the air to be warm, they burrow to cool. Your day time temp should be around 82f and let it drop to about 78f - 77f at night. The right temps are very important because the heat helps them digest. And night time it should be very dark no lights at all. The longest you should go before cleaning is a month, they produce a lot waste and at the 2 month mark they are pretty much sitting in there waste. Your water has to be changed every day to every second day even if the frog hasn't been in it, water bowls are breeding grounds for bacteria's, some keepers don't even use water bowls and just let the frog absorb the moisture from the substrate and then give them a 20 minute bath once a week. Frogs drink through there skin. Your frog should have been getting calcium with d3 and multivitamins this whole time, gut loaded crickets don't cut it, this is very important right now because there bones are growing and developing and with out these vitamins the frog will get mbd and this is irreversible. A very good brand of vitamin is Repashy calcium plus, this has all those vitamins in one and is one of the most recommended vitamins for herp keepers. For the water I find the best is normal tap water declorinated with repti safe or similar product for fish tanks. You could use distilled for misting since it doesn't leave calcium deposit on the glass, but never for soaking in or expanding substrate. The best substrate is the cocofibre, moss if ingested leads to impaction which by the sounds of it may have happened to you. Try giving her a bath in warm water with a couple drops of pure honey, the almost works like a laxative and gets the bowls moving. Also when she is the bath if she has lump on her right side you can try massaging the lump counter clock wise and this may help break it up. If fixing these things don't help you may need to make that trip to the vet.

  4. #3

    Default Re: Concerned new frog owner

    Thanks for the advice, today we removed the moss, put in a half log, put in an overhead heater, and gave her some vitamin dusted crickets. She's actually already eaten one so that's a relief.

    I had some trouble trying to find out what watt I should be using for the overhead lamp, we found something online that said no higher than 40 watt. Will that be hot enough?

    Also, she sometimes won't get out of her water bowl for a few days at a time, or at least while I'm awake, should we take her out to clean it or is it better to wait until she gets out? I'm trying not to handle her as much as I can to avoid stressing her out.

  5. #4
    100+ Post Member monster's Avatar
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    Default Re: Concerned new frog owner

    Hi, for a ten gallon tank the 40 should be ok. If its to hot you can buy a dimmer for like 8 bucks at Walmart and you can control it like that or if you have the extra money you can get a thermostat. Put the light to one side this way the frog has a warm and cool side. If he is in the water bowl for days on end this is not a good sign usually. But if you had the UTH on the bottom it may have been drying out the substrate so he is sitting in the water to keep hydrated, you want your substrate to be wet enough that clumps in your hand when you squeeze it but you don't want water pouring out of it. If this is not the case you may need to see a vet because as I mentioned usually when frogs sit in there dish for days on end it is a sign of illness most the time. Now that you have changed the heating I would take him out and see if he goes back in.

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