Pacman feeding question

[Jordanhunt]

Hi, I got my cranwelli a week ago and he wasn't eating, today I bought some waxworms and he ate 2 of them no problem, but he just completely ignores the crickets. The frog is about 2 inches long and the biggest crickets are about 1.5cm long, is there anything worm like I can feed him as a replacement for crickets

[Bruce]

What are his conditions like? Can you copy and paste the questions on the sticky called "trouble in the enclosure" with your answers please? This will help us out a lot!

You can use nightcrawlers cut to appropriate sized pieces. This is far healthier for him than wax worms!

[Nora]

Bruce has given you the best advice possible both for checking habitat/set-up & for feeding.
As an extra to be on the safe side I would be sure to feed true nightcrawlers/earthworms and not the smaller composting worms sold as red wigglers* and the like.
I also use the same feeding tongs each time to feed earthworm pieces to a given frog so that they start to associate the tongs with food and eventually will eat whatever shows up at the end of the tongs. I have also found that sometimes frogs do better with freshly dusted crickets that they can see better& I'm not above removing the jumping legs from crickets to help out my slow to start hunters.

*Although there isn't very much available in scientific literature, the nutritional analysis when it has been done varies greatly and the composting or esenia worms are reflections of whatever they were raised on (from rabbit or chicken droppings in larger set ups to whatever smaller scale food scraps they get in other set ups).

[Lija]

Jordan, please answer to those questions here http://www.frogforum.net/pacman-frog...enclosure.html

don't feed waxworms as a staple, they are very fattening. Have you asked what he was eating before you got him? some pacs are scared of crickets for some reasons, in that case you can remove back legs, they will be become less scary for a frog and more worm like At any rate the best feeding is tong feeding, that will save you tons of problems later if you ever need to feed meds or chunks of nightcrawler or anything moving or not, but before you try this you need to make sure he is all right. so let's start with you answers to those mentioned questions.
let's start with checking out your replies to those Q and then see.

[Lija]

1. 2.5 gallons, 12" x 8" x 8"
2. A 2 inch pacman frog
3. Stays close to 80%
4. 24 degrees celcius
5. Tap water treated with prime for fish tanks
6. Eco earth/coco fibre brick
7. Artificial plants and water bowel, rinsed before placed into the viv
8. He completely ignores the crickets I give him but today he ate two waxworms, that was the first time he ever ate, any help would be greatly apriciated.
9. None yet, will buy some soon
10.no light
11. 11" x 6" heat mat placed on the side of the tank
12. 2 waxworms this morning
13. I found what I think might be poop but I'm not sure if it came out of the Eco earth
14. Pics of tank tomorrow, here is the frog
15. I don't know, he is 2 inches if that helps
16. Almost a week
17. captive bred
18. He has only eaten two waxworms today and he ignores the crickets
19. Last Tuesday and yesterday when I downgraded my tank from a 7gal to a 2.5 gal
20. There is a main road a couple of houses away but it doesn't make much noise
21. The water bowel is changed daily and I mist the tank at least 2 times a day

Attached Thumbnails

[Lija]

i copied it here to keep another thread tidy

everything seems great, except temps. 24C=about 75F, you want to keep baby at 78 at night and about 82(day), so it would be 25C for a night and 27-28C day, older would tolerate a bit lower temps. It is still adjusting due to his move twice in a week. where do you feed him? in his home or you are taking him out, with tongs or without? also when do you feed him? during a day or at night?
he need a ambient light of some sort to provide day/night cycle ( 12/12), anything not too bright would do, i use regular low voltage energy saving lamps.

frog by the way looks awesome!

[Jordanhunt]

I tried feeding him in a small container to make it easier but he still ignores the crickets, I will buy some nightcrawlers for him, do they still wriggle around even if they are chopped up and could I also use wild earthworms from my garden or are they harmful to the frog?

[Bruce]

I tried feeding him in a small container to make it easier but he still ignores the crickets, I will buy some nightcrawlers for him, do they still wriggle around even if they are chopped up and could I also use wild earthworms from my garden or are they harmful to the frog?

You may have to tong feed them. Just gently brush up against their mouth and form their front arms, that usually gets them to eat

[Lija]

agree with Bruce, try to tong feed him the way he described, do not use wild caught earthworms, it may contain heavy metals, pesticides and tons of other bad stuff for your frog. nightcrawlers are way better option then crickets. try also to feed him in his enclosure and after lights are off ( about half an hour or so).

[Jordanhunt]

I do use tongs, I forgot to mention that, I think the crickets are a bit too small as the frog was listed on the website as 2cm but it turned out to be 2 inches

[Lija]

if you use tongs and he ate a wax worm for you, try to use same tongs and feed similar sized piece of a earthworm to him in his enclosure.

[Jordanhunt]

It's ok now, he ate two crickets today, it took about 50 second of brushing g them on his mouth but he ate them

[Heatheranne]

Yay! Keeping them nice and warm at the proper temperature speeds up their metabolism and helps them to digest easier, therefore making them hungry.

Great advice Lija and Bruce! Thanks!

[Jordanhunt]

I think it was just a fluke, since then he still hasn't been interested in crickets, could I replace crickets with any worm as a staple, would Phoenix worms work, any others (small caterpillar worms not earthworms)

[Lija]

best staple are dubia and earthworms, everything else to be used as treat - mice ( no more then once a month), hormworms, silkworms, wax worms, phoenix worms are good too, but I never tried or seen them for sale where i live.

[Bruce]

The pacman food is also a good staple from what I've heard. And when you look at the food you get compared to the water content in nightcrawlers it really isn't that expensive gram per gram of actual solid food.

[Jordanhunt]

He has put on a lot of weight though, he's grown almost half an inch since I got him a week ago, is it possible that he is still getting nutrients from absorbing his tail

[Lija]

lol he sure looks like a big fat frog they are growing fast

[Jordanhunt]

Pacman frog eats waxworm - YouTube
a little video of me feeding a waxworm to him, I bought a tub of 100 calci worms (Phoenix worms) from live food uk the site said that they're fine as a staple diet