picky pacman?

[Lija]

1. 12x12x18 exo terra
2. one brown pacman
3. 75-85%
4. 85 day and night
5. dechlorinated tap water
6. eco earth
7. just substrate, shallow water dish, plastic plant
8. hopper mice
9. Vitamins and calcium? none since I have him
10. infrared lamp
11. infrared lamp as UTH wasn't enough to get higher then 80.
12. he ate 2 days ago
13. Have you found poop lately - found it 3 times since I have him ( since april) each time about week after he ate.
14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine) - sorry my camera is not working now.
15. no idea, I was told he is 10 month when I got him, so now he should be a bit over a year.
16. about 3 month
17. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred - i don't know
18. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats, refuse to eat anything but mice.
19. How often the frog is handled - a few times a month for tank cleaning.
20. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area - low traffic, but can hear loud noises ( kids screaming, music)- then he starts croaking
21. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc) - he doesn't go to water dish at all, but I change it anyway every other day or so., substrate changes - every week.

here is a thing, I got him in april, saved him to be exact, his previous owner shouldn't have any pets, ever- he was planning on throwing him away like a trash, literally (((( It was my very first frog, I wasn't planning on getting any, but I just couldn't let him do what he wanted to do with poor thing. When i got him he was sitting deep in substrate ( eco earth) that was about 6', no heating, water, weird looking plastic plant with some glitter glue on it, moldy piece of wood. I was told that he was eating mice and gold fish only and he was hibernating from november to march and he started to eat before I got him. I don't know if any of what I was told is true, but the frog didn't look sick or too skinny.

so after reading a lot here on a forum and getting the point that gold fish/mice diet is not good for pacmans and all other great advice I changed the tank and everything in it ( see above). a week after he was in his new enclosure I gave him a hopper mice, he ate with no problem, and then the war started, I was trying to convince him to eat crickets/night crawlers/anything other then mice with zero response. I kept offering, and he was just sitting there in one spot for a month and then I gave up and got him a hopper again, he refused it too, he was getting very skinny so a week after that I force fed him some night crawlers, he vomited it 2 days afterwards, I tried to FF him again a week later, he vomited again. so I gave up, raise his temp to 85 ( was 80 before), soaked him in honey water and got him a hopper, he ate! I was too scared to try experimenting with food again, so a week after I got him another hopper that he ate in seconds. in those 3 month that I have him he ate 3 hopper mice in total and pooped 3 times as well.

so the question is - what should I do with that stubborn guy? should I be happy that at least he eats something even if that something is mice only or keep trying? and if to keep trying then how? I was trying tongs and just leave crickets overnight and wiggling worms in his face.

[HerpDerp]

I have been having a very similar problem with my pacman frog. Mine would only eat crickets and waxwoms (which isn't a huge problem). But Crickets are a huge pain the butt both to keep and feed and wax worms aren't exactly healthy so I tried to feed him worms and dubia roaches. Well after trying that a few times he just stopped eating all together. He got so emaciated that I decided to try wax worms again because he was too lethargic to catch crickets. So now that's all I can get him to eat, but at least he's eating.

What I've been trying to do is to feed the wax worms with tongs to get him used to tongs again. So maybe I can trick him into eating a night crawler from tongs. I suggest you try something similar to this. Although if he is vomiting up food I would be a bit concerned. I don't have a lot of experience with that. I suggest you try Dubia cockroaches. They get pretty big so that might entice your frog to eat them since he's used to big prey. And they're actually healthier than crickets, they are more hearty, easy to breed and don't stink like crickets to. Now if only I could get my frog to eat them...

[arielgasca420]

i am not an expert, but if you have the same temp day and night maybe thats why. There should be a slight fluctuation in temperature from day to night along with a good photperiod so that he can tell the difference between day and night. I keep my cage at 82-83 degrees during the day and let it drop to 74-75 at night. I feed my frogs at night because during the day he is less active and likes to rest. I always had trouble feeding my pacman and usually I tap the food on his mouth to piss him off and then he will eat. he is a healthy weight so I am not worried about him starving, but his growth rate is very slow.

[arielgasca420]

also, try superworms and try lightly tapping it on the front of his mouth to get a rsponse. If you do feed him mice make sure they are pinkys. the fur on hoppers is hard for digestion. Mice are high in fat and I have read that they do not have a good nutrition ratio. i give mine mice as a treat every two weeks but I feed them worms one day, crickets the next, and a dubia the day after. variety is key and make sure to read up on calcium dusting. sometimes less is better than more.
It seems like his aestivation (hibernation) was pretty long. He is most likely still bouncing back.
This frog does need water. i usually put mine in a warm water dish and let him soak. he likes it a lot and sheds his skin.
I am sorry to hear that this previous owner did not do the research to have a specialty animal. I am glad you are doing everythign you can to give him a good life. just make sure to keep posting on here. I have had great advice coming here with my questions. good luck! message me if you have anymore questions

[GrifTheGreat]

also, try superworms and try lightly tapping it on the front of his mouth to get a rsponse. If you do feed him mice make sure they are pinkys. the fur on hoppers is hard for digestion. Mice are high in fat and I have read that they do not have a good nutrition ratio. i give mine mice as a treat every two weeks but I feed them worms one day, crickets the next, and a dubia the day after. variety is key and make sure to read up on calcium dusting. sometimes less is better than more.
It seems like his aestivation (hibernation) was pretty long. He is most likely still bouncing back.
This frog does need water. i usually put mine in a warm water dish and let him soak. he likes it a lot and sheds his skin.
I am sorry to hear that this previous owner did not do the research to have a specialty animal. I am glad you are doing everythign you can to give him a good life. just make sure to keep posting on here. I have had great advice coming here with my questions. good luck! message me if you have anymore questions

No Superworms. They can cause impaction. One a week can be fine, but they should be Fed few and very far between, but preferably not at all.

[arielgasca420]

No Superworms. They can cause impaction. One a week can be fine, but they should be Fed few and very far between, but preferably not at all.

My pacman is 2 years. he is fine with superworms. it is a matter of opinion really, the bigger they get the less you have to worry about impaction. Apicture would help us a lot though

[Lija]

thank you guys, I'm really scared at this point to even look at him so not to stress him out what I can't get - mice/crickets/worms it is all moving, so why he is eating one thing but refuses other, is it possible that they getting used to certain things like mice in my case and everything else see as something annoying running around. say crickets are running around, trying to hide under him, he just closes his eyes and "shrinks", same if I get something else in his face. He is not getting mad at all, all he does is backs off and closes his eyes.

I'll try to turn lamp off at night - easy to do and feed him after temp is a little lower - is it what you are saying? cos I'm feeding him at night anyway. he is not active in any way - day or night, sits in one same spot all the time, ate a hopper from same spot and continue sitting there.
as for dubia - it won't work as they are not available here, but all other wiggly/moving things that are available I've tried.

[Lija]

he refused to eat pinkys and fuzzys, but ate hopper, glad we have other pets that are eating any size of mice, so was easy to get rid of whatever he didn't eat. with pinky it was very funny, like best friends they were cuddling together, pinky was basically climbing in his mouth, but the guy just closed his eyes.

[IvoryReptiles]

NO Superworms!!! The chitin of their outer shell is hard for the frog to digest. It sounds to me like the frog had an impaction and that is the cause of the throwing up. To be honest, 85 is just a bit high and there should be a cooler spot for the frog to go to if it chooses to. The gradient should be between 82(high) to 76(Low).

At this point, you have a choice.....either allow the frog to remain eating the diet it is used to, or putting the effort into changing it. Pictures of the frog would help too. If the frog remains on the current diet, it will probably live a shorter life than it could, but there would be no fights for dominance between you two.

Try Mollies instead of goldfish. If you decide to try again, Nightcrawlers is the better food......tease the frog with it.....wiggle it and tickle the frog's lips with it..........this should elicit a feeding response. Just keep trying. If the frog is of good weight and is healthy, it can go for a bit without food until it gives in and eats the worm.

Keep us posted!

[arielgasca420]

he refused to eat pinkys and fuzzys, but ate hopper, glad we have other pets that are eating any size of mice, so was easy to get rid of whatever he didn't eat. with pinky it was very funny, like best friends they were cuddling together, pinky was basically climbing in his mouth, but the guy just closed his eyes.

In my opinion I would not do live mice. I have heard many horror stories of live mice eating their pets. Once he gets eating try to get frozen and thaw them out in warm water.
As for the lamp, try to use a low wattage night lamp to keep the temp of the cage from dropping too low from the day time temp. I feed my frogs at around 10 pm. The light timer goes off at 8pm. I dont know what the weather is like in canada, but I hear its cold so make sure to watch for temp drops when the light is off. Do you have a light timer?

[arielgasca420]

Definitely take out the crickets if they are not eaten right away. It seems that the baths and picking him up are stressing him out. Maybe ease up on the baths for now and dont handle him unless you see him starting to bury really deep in the substrate or his skin dryig out. Keep trying. He will come around.

[arielgasca420]

I was also reading about possible parasites? I think if you have the money than you should definitely have a vet examine the feces before you buy another frog.
Here is a website that suggests using flukers repta-aid and it says it stimulates hunger FROG FEEDING FEEDING FROGS AND TOADS OFFERED BY Pollywogs World of Frogs
Some people have personal negative opinions about flukers, but I think looking around at these types of products may help with appetite on top of what you are doing.
When my chameleon was sick I gave him rescue cal which is packed with vitamins, but it is a stressful process for the animal because it is a liquid that you have to get them to ingest by a syringe so I woud not suggest that for a frog

[Lija]

no, no parasites, we checked already long ago.

I think a few crickets have disappeared overnight.... will check repta-aid. I've been thinking since he is not eating he might be low on vitamins, i haven't given him Ca as well, but he ate mice.

will keep trying, for how long do you think it might to go on like that?

[Lija]

wait a minute, repti aid need to be fed to frog, HOW? if FF will freak him out, how else?

[Wizzlewuzzle]

wait a minute, repti aid need to be fed to frog, HOW? if FF will freak him out, how else?

It's much easier than you'd think, lol. I've been having to force feed mine while he recovers from an infection. I'm using worms, though, and the repta aid may be even easier since it's a liquid. For the easiest time of things, get someone to help you. One person would put their hand behind the frog to keep him from backing away, and the other would do the feeding. You can use something like a credit card to open the mouth. Insert it in the frog's mouth, off to the side, and gently push down. The frog will open up, and then you quickly insert the food (or syringe, if you're using repta aid). With the liquid, I guess you'd just squirt it in once you have the syringe in. With worms, my frog will usually go on and eat it once I've put it partway in. As for the freaking out, my frog actually tolerates it pretty well, but all frogs are different. If yours isn't eating and is low on energy he probably won't put up much of a fuss either.

Edited to add: if you do use a debit card/credit card for mouth opening, make sure to put it back in your purse or wallet afterward. I had a awkward moment at a checkout counter the other day when I reached for my card and then realized it was still sitting beside the frog's tank, rofl. Luckily I had a bit of cash on me.