Please help! Newbie looking for ideas on feeding injured green frog

[Heath204]

Hi all, sorry to cross post (I already posted something similar in the Frog section) but my main question at this point regards the feeding (or lack of!) for an injured sub-adult Northern Green Frog. He has been in my care since Thursday and, while his leg looks to be slowly improving, he hasn't eaten anything. I have been handling him several times a day to doctor his wound, and I know that in addition to the stress of the injury and whatever else is going on in his little body, he is stressed by my efforts to help him and by being in captivity. So for any number of reasons, he isn't eating. I have tried legless crickets and earthworms (size appropriate), but he turns away or even pushes them away when they come near him. And if they touch him, he nearly jumps out of his skin! There is zero hope of me feeding him with tweezers and he is not mobile enough to actively chase prey or whatever frogs do if i just drop it in his container and leave it. Sooo are there any tricks on how to feed a wild frog? Are there any irresistible frog foods that wiggle a lot without really moving very fast? I was thinking about transferring him to a smaller container where the food would always be within easy striking distance, but since he doesnt seem to like the bugs to touch him, I was worried that would stress him out even more. Or maybe I should just totally leave him be for a full day and then drop some food in and see if that helps? ANY thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[Heatheranne]

Hello Heath204,

Welcome to the forum.

You can manually feed the frog but it it very stressful for them and not easy.

Can you pick up some plain, clear, unflavored Pedialyte? You can do a soak for some electrolytes. To do this, use one part Pedialyte to 10 parts distilled or dechlorinated water. Fill a water bowl to about belly level when he is sitting. Have him sit in it for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then rinse the bowl and replace with dechlorinated water.

If I can find it I will link in a feeding video. Please keep in mind that most wild caught frogs are not as calm as mine. He had been hand fed for years due to his limitations.

Use crickets or cut earthworm pieces that are no bigger than the distance between his eyes for easy of swallowing. It is easier to use crickets.

I'll see if I can find the video. It is amongst the 9,000+ pics and videos in my old iPhone.

[Heatheranne]

Here is the video. Try using smaller crickets though. It's also easier. It is also easier to remove the crickets legs when manually feeding.

Good luck! Please keep us posted on his progress.

You will need calcium both vitamin D 3 supplant and multivitamin supplement also. I like Repashy plus calcium and Repcal calcium with vitamin D3. Lightly dust the multivitamin one day a week on his food and every other day, but not on the same day as the multivitamin. You can use a baggie or cup. Place a small pinch of the supplement into the cup or baggie and do a gentle shake. The cricket should have a nice thin layer of supplement, not a thick coating. When manually feeding, only coat one insect per feeding, to avoid overdosing.


http://youtu.be/sJbEu0xNsBU

[Heath204]

Thanks so much for the helpful advice and the video I actually have been doing the Pedialyte soaks for the last 3 days, but have been wary of the whole hand-feeding idea. I know frogs can go a few days without eating, so I wasn't sure if treating the leg should be a priority or trying to get him to eat...I know all of this is very stressful on him already so I didn't want to add even more to it. Honestly, with the extent of his injury, I wasn't really expecting him to be around this long and I was prepared to have him euthanized if he got any worse; however, now that he has been around this long with no obvious decline, I guess its time to try to do something about the lack of nutrition. If he hasn't eaten anything by tomorrow, I will try your hand feeding method and let you know how it goes...I picked up a few crickets from the pet store the other day in hopes he would eat one on his own, but I'm down to my last one (two were two big and I accidentally killed two while trying to de-leg them...poor remaining cricket has been legless for 2 days now, I feel guilty whenever I see him). Does it make any difference whether I try to feed him during the day or night? The green frogs in my pond always seem to be awake and active, but do you think I would have better success trying to get him to eat when its dark?

[Heatheranne]

Green frogs can be fed day or night. They most often hunt at dusk.

It's important to treat the leg. Because they are moist animals, infections can progress quickly.

Good job on the pedi soaks!

[Heath204]

Sad to say the little guy didn't make it. When I went to take care of his leg this evening, I found him motionless under a leaf and very dark in color (so brown I could hardly even see his spots). Definitely dead, when I did a thorough exam on him, I didn't see any additional redness on his legs or his belly, although he did have a small cut or maybe even a tiny deformity on his mandible. And, even though he didn't look horribly skinny, his poor little stomach was so squishy Oddly enough, ] when I went back to check and make sure he was dead an hour later, his color had returned to perfectly normal.Even though its only been 5 days, I'm really going to miss seeing his little frog face.

[Heatheranne]

I'm so sorry to hear about your frog . So nice of you to try for him. We definitely get more attached to them when they need special care. Sometimes nature takes over for the best. Now the little sweetie can rest peacefully. Great job in your care! Hugs!