Final Words

[Pippin]

Hi, I have not posted in this section before, because I have had no problems previously. Sadly I will have no more reason to post in this section because I no longer have a true frog. I had a juvenile male American bullfrog for just a little under a year, today he died; and I have no idea why. He was about 3 inches long when his legs were stretched out. He has always been plump and healthy with a voracious appetite. I've always fed him gut loaded crickets and had him since he was a froglet. He was housed in a 10 gallon vivarium (half water half coco fiber) (I also realize this would be too small for an adult bullfrog but he was small as stated and as he grew I was going to provide more space) He was eating fine not 3 days ago when I fed him his crickets. He showed no signs of weakness, no behavioral abnormalities, no discolorations, nothing that would signal me of illness. He died within minutes too. Simply flipped over on his back, legs out stretched twitching, then death. (if I didn't know better I would think it was a seizure) No time to even treat, when I picked him up he was deceased. He had no flushed red color in his underside or legs either. I have never experienced anything like this from an amphibian and I am fairly well experienced with pet care. I know a necropsy would reveal his cause of death, but it is a short month and Valentines day ate a lot of my money and I still have bills at the end so I don't have the extra money, but it is my responsibility as a pet owner to understand what has happened here. So please does anybody have any experiences with this, I would greatly appreciate the closure. Thank you in advance as always

[Heatheranne]

I do not have any experience with that, but I am very sorry for your loss .

[Reggie]

Did you have plants in enclosure ? About twenty years ago , I found out the hard way that Crotons are poisonous. The crickets in my Uroplatus enclosure ate some of the leaves and within three days , all ten Uroplatus individuals died off. So far , pothos and ficus benjamina are safe with my herps.

[Pippin]

I only had silk plants, I always fear using live plants with the aquatic or semi aquatic species cause I don't know how (or don't feel confident) sterilizing them of their fertilizers and contaminates that could seep into the water table. But that is a good thought I'll always keep that in mind for future enclosures

[Pippin]

and I am sorry about your uroplati, that was an extremely unfortunate loss

[KingCam]

I think Reggie may be onto something. It sounds like your frog was poisoned. In fact, what you just described, is exactly what happens to an animal after it's been bitten by a pit viper & exposed to neurotoxins.

Has your house been treated recently for pests? Were you using any kind of spray, like for mites?

[KingCam]

I'd also like to add that I know an experience like that can be a strong deterrence, but you shouldn't give up on the hobby! Frogs can be a real joy to keep. Get a grey tree frog, they're almost indestructible! They can handle a WIDE range of humidity and temperature.