Frogs are dying - NEED HELP

[NoviceFrogger]

Hello all,
I am a brand new member and need your help. My son recently showed interest in having frogs as pets when he caught a grey tree frog in our yard. We had the frog for a few weeks and then one morning we found him dead in his cage. I done some research regarding habitats and ultimately invested in a new habitat and bought two green tree frogs from Petco, the habitat consists of the following:

· Exo-Terra natural terrarium mini/tall (12”x12”x18”)
· Exo-Terra Monsoon RS400 rainfall system (using distilled water)
· Zoo-Med 12” terrarium hood
· Zoo-Med Reptisun 5.0 UVB bulb (on/ off 12 hour cycle)
· Exo-Terra combination digital thermo-hygrometer
· Zoo-Med Hydro Ball’s clay substrate base (roughly 1” deep, cleaned weekly)
· Zoo-Med Eco Earth loose coconut fiber top substrate (roughly 2” deep, changed weekly)
· Exo-Terra water dish (using bottled water, changed daily)

We have kept the humidity around 70% and the temperature has been maintained between 65 and 75 degrees F. The frogs were fed 3 small gut loaded crickets each daily, the crickets were fed Flucker’s calcium fortified cricket quencher as well as Flucker’s high-calcium cricket diet. After about 5 weeks one of the frogs had a colorectal prolapse which retracted without human interaction after a few hours. A few hours later we removed the water dish and found a clear jelly like mass roughly the size of a marble, I assume it was eggs but am not sure since it was not deposited in the water. The frog spent the day on the floor of the terrarium with some movement but alert which was far different than sleeping all day long and never being seen on the floor. Long story short, the next morning the frog had passed.

Questions:
1. Is there any reason to be concerned with the health of the other frog?
2. Should I get another companion for the remaining frog?
3. Am I doing anything wrong?
4. After a couple days the coconut fiber is saturated, is that OK? If not how do I correct? Cover the remaining portion of the terrarium top that is not covered by the light hood?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as we are now well invested in having frogs as pets and need to improve our success rate.

[bobrez]

You are not going to have much luck with pets from petco or other chain stores, without proper quarentine and treatment. These animals are mostly wild caught or so over produced they will contain many parasites and be generally underfed/undercared for. Its better to get some cb from a good breeder. Sick wild frogs will probably need a vet. Good beginer frogs will be from reptable breeder who can help with questions
I know im not answering your questions, but wanted to try and explain that cheep pets will cost vet bills and heartache

[DonLisk]

I sounds as though your on the right track.

I would hold off on another frog until you know this one is healthy.

As for the saturated substrate.... how often is the rain system running? How deep of a hydroball layer do you have?
I run my misting system for 16 second bursts 5 times a day on much larger enclosures and would guess you need to drain off the build up of water on the bottom. Is there a screen between the hydroballs and substrate? The drainage layer collects the moisture that works its way down through the substrate, once the drainage layer is full the soil will soak it up quickly. I usually have to siphon mine off every two weeks on two of my tanks.


The jelly substance was probably the gut load from the crickets not digested by the frogs (would be my guess).

[NoviceFrogger]

The rain system goes off every hour for 2 seconds, hydroballs are about 1" deep and there is a layer of landscaping fabric in between the hydroballs and the coconut fiber. Is there any way to know the remaining frog has parasites? Is there something I can give it to eliminate the parasites if they do exist? Also, is there a good resource to find a reputable breeder in my area?

Thanks for all of the help.

[bobrez]

To check for parasites, you need to send in fecals, if test positive they would recomend treatment. For your substrate should add more drainage area 2- 2 1/2 inches w/ some way of syphoning excess water. Also cocofiber will cause impaction, if you can put leaf litter or some form of moss on top to keep them from eating this with their food. For breeders I would ask in the tree frog section if you dont get answered here

[IrishRonin]

My only other suggestion would be to not have the rain go off every hour, that seems like a lot. I have found that once the soil is saturated it can become septic very quick, which in turn makes the frogs more lethargic. That's my experience anyway. The jelly substance... if it wasn't what Don said it could have been a piece of shed skin. Keep your head up your on the right path.

[NoviceFrogger]

Thanks for the info.
Can anyone chime in on what the Monsoon settings should be set at? Also, can someone post a picture of a siphoning system that they have had success with? Also, where would I send the fecal samples? Is this something any vet would be able to analyze?

[bobrez]

Thanks for the info.
Can anyone chime in on what the Monsoon settings should be set at? Also, can someone post a picture of a siphoning system that they have had success with? Also, where would I send the fecal samples? Is this something any vet would be able to analyze?

This thread to get you started http://www.frogforum.net/toads/16984...ius-toads.html

[NoviceFrogger]

How does a frog get parasites? Is this generally a result of buying frogs that were not captiveley bred? If one frog in an enclosure has parasites can they affect other frogs in the same enclosure?

[Rae]

Yes wild caught frogs are more likely to have parasites then captive. and Yes 1 sick frog can inturn get the rest in its enclosure sick. That why as soon as you know a frog is sick you need to remove it and quarantine it immediately and clean the terrarium right away and very well in hopes the others didn't catch anything.