Force Feeding was a FAIL. (PICS) Esme seems to be shedding??

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

For a heat source under the enclosure the only way I do it is with a zoomed mini heat pad stuck to a large ceramic tile.
And not the bottom glass of the enclosure.
I also use a separate temperature controller to keep the temps no higher than 70F.
It is just like Griff and Carlos mentioned the frog burrows for many reasons.
To feel secure. Conceal its self from prey. Stay moist and cool.

To be honest feeding mice more than once or twice a month is kind of excessive for the frog.
A varied diet is the best.

Crickets gut loaded and dusted with either calcium or multivitamin powder. (crickets fed fresh veg 24 to 48 hrs prior to feeding to the frog)

Night crawlers can be dusted with the calcium+D3 ( Dusting with multivitamin will cause the worm to excrete a lot of mucus and get real messy.)


Here is a good dusting schedule by Heatheranne

"My adult pacmans only eat every 2-3 days.
Monday - MVI
Tuesday - none
Wednesday or Thursday - Ca++/D3
Friday or Saturday - Ca++/D3
Sunday -none"

Since I travel 90% for my job and my wife is so prissy she will only mist the substrate if it looks like it is getting too dry.
But I do have a lot of automation on the enclosure.

It is a Exo terra enclosure with a medium zoo med heat pad on the left side.
75W infrared ceramic heat element in a zoo med mini deep dome light fixture on the top front right.
and a Zoomed repti fogger.
Both connected to a zoo med hygrotherm HT-10 controller set to 85F during the day and 75F at night ( the controller has a light sensor so it can do a night time temp drop.)
Since my wife likes to keep the house cold 66F I have a extra heat pad mentioned above on a separate thermostat set to 70
Under the tank but not attached to the glass. ( I don't want to burn my babies bottom. )
Lastly and probably the most importantly I have a eco terra CFL hood with just one 15K white 60W cfl bulb (two of them is too bright.)
on a timer from 7am to 5pm. I have the hygrotherm control head set so the light from the enclosure will activate the day time mode.

When you get your temp and substrate moist enough the dry skin problem will go away.

as a part of my husbandry regimen,
Every 3 weeks or earlier depending on if the substrate starts to gets stinky.
I take my frog out and soak him in a plastic bin with plain dechlorinated water at 80F covered with a towel.
I cover with a towel for many reasons.
To keep the water from cooling down too quickly, and to keep the frog clam, and 90% of the time he will have a BM.
During the summer I didn't cover the bin and he never had a BM. I guess he wanted a bit of privacy .
And if there is any skin that was too dry to shed it comes right off.

I use a small shop vac to clean out the old substrate and the night before I use a 5 gallon bucket filled with 1 gallon of
warm dechlorinated water and put in a single brick of eco earth coco fiber.
By the morning it has rehydrated and I have found that 1 gallon perfectly hydrates the soil.

I put the new substrate in and smooth it out. Replace any ornaments.
and put my frog back in and he will hoop about a few min and finds a new place to burrow down and he's happy.

Hope this helps.

As for the bump on you babies back,
can you take a picture of it when your baby has finished a soak and post it.
is it soft to the touch?
does it feel like air or fluid.
if you can't post a picture, is the area round the bump discolored? ( a picture would be best.)

good luck with you baby. and happy holidays!

Writing this in a airport sky lounge waiting on my flight home.
Caio!

[WalkerBait]

UPDATE: Esme still has not eaten, but I am currently giving her a pedialyte soak in warm water and I'm hoping it perks her up.
I freaked myself out though, because I have a few small cuts on my hand (from dry winter weather) and I scooped her up without thinking of it. Now I remember the guy at the pet store specifically told me to never ever do that. I washed my hands really well immediately and will handle her with some gloves when I put her back, but hopefully I don't die. Anyway, I will update with the results of said bath afterward!

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

Well it is more for the frogs protection than yours.
The oils and what ever else you may have on you hands, lotion , perfume ect ect can harm your frog,

Now the risk of infection to your cuts is moderate but if you washed your hands well and keep them covered I.E gloves you should be ok.
if you use any kind of neosprorin or any kind of lotion do wear gloves.

[GrifTheGreat]

UPDATE: Esme still has not eaten, but I am currently giving her a pedialyte soak in warm water and I'm hoping it perks her up.
I freaked myself out though, because I have a few small cuts on my hand (from dry winter weather) and I scooped her up without thinking of it. Now I remember the guy at the pet store specifically told me to never ever do that. I washed my hands really well immediately and will handle her with some gloves when I put her back, but hopefully I don't die. Anyway, I will update with the results of said bath afterward!

Louis is right. Most amphibian skin secretions only irritate the eyes or skin. Some are deadly, but that is not the case with Pacman frogs. The main thing to look out for is disease. Reptiles and amphibians carry a wide array of bacteria on their skin naturally. Salmonella is the main risk you run by handling you frog so just be sure to wash your hands very well before and after handling the frog with a very mild cleansor and dry them completely. Just make sure to handle the frog with wet hand or gloves saturated with dechlorinated water to reduce friction on the frog's mucus layer. This layer protects the frog's skin.

[WalkerBait]

Okay, update. Thanks for the tips, guys!

Esme has buried herself again and looks quite lethargic. I'm hoping in the next day or two she will resurface so that I can try feeding her again. I'm pretty worried at this point.

[Heatheranne]

How big is Esme from nose (snout) to butt/anus (vent)?

[WalkerBait]

She's about 4" I believe, she's sizable that is for sure!
Here's a pic.

[Heatheranne]

She's so cute. Give her a nice dechlorinated soak of 1:10 dechlor water or spring water to plain pedialyte soak. Shoot me a text and ill demo a feed.

[WalkerBait]

I sent you a text, hopefully it wasn't too late for you. Time change and all.. It's only 6pm here. I'm sure you're a couple hours ahead.

[WalkerBait]

Esme after her force feeding. It took 25 minutes and sheer stress on both our parts, but I got her to eat a worm. She seems to still be finishing up shedding, not that you can really tell by these pics.

[GrifTheGreat]

Patience is key. You can wait a day and then force feed again. This will allow a day of rest and no stress.

[WalkerBait]

UPDATE: Esme ate! Then she ate again!! she's hanging in there. I know winter is not an easy time for frog keeping, and judging from other posts, I'm not the only who has gone through this. I'm trying to not worry so much about her. Thanks again everyone for all the help though!

[Hypnotic]

Great to hear, btw, I live in Belgium and it's also freezing here, the trick to the heatpad is ducktaping it to the side, completely ducktape of the sides of the heatpad and the heat should be focused better.
I have my setups this way : 1 heatcable on the left per 3 enclosures (I use a rack system) and 1 heatmat on the side per enclosure. The cable works 24/7, the heatmats work 12 hours a day during the light cycle. My frogs are always at temperatures between 27°-29° and 24°-26° at night.