Crazy pacman!

[Misschievou2]

Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to those in America like myself. I thought my pacmans new craziness was a one night only but tonight he did it again. What has he done? Gone completely psycho after I turn his lights off for the night.

I feed Prince Charming II in the evenings. Around 10pm I turn off his day light. This is the second time he has gone nuts in the past two weeks. He starts jumping into the water dish. out of the dish. he jumps into the wall. kicks dirt everywhere. makes squeeky noises with his legs against the wall of his tank. Throw dirt in his water dish. He is upsetting my dog in the night when he does this so my dog starts to bark. It's really annoying.

Why is he having these little fits? Why is he grumpy? Also. How can I calm him down?

[LizardMama]

When you turn the light off does he have food in his cage? The food might be annoying him and making him jump all over the place

[Misschievou2]

When you turn the light off does he have food in his cage? The food might be annoying him and making him jump all over the place

No food in his tank. I feed him away from his tank mid-day and whatever he doesn't eat in a few minutes i put away for another time.

[GrifTheGreat]

No food in his tank. I feed him away from his tank mid-day and whatever he doesn't eat in a few minutes i put away for another time.

Why are you feeding him at mid day???? These are nocturnal frogs and should be fed at night when they're active. You may be causeing unnecessary stress by waking him early while its still daytime. Have you checked for poop lately? They will also through fits aftera bowel movement because they want you to take it out.

When was the last time you changed his substrate?

[Misschievou2]

Why are you feeding him at mid day???? These are nocturnal frogs and should be fed at night when they're active. You may be causeing unnecessary stress by waking him early while its still daytime. Have you checked for poop lately? They will also through fits aftera bowel movement because they want you to take it out.

When was the last time you changed his substrate?

I change his substrate once a week and it will be a week on Saturday so I'll get on that soon. Very good point about feeding him, I'll make sure to feed him at night! . Prince Charming II is usually regular. Also I did my daily poop hunting the day of his fit and didn't find anything unless he buried it during his fit later that day. I did however refresh his water every time he trailed into it and that could have held the feces. I'll take a look in the tank later since he is sleeping now. .

[DeeDub]

Do you use eco earth?

Just a thought. Twice I have found big Beatles (one red, one black) in my enclosures. They are about an inch long and have big pincers (jaws). They have long thick antenna. They come out at night (they bury in the substrate) they musk pretty bad when you grab em. I hope this isn't what's troubling your frog, but I'd check.

[Misschievou2]

Do you use eco earth?

Just a thought. Twice I have found big Beatles (one red, one black) in my enclosures. They are about an inch long and have big pincers (jaws). They have long thick antenna. They come out at night (they bury in the substrate) they musk pretty bad when you grab em. I hope this isn't what's troubling your frog, but I'd check.

Yes. I use Eco Earth . Good stuff! Also it's around 30 - 40F on a normal bases outside my house and well most of them are dead or in hiding. Not to say they aren't sitting in my house or room all toasty but those are usually harmless spiders. I've never seen or heard of a beetle like you described. Sounds dangerous! Glad you got it out of your tank.

I think it is safe to assume he is upset about his mid-day feedings (even if I could swear he doesn't seem stressed) and perhaps he is upset that I am not able to find his poopie surprise. Once I get his feeding schedule at night I bet he will feel less grouchy. Also his bowl movement time will shift so he will not be hopping around trying to get my attention at 1am to clean his poop up.

Thank you everyone for the great insight. I love this site because I can throw ideas off of other frog lovers and caretakers and get answers for silly issues.

[Ra]

uhhhhhh, they are nocturnal so jumping around, kicking dirt around in the process and squeaking their feet at the bottom while they try to burrow are all NORMAL behaviors for an active pacman frog. I dont think hes thrashing around becasue he is upset about being fed mid day. If he eats, he isnt stressed out about being woken up, if he were stressed about being woken up he wouldnt eat...
The reason it is suggested to feed at dawn or preferably dusk is because this is when they are most active. Feeding them in the day time is not going to damage your frog.

Hes moving around in his cage because he is awake and active, obviously.

The poop, yes. That will make them move about becasue once they drop one they want to get as far away from it as possible. and they way they lay them, I dont blame em. Whenever I hear activity in an enclosure i dont normally hear activity in, I know theres a turd about.

[GrifTheGreat]

uhhhhhh, they are nocturnal so jumping around, kicking dirt around in the process and squeaking their feet at the bottom while they try to burrow are all NORMAL behaviors for an active pacman frog. I dont think hes thrashing around becasue he is upset about being fed mid day. If he eats, he isnt stressed out about being woken up, if he were stressed about being woken up he wouldnt eat...
The reason it is suggested to feed at dawn or preferably dusk is because this is when they are most active. Feeding them in the day time is not going to damage your frog.

Hes moving around in his cage because he is awake and active, obviously.

The poop, yes. That will make them move about becasue once they drop one they want to get as far away from it as possible. and they way they lay them, I dont blame em. Whenever I hear activity in an enclosure i dont normally hear activity in, I know theres a turd about.

My females are usually the ones that cause a rukus at night and its either from a bowel movement or they get excited over a male calling and try to go find him. Squeaking isn't always from burrowing. They also make a squeaking sound on the side of the enclosures when trying to paw their way through the tank walls. Normally if they are pawing at the wall trying to escape then there is something causing stress. What that may be could be anything. My assumption is substrate conditions being either dirty or too wet.

Feeding mid day is way off regardless of whether the frog ate at this time. Ultimately the owner can do as they please so there is no need to get upset or say uuuhhhhh over a response given to the OP just because you may not like it.

[DeeDub]

Lol......I thought the uhhh was kind of funny.

Frogs don't throw 'fits' over something that happened hours before.......just imagine this...Mr.pacman thinks to himself after his mid day meal: "that stupid human! How dare he feed me a delicious worm while I was sleeping. Just wait, at 2100 hours I am going to cause a'ruckus' that'll teach him!"

[DeeDub]

BTW, nobody else seen these Beatles in Their eco earth? Sounds goofy, but its no BS.

[GrifTheGreat]

Lol......I thought the uhhh was kind of funny.

Frogs don't throw 'fits' over something that happened hours before.......just imagine this...Mr.pacman thinks to himself after his mid day meal: "that stupid human! How dare he feed me a delicious worm while I was sleeping. Just wait, at 2100 hours I am going to cause a'ruckus' that'll teach him!"

Sometimes they do unexplainable things. Like go nuts for no apparent reason. Me telling him the recommended time to feed them was not to be directly linked to the frogs activity at night. It was just a suggestion. Issues with the substrate or a bowel movement is most likely the issue if the frog is trying to escape.

All anyone can really do is speculate since we can't see exactly what is going on. Just offering from my experience.

[GrifTheGreat]

BTW, nobody else seen these Beatles in Their eco earth? Sounds goofy, but its no BS.

Sometimes you'll find mites in the Eco Earth, but I've never found beatles in it.

[Misschievou2]

I'll just do what both parties suggested. Both of you are right. I can feed him mid-day but later in the day is better. He is an active round little froggie. Prince Charming II isn't upset that I woke him up mid-day to feed him. He is just being active. He likes to burrow. I don't think he is trying to escape from his feces. I keep a clean cage. I look for doodie everyday and it's weird he usually pees before he eats so when I move him to his feeding tank I make sure to have a paper towel down to soak up his urine before I give him any food and that itself I am sure reduces the amount of ammonia in the tank. I just wiggle the food infront of his eye and he pees. silly little thing.

HE IS NOT STRESSED! I assure you guys! Prince charming II is just a chill pacman frog living the good life. Stop saying stress. It's stressing me out lol. Only stress interaction he has is with a catchers net now at night and I feed him and I put him back in a weekly cleaned tank by himself with wallpaper on 3 sides so he can't really see anything that would stress him out. Also I am 25 years old and I am the youngest in the house.

What COULD stress him is my dog doesn't like the squeaky noise he makes when he buries. Prince charming II cannot see the dog but I bet he can hear my dog barking. I cannot lock my dog out of my room at night. So... I'll move the frog at night to a vacant room or closet so he can squeak until he can no longer squeak!

[DVirginiana]

I try to feed late at night which is cool because I'm a horrible insomniac anyway. But if for some reason Trevor is looking around earlier acting like she wants food, I'll feed her then. Usually that happens when I'm feeding my other reptiles. I don't know if she smells the worms when I chop them or what, but if she's acting interested I'll give her one.

Any chance there was rain or some other air pressure difference when your frog was going nuts? Sometimes during the summer mine would get nervous and act that way for an hour or two when a big storm or pressure front came through. Don't really have any proof to back this up, but I think frogs can probably sense air pressure changes pretty well since rain is part of what triggers mating (my turtle always notices too, but it just makes her want to eat since worms come out after rain).
Your frog acting funny is more likely caused by something else, just throwing this out there in case there was a connection...

[GrifTheGreat]

I try to feed late at night which is cool because I'm a horrible insomniac anyway. But if for some reason Trevor is looking around earlier acting like she wants food, I'll feed her then. Usually that happens when I'm feeding my other reptiles. I don't know if she smells the worms when I chop them or what, but if she's acting interested I'll give her one.

Any chance there was rain or some other air pressure difference when your frog was going nuts? Sometimes during the summer mine would get nervous and act that way for an hour or two when a big storm or pressure front came through. Don't really have any proof to back this up, but I think frogs can probably sense air pressure changes pretty well since rain is part of what triggers mating (my turtle always notices too, but it just makes her want to eat since worms come out after rain).
Your frog acting funny is more likely caused by something else, just throwing this out there in case there was a connection...

They can sense Barometric pressure changes. So you're right they sense when storms are coming.

[Maharg]

If you leave superworms in your tank, and sometimes you wont even noticed one burrowed and got away, that will explain the beetles. I dug one up mid transformation out of my Pixie tank. Im looking at it now. Looks like an alien.

[unkempt1]

BTW, nobody else seen these Beatles in Their eco earth?

Depends, give us a better description. Was it Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, or Ringo Starr? Sorry, been reading this thread the last day or so and couldn't help myself any longer. Been lurking for weeks now and this is the post I respond to...

[GrifTheGreat]

If you leave superworms in your tank, and sometimes you wont even noticed one burrowed and got away, that will explain the beetles. I dug one up mid transformation out of my Pixie tank. Im looking at it now. Looks like an alien.

I forgot all about that Lol! Someone on here a while back found a Darkling Beatle in their frog's enclosure from a mealworm that managed to get away and pupate. That would explain it. Great guess Graham.

[GrifTheGreat]

Depends, give us a better description. Was it Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, or Ringo Starr? Sorry, been reading this thread the last day or so and couldn't help myself any longer. Been lurking for weeks now and this is the post I respond to...

Lol! Seems you were holding back for the perfect response aaannnnnndddd you found it.