Is this normal?

[GrifTheGreat]

Well, I gave him a good warm soak and ended up keeping him in his bath for 2days because he had a sewage smell about him. The mites are gone as far as I can tell. I boiled his tank and was horrified at the extent of the infestation. the surface of the water turned white with dead mites. He refused to eat, but I left him alone with a cricket for a few hours and he finally ate it. After I put him back in his tank and he had settled in a new burrow, I dangled a worm in front of him, but he refused to eat it. The second it dropped he grabbed it. I also got a good pick of his pads forming, so he's male but he hasn't started calling yet. How old do males have to be before they start calling? He'll be a year in July and I'll have had him a year in August.

Good to hear he is doing better Guen. Males will start calling anywhere from 5 to 8 months of age. You may be able to coax a call out of him by playing videos of Ornate males calling. Sometimes that gets them going. Keep an eye on him. Mites are bad news and their eggs can sustain hight temps and bitter cold so you'll need to watch to make sure they don't return.