Y u no poopie?!

[BeckyM]

I've had Gertrude a week now (<3) but one thing I've noticed. She hasn't taken a dump since last Sunday. She did one on Saturday in the coffee can I brought her home in (first car ride, who wouldn't **** themself?) and then one on Sunday morning, right after being put in the tank.
I've since fed her a total of about 5 little crickets, which she eagerly gobbled up. I'm sure she's still hungry, but I'm a bit hesitant to feed her again until I see another...movement.

I'm currently using white paper towels as a substrate ( and changing them every day or two) so nothing gets by me.
Does digesting really take this long? If she hasn't pooped by tomorrow, should I soak her in some warm water ( or some other laxative) ? I'm getting a bit concerned. Will feeding her more before she's gone help "move things along" or only cause problems?

I've got the same tank I've always had. Temp runs about 73-74ish. I keep it nice and humid with a squirt bottle. Other than this, she acts perfectly normal. Still active and hoppy. Plenty of places to hide and what not. I don't handle her, so her stress level can't be all that high. :\

[Bruce]

I honestly don't know much about tree frogs (terrestrial frogs are my thing) but those temps seem a bit on the low side to me... I know with a lot of terrestrial frogs 80 is a good temp, and keeping the temps up helps with their digestion.

Since he's on paper towels I don't think he could get impacted, especially if he's accepting food. An impacted frog will stop eating.

Someone more experienced will chime in. Best of luck!

[BeckyM]

Yeah, impaction is a non-issue. There are one or two blades of grass in the tank leftover from the coffee can (DIY froggy packing material :P) but I've put leaves and sticks and what not in with a frog before and had no problems. I'm rather confused. Poop dang it, poop!

[Shade38]

Hi Becky and Gertrude, love your avatar, hehe. My frogs took a while to poop too. There were two so it was quite confusing who was pooping and who wasn't. Took almost 2 weeks before I found two poops on the same day. They were just adjusting I guess.

Is 74 the day-time high for Gertrude's tank? I've also heard that frogs will seek warmth for digestion. Can't hurt to raise the temp a bit.

Do you have any potted plants or a landscape background? I ask b/c sometimes the poop might have dropped into the pot of a plant, or be stuck on the wall and camouflaged against a background.

[flybyferns]

Hi Becky and Gertrude, love your avatar, hehe. My frogs took a while to poop too. There were two so it was quite confusing who was pooping and who wasn't. Took almost 2 weeks before I found two poops on the same day. They were just adjusting I guess.

Is 74 the day-time high for Gertrude's tank? I've also heard that frogs will seek warmth for digestion. Can't hurt to raise the temp a bit.

Do you have any potted plants or a landscape background? I ask b/c sometimes the poop might have dropped into the pot of a plant, or be stuck on the wall and camouflaged against a background.

Hi Becky,
It is smart to use the paper towel to monitor things!
I think you might remove the leave and twings from her tank. Keep it real simple.
Change the towel - only- while she is sleeping . I'm sure you know to use de-chlorinated water only.
Feed her well while she is adjusting because the stress of the whole ordeal ( show, car, coffee can, moving new environment , being handled etc ) causes a lot of stress! Try not to handle her unless absolutely necessary. If you must...... wash your hands- rinse well - before and after.

Be sure anything that goes into her enclosure is sanitized. All plants need to be re-potted and given waiting period to grow out pesticides and fertilizers.

I agree with Bruce. The daytime temp is a little low. Have you read the FF care sheet at the top of the "Tree Frog " forum pages? If it is too cool their digestion will slow down. As well as........ cover three side of her tank to further reduce her stress. Remove the covered glass slowly over the weeks ahead.

Maybe get her started on the "glass bowl" feeding habit now ? Use the floor and the bowl at first.. then slowly remove the feeder from the floor as she learns to use the bowl. Clear glass, 3" high works great for crickets. Then they can't get out... and most importantly the dusted supplements on the crickets is not removed from the damp paper towel/substrate ! Those darn crickets are quite prolific little creatures; they will spend hours grooming themselves after we dust them.

Keep us posted!
Lynn

[BeckyM]

Hi Becky,
It is smart to use the paper towel to monitor things!
I think you might remove the leave and twings from her tank. Keep it real simple.
Change the towel - only- while she is sleeping . I'm sure you know to use de-chlorinated water only.
Feed her well while she is adjusting because the stress of the whole ordeal ( show, car, coffee can, moving new environment , being handled etc ) causes a lot of stress! Try not to handle her unless absolutely necessary. If you must...... wash your hands- rinse well - before and after.

Be sure anything that goes into her enclosure is sanitized. All plants need to be re-potted and given waiting period to grow out pesticides and fertilizers.

I agree with Bruce. The daytime temp is a little low. Have you read the FF care sheet at the top of the "Tree Frog " forum pages? If it is too cool their digestion will slow down. As well as........ cover three side of her tank to further reduce her stress. Remove the covered glass slowly over the weeks ahead.

Maybe get her started on the "glass bowl" feeding habit now ? Use the floor and the bowl at first.. then slowly remove the feeder from the floor as she learns to use the bowl. Clear glass, 3" high works great for crickets. Then they can't get out... and most importantly the dusted supplements on the crickets is not removed from the damp paper towel/substrate ! Those darn crickets are quite prolific little creatures; they will spend hours grooming themselves after we dust them.

Keep us posted!
Lynn

I use artisan (and sometimes distilled if I'm out of artisan.) water. Straight from the spring. No human interference, save for a pipe.

I have read the frog care sheets, but I had a tree frog for six years before I even joined the site and never used any sort of heating element before now. Her daytime tank high is about the same as the temperature of my bedroom, 74-76 degrees.
So....yeah. I'm a bad girl? I just bought a small heating element that goes on the bottom of the tank (I'm really cramped for space. Heck, she probably is too. When I get my bonus this winter, i'm going to spring for a larger, vertical tank.) Now, to figure out how to get the heater on there...

The crickets are fed with that Flukers gut loading stuff, and I'm just dropping them into the tank for her to hunt down. She eats like a pig.

The plants in the tank are plastic and attach to the wall with suction cups. I keep three sides of her tank covered with towels because I'm a cheapskate and I know seeing me freaks her out. :P

I have handled her maybe 3 times since capture. She's far more bouncy than my other two frogs were-- quite the Houdini. When I do have to move her from the big tank, I cup the small one around her, she''ll jump to the wall of the little one and then I clap the lid on tight. No touching involved.

Should I try soaking her in warm water to loosen things up? I have to move her to attach the heater anyways...

[BeckyM]

What I'd like to know is, why are certain temperatures such a concern for indoor frogs and yet, outdoor frogs flourish well in anything?

I caught my first frog in mid-July, 2005. I lived in VA at the time and our July temps hovered around 102. There went my soon to be little StickyFeet, hopping across the lawn into my friends pool.

Butterfingers (deceased as of June 2009, died of unknown causes, though probably food related) was caught by a friend, also in summer, also in the heat of the day also in VA. That day was really warm and muggy, around 92.

And then my little Gertrude was caught on an overcast saturday, early afternoon, late August in Northern Wisconsin. It was like...I dunno...upper 80's out there.

I'm just curious as to why that matter.

Also, in the first post, I said "c..r.a..p" not a swear, just in case you were wondering....

[BeckyM]

Ok, so, she's consumed (I think anyway) cricket number seven. I'm still dropping them in at random and she seems okay with it. I'm just wondering how long it'll be before I see brown now.

I have attached the small, stick on ZooMed tank heater to the side of the tank and it's running as we speak. The tank feels warmer and there's some condensation on the back wall. (Next paycheck I'm getting a humidity meter). Gert seems to have calmed down. Her little throat has been moving at full bore for the past week, it's going slower now-- like she's more relaxed.

I've got all four sides of the tank covered. My tank sits at such an angle so I can peek at her when I'm working at my desk without lifting the towels. I can see her, i'm content, she can't see me, she's content.


I'm going to play the wait and see game a bit longer. If I don't have any results by Monday, I'm putting some Metamucil in her water dish. :P

[BeckyM]

And we had a movement last night. Yayewgrosswhoohoo.

After reading the care sheet, i'm a tad confused. Her tank temp was running 72 to 75. Then I got a heater ( which has no thermostat, so I turn it off at night) that keeps the tank at about 82ish degrees. (This thermometer I have is hard to read) The sheet said 68-86 F was comfy for a gray...I was in that range, why was the temp bothering her? O.o

I feel silly, replying to my own thread four times in a row.

[Shade38]

I don't have an answer to your question but hooray for poop!!!