Juvenile handling

[Sublime]

A couple days ago I started feeding my juvenile pixie in a decent size sterilite bin. For 2 reasons: One because I hated when crickets would go back where his plants were, 2 I never felt like he was getting a proper feeding always trying to maneuver between the water dish or behind the plants to get them in the 15-20 minutes I fed him. So far the feeding bin has worked out great; he never skips out on a meal, crickets are very easy for him to get and the night crawlers. Tonight he ate a surprising amount for how big he is and I can really tell that he's just exploding in growth. The only problem I have with this feeding is when I need to pick him up and set him in the bin, as well as taking him out after he's finished. Mine seems a lot more nervous or energetic then some of the other handlings on pixies I've seen. Whenever I pick him up he's either jumping at the side walls or kind of doing a sideways flip as I'm trying to grab him.

He'll let me pick him up with one hand out of the water dish real quick, but then he jumps right off and starts hopping to the other side of his enclosure. Tonight I couldn't grab him properly and he jumped back by his plants which made me have to take out one of his plants, then finally he jumped over by his water dish where I grabbed him and sat him inside his feeding bin. When I set him in his feeding bin he never seems too stressed out because he goes right to feeding, but I want to know... Am I too aggressive with him, or can these frogs handle a ok amount of pick ups. I never felt like I've squeezed him but I try to be as gentle as possible and he's really jumpy. When I set him back in his enclosure after feeding he hopped back into his water dish after a few minutes and I noticed he defecated a good size log the size of my pinkie where I had put him down which is really rare because he only poops in his water dish. Was this caused by stress or was he just ready to squeeze out a loaf? Did anyone else struggle with this as they were juveniles?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I'm real ocd/perfectionist have to make sure everything is done to a T.

Tl;dr, I don't blame you haha. Thanks for reading if you did and helping me out if you do.

[frogluver]

I don’t own a pixie, but I have this kind of trouble ALL the time with my juvenile Wood frog. He buries himself under layers of moss and soil (WF’s do this every fall thinking it’s time to hibernate) and I have to dig him out to feed, which requires taking apart almost the whole tank…it’s a mess!! And when I uncover him, he’s all bouncy—like your frog is— and it’s very difficult for me to get him into his feeding container. But, I have a devised a trick to solve this problem and hopefully it will work for you.

So to transport him to his feeding container, I first bring him out of hiding. Then, I take a small plastic cup and lay it front of him as I gently push him forward. This causes him to hop into the cup and tada I can now easily place him in his feeding container without any problems. You could also use a small fish net, but which ever you use make sure to cover the top with your hand during transport, so the frog doesn’t unexpectedly hop out.

[Sublime]

That's a very good tip. I will probably try this out, he's going to need a big plastic cup because he's probably 4 inches or less and plump as pixies should be haha. The only thing that worries me is him getting freaked out by placing a big container in front of him, but it's always worth a try. Thanks Autumn!

[BG]

I had the same issue with my picked when they were small. But today I got a new baby pixie and is calm. But when I feed him he'll take your ARM off lol.

[Sublime]

Haha that's cool, the next frog I pick up will either be a blue cranwelli or another pixie that's hopefully more calm.

[MonsterPyxie]

I use to own a hairless rat that I had issues picking up. Poor guy was super freaked out, and would run off, hide, and squeal in fear.

not able to get a handle of him, I turned to a Rat forum.

What im getting at is one girl said to picture that I was the rat. Then to picture someone 1000x's my size picking me up. If this giant hand came down from above you all a sudden, you would **** yourself and run!

but if they put a hand down flat on the ground in front/behind you, and coaxed you onto the hand, you would probably be alright.


this worked for the rat. Can't say it will for the frog, and I like the cup idea better myself.


btw, my pyxie seems to poop after big meals pretty often, so thats probably all it was.

[Sublime]

Yeah, makes sense.

[frogluver]

That's a very good tip. I will probably try this out, he's going to need a big plastic cup because he's probably 4 inches or less and plump as pixies should be haha. The only thing that worries me is him getting freaked out by placing a big container in front of him, but it's always worth a try. Thanks Autumn!

That would be understandable. Hope it works and your welcome Mark !