my new Litoria Caerulea

[jodie]

Hi everyone,
i'm new to the forum and to frogs. i got my first frog yesterday (Litoria Caerulea). i am a little worried because he hasn't eaten anything yet. It's been nearly 24hrs. I have tried to feed him crickets and mealworms with tweazers but he's not interested at all. is this normal? maybe he needs to settle in first? i'm worried because he looks very thin. i heard that Litoria Caerulea are suppose to be quite chubby frogs. any advive would be very much appreciated! Thanks

[Badger]

He/she probably needs to settle in a bit first, I wouldn't worry. Once they start eating, they never stop though. You should only worry about not eating until at least a week and a half. How is your tank set up? Temps/humidity can play a role too. Any pics of the frog and/or the setup would help. Here's a pic of one of my White's if you need it for comparison:

[jodie]

thankyou very much badger! i think the terrarium my be a little cool for him. i have an exo terra terrarium 45cmx 45cmx 60cm. i'm finding it difficult to get up the temps because the exo terra only allows for 2x26watt bulbs. i also have a 14watt heat mat under the terrarium. if i put the thermometer close to the bulb. the temp gets up to 30degrees celcius but if it is in the middle of the tank it is around 25c. at night i turned the lights off and left the heat mat and the temp went down to about 22. does this sound alright? my frog looks thinner than yours when he lengthens his legs i can see his bones popping ut of his back. i will try and post some pix

[Badger]

I suggest you ditch one of the 26w flo bulbs, and get a 25w incandescent red light bulb, such as this : Zoo Med 25 Watt Red Bulb They ship internationally if you purchase it from them, I don't know how many reptile supply stores there are over there. How are you measuring temps and humidity? Do you have any plants?

[jodie]

i tried that. i had a 40watt red bulb in one of them even though the manufacturer says nothing over 26watt but i was still getting the same temp as before so i went with 2 spectrum light bulbs that also give heat. We have central heating in my house and when it is on the temp goes up to 28-29c but the central heating is only on from 8am-10am then again from 6pm-10pm. i have been misting the terrarium and the humidity is around 68. can you please tell me how to upload pix as i can't work it out. thanks again!

[jodie]

sorry i forgot to mention i dont have any real plants. i'm hopeless with plants i wouldn't know where to start and i thought the terrarium would be easier to keep without them?

[Badger]

You have to have some sort of plants or cover for the frogs to feel secure. You have to use another site for pictures, like photobucket.com ,upload them there, and then type [ Img](the url of your picture)[ /img] (no spaces in the IMG brackets. Sorry, it's hard to explain.

[jodie]

i have fake plants, branches and vines. is that ok?

[jodie]

you lost me on the photos????? help??

[Badger]

Sorry, I just got back from a friends house. Fake plants are Fine, as long as there is some cover. I suggest covering the two sides and back of the viv with black paper to help make the frog feel secure, the photos are hard to explain...hmm. You have to upload the picture to a third party (other) site, then copy the link here.

I'm hoping/asking someone else to help me out explaining it.

[ViperJr]

Or you could just upload the photos here on Frog forum, since it have a intergrated uploading feature. Just log in and go to Albums. You'll figure it out from there.

[jodie]

Hi, i uploaded some pix into an album ( my new Litoria Caerulea). can you see how thin he is? his stomach is caved in. ANother question, can i leave the live food in the terarrium for him to catch or do i need to hand feed him?

[Badger]

Hmm, you can do 1 of a few things. 1.) just put the crickets in the tank for him to catch.

2.) take a smooth glass bowl, put it in the tank, and put the crickets in there, It's easier for them to find em that way, and the crickets are too stupid to jump out.

3.) you can try hand feeding.

I suggest the feeding bowl and you can try hand feeding. They are nocturnal, so you probably won't see him eat. Keep an eye out for poop. I'd wait a couple more days before attempting force feeding, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[jodie]

thanks i'll try the glass bowl trick!

[Badger]

Keep us posted!

[jodie]

morning guys! well no luck last night. the crickets were still in their bowl this morning although Kermit looked a bit better this morning, his tummy didn't seem to be as caved in. maybe he caught some of the loose crickets around. Badger did you see my pix i posted? what do you think? should i get some more plants? Does Kermit look terribly thin?

[Badger]

He looks very very thin, I would take him to a vet asap. That is severly underweight, you should probably force feed at this point, I didn't realize how underweight he was.

Force feed is somewhat simple, but stressful so be careful.

Take the frog in one hand, and a business/credit card in the other. Carefully slip the card into the mouth, and lightly pry the bottom jaw down, and insert a cricket into his mouth, and let the jaw go, and he should do the rest. Force feed around 3 crickets and put him back into the enclosure and put some crickets in the bowl.

[wesleybrouwer]

He does look awfully thin.
Force feeding a frog.... i shouldn't do it.

You have to know why he is this thin, so you can treat this.
The absence of a feeding response must have a reason and does not stand on it's own.
I'm afraid you have little chance getting this one back up to good health, but you can always try ofcourse.

If possible, try to collect some feces and let it examine.
Altough some treatments on a frog like this may be fatal as well.

You may try putting him in a saline/glucose solution, both of 0,9%
My vet suggested this for imports in extreme bad health as a last resort.
It may aid him in strenghtening up.

You can make this by getting 1 L of warm water and put in 9 grams of Natriumchloride (just table salt is fine, as long as it doesn't contain iodine)
and 9 grams of glucose.
Mix it in good, and let it settle to reach room temperature.
Put in you're frog for about 10-15 minutes.

But most important is you get feces, soon as possible.

Next time, please don't buy frogs like this anymore.
It's awfull how some can sell them in a shape like this.
I think it's outrageous that someone made money on this.
If i were you, first thing in the morning, is going back to where you got it and demand money back.
Sounds cruel to this frog, but if someone has to lose money over this, it isn't you.

[Badger]

Whoops, I deleted the part about getting the frog to a vet asap, I'm sorry. Anywho, I would get him to a frog as soon as you can. As wesley said, get the feces when he/she poops, the vet will perform a test on it to see if the frog has any parasites, which I fear yours has. Sorry I couldn't go into detail earlier, I was rushed. Wesley gave some great advice, I had no clue about that. Keep us posted!

[jodie]

thanks for your advice guys. i'm going to get him to a vet today but it doesn't look good. last night his tongue was hanging out ( well i think it was his tongue) and there was some blood coming from his mouth. this morning he looked alright though! keep your fingers crossed!