PLEASE help...Bumble Bee Walking Toad having difficulty eating

[jubilee]

Hi all,

Our bumble bee walking toad seems to be having a problem catching its feeders. It wants to eat but cannot flick his tongue like it used to. I can't find any info specifically for bumblebee walking toads, but ANY info at this point will be helpful. I read about a possible Vitamin A deficiency so I ordered Rapashy A supplement, but I am afraid that may not be fast enough. He's slimmed down quite a bit and I don't know how long that sort of treatment would take to show results. We moved him to a smaller enclosure to make it easier for him and also increased the humidity since I read that low humidity can also cause his tongue to be less 'sticky'. (I am calling him a HE but I actually don't know his sex) We recently offered him x-small phoenix worms in a dish thinking this would be easy to catch and he did show interest in them but wasn't able to eat them.

Any advise or tips or info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Squirp]

I'm going to attempt this, but I don't have experience with exotic species. I hope someone will chime in later and help you out.
I had a run in with tongues not working once, and actually my toads prefer to more or less lunge at their food now.
I realize your not going to feel better until you see him eat, but it may be apart of the behavior pattern to stop eating. Even though they are tropical, the wet and dry season could stimulate a form of hibernation, and in those cases, toads will refuse to eat simply to avoid contaminating themselves with their own feces.
they're diet seems similar to what i would expect. if you are in a more temperate American climate, i would suggesting finding some pill bugs, when my first toad was too small for crickets or anything else, he took to them nicely and recovered from starvation when I rescued him. I just always recommend them for the calcium, and because they are very easy to eat, and it would probably give his tongue a break encase it needs to heal for some reason.

In the meantime glance over this topic
http://www.frogforum.net/toad-care-a...-breeding.html

and if I have some time I'll see if I can't google out someone who's had a similar problem. I apologies if this information doesn't bring you the comfort your looking for, but at least you'll have a couple people here looking into it for you. I think people are going to ask you questions to see how regular his gestation is to determine if whats going in is coming out. lots of people are concerned about impaction, and may ask about your setup to see if there is anything harmful in the terrarium. Basically the more information the better, so feel free to lay out all the cards. I know you've been moving him around, I'm not saying it shocks them, but generally I'll have a toad that will go into hiding for a week whenever I handle them or give their homes a makeover, he'll come out thin, but he always fattens himself back up.

[TANK]

try taking the hind legs off of 3-4 week old crickets and dusting them

in my experience my toad can miss worm type insect bodies even when she hits em spot on with her tongue
but with crickets she always gets em

hope you find out whats wrong or your toad heals on its own

[REDDEV1L]

I had a similar situation with my Bufo bufo a few years ago.
He wanted to eat, and went for the food, but never seemed to hit the target, and when his head flicked (When you'd expect his tongue to come out) I could hear an audible click.
Sometimes when he did this, he would recoil, and splay his front/back/all his legs and lower his head (Almost as if it hurt)
It turned out to be MBD.
I tried syringe feeding, giving calcium and D3 supplements (Direct to his skin), put a 10% UVB bulb on him etc but he didn't make it.

I know thats not what you want to hear, and I hope yours doesn't show the other symptoms mine did above.

However, if it's only recent, its probably possible to stop the process and get him in better shape.


You could try tong/forcep feeding the toad.. one thing that somtimes works is if you lightly move the prey item over the lips of the toad, quite often they'll open up and be able to eat it that way.

[jubilee]

Thanks for the replies.

He still seems active and has an appetite. We tried pinheads and watched him for about an hour. He got two in an hour. That's how inaccurate he is at the moment. He seems to be launching his tongue from his usual distance but his tongue isn't coming out so he can't reach it and misses it. There is a snapping noise, and he doesn't give up. It's pretty sad watching this. He has had a UVB bulb up to now.

REDDEV1L: What kind of supplements were you applying to your toad topically? I would like to try that since he isn't getting much via the dust since he is taking so long and catching so little.

[REDDEV1L]

REDDEV1L: What kind of supplements were you applying to your toad topically? I would like to try that since he isn't getting much via the dust since he is taking so long and catching so little.

Calcium Sandoz was what I applied topically. One drop to the back of the neck twice a week.
I was advised I could also get purer calcium in the form of Calcium Gluconate and add it to the toads waterbowl instead but couldn't get hold of it.

What you could try is making a paste of whatever dusting powder you use, and feed this to the crickets before you put them in with the toad.

I ended up trying to force feed via pipette. I used a mix of Vetark AviPro, Vetark Critical Care Formula & vitamin dust powders mixed with some cricket guts and a few drops of water to make a watery paste
BUT he hadn't managed to eat anything for months and was losing weight very fast so there was no other option.

[jubilee]

Thanks for all the info! Will be trying EVERYTHING!

[NOsen]

Hey
im having the same issue with one of my stelzneri i got 5 of em one of em have always been alittlebit smaller then the others even compared with the other male and the last month (4-6 weeks) i havent seen it eat at all it still walks around now and then but it grows thinner and thinner i have removed it from the tank now put it in a smaller enclosement for the time beeing and put in fruitflys & tiny mealworms and added calc and other vitamins to the water inside.

If he dosent start eating i feel i have two option either put him down or force feed him but im unsure how the stress of a force feeding will hit him. have anyone acually forced feed a stelzneri and done it sucessfully?

[jubilee]

NOsen, does your guy still have an interest in eating? Mine does, so this is my only hope. Wouldn't even know how to force feed him, but we put him in a small Kritter Keeper with lots of food and for feedings we remove the hide. Once we take the hide out, he starts to hunt. He is still missing, terribly, but I THINK there may have been a small poop, so I am still keeping my fingers crossed. Other than his usual fruit flies we added more pinheads, which in the past he really wasn't interested in, but now he's seems to go after the crix more than the flies. The x-small phoenix worms did attract him, but he was unable to eat those. I had to sit an watch him for an hour just to see him catch two pinheads, so it's a slow and sad process. I have been using extra vitamin A and made the substrate wetter since he also doesn't seem to be soaking much. At the moment he doesn't seem better or worse, but he is still trying, so I am still trying too. Keep us posted!

[NOsen]

he seems to be "alert" but i dont see him eating but he do **** so i guess thats a good sign.

[jubilee]

Yes, I would say poop is a good sign. You never realize how exciting poop can be until you go through something like this. I am going to continue housing him in the small tank until he hopefully recovers. I think taking out the hide for an hour or so is helping with the hunting. With the hide in he pretty much just hides. But when you remove it he shows a lot of interest in eating, or at least trying to eat.

I would definitely continue what you are doing and try to feel encouraged by the signs you've been getting since they seem positive.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I would appreciate them.

[jubilee]

He seems to be coming around (KNOCK ON WOOD)

How is your little guy NOsen??

[NOsen]

50/50 here not sure yet