Has a hard time eatting.

[jbigtoe]

After reading a little more about my frog, I am a little concerned about him. Someone told me he needs some fattening, and after looking at some pictures of other ACFs, he's a little thin. The problem is that I feed him in the morning and afternoon, and I just read that I am feeding him too often. I have been watching him eat and it seems that he has poor aim in feeding. He launches himself at his food and misses repeatedly, ending up with it behind his head or on his head. I have tried to help him, and put it right in front of him, and he still misses. He eventually find some pieces, but it seems like he works really hard for what he finds.

Is this normal?

He eats little pellets that are appropriate for 'aquatic frogs and tadpoles'. It was suggested that I change this to a bigger pellet, but I haven't been able to do that yet. I just started feeding him freeze-dried bloodwords that he seems to like, but can't catch easily either. He has eatten one or two tiny shreds of chicken before, but it was cooked. He had an even worse time catching that, so I didn't give him anymore.

He is a little less than a year old, and he is by himself. There is no filter in his tank, he has gravel and plastic plants in there. I just planted a fern and added a moss ball. I am getting a couple more live plants for him this week. He water is tap that has been conditioned for the last two weeks before that he had spring water. I put a little salt in the water that is marked 'for fresh water tanks' to help him with an eye infection he had a few weeks ago. I have kept up the salt in his changed water to prevent further infections, but only treating replacement water and adding more.

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

Welcome to the forum.

Substrate is very important for many reasons.
It gives a surface for good bacteria to grow to help with water quality.But choosing the wrong substrate can also be detrimental.
These frogs are not very accurate eaters and can swallow some of the substrate.
If the substrate cannot be passed by the frogs digestive system it can be deadly for the frog.
Personally I prefer Sand as a substrate for others prefer bare bottom or other words no substrate at all.

Now for food.
I would not feed any freeze dried food as this can cause bloating which will make the frog not be able to submerge
And stress it out or worst case scenario be fatal.
I would offer frozen not freeze-dried. Blood worms, brine shrimp are good start.
With that being said having a large pebble or rock substrate food can fall in between the rocks and rot and cause serious water quality issues.
I would keep with the staple of the frog and tadpole pellets with a weekly treat of a cube of the frozen food.
You can also feed nightcrawler pieces cut to the size of the space in between the frogs eyes to start. Once a week.
As the frog grows you can feed larger pieces.

I have never used salt to treat illnesses in aquatic frogs. But I would discontinue the use if the frog is healthy.
What size is the tank.
If the tank is not large enough for a power filter I highly recommend A air powered sponge filter this will greatly improve the water quality.

[jbigtoe]

Welcome to the forum.

I would keep with the staple of the frog and tadpole pellets with a weekly treat of a cube of the frozen food.
You can also feed nightcrawler pieces cut to the size of the space in between the frogs eyes to start. Once a week.
As the frog grows you can feed larger pieces.

Will the frozen food keep well enough for a long period? Do you feed him a whole cube? That seems really big.
His substrate is large gravel, too big for his mouth. It sounds like I need to be careful with the food dropping in there and getting lost in the rocks.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

If you're careful you can cut the cube in half or less.As long as you keep it frozen the last for a very long time. A year or more.
Keeping the gravel clean can be a problem.
What you could do is to use a small siphon to get any uneaten food in between the rocks out.

[rodsboys]

I would do away with those pellets you are using. They are meant for small animals. Large frogs can not get enough of them without making a huge mess. Move up to something bigger so you can put less in the tank and more in the frog.

This is a great staple: Tetra ReptoMin Floating Food Sticks - Food - Reptile - PetSmart
And as Louis said you can add in frozen thawed items to your mix.

[jbigtoe]

I would do away with those pellets you are using. They are meant for small animals. Large frogs can not get enough of them without making a huge mess. Move up to something bigger so you can put less in the tank and more in the frog.

This is a great staple: Tetra ReptoMin Floating Food Sticks - Food - Reptile - PetSmart
And as Louis said you can add in frozen thawed items to your mix.

This makes lots of sense, and I bought him some ReptoMin yesterday. I gave him a broken ones, he is still a little small for the whole stick I think. Anyway he grabbed it, and spit part back out. Then he went to the bottom of the tank and worked at getting the rest out of his mouth. I am hoping that it is just because he ate yesterday. I tried bloodworms (he's eaten them before once or twice) and his old pellets. He hasn't eaten today that I know of. He is singing at me this evening, and swimming all over like he's trying to escape. He spent most of the day hiding under a ceramic turtle too. Someone tell me if I am worried about something or nothing...

[rodsboys]

Sometimes when they have been eating something else it takes a while to get them on a new food. Especially challenging with young males as they are far less greedy and outgoing then females.