Pacman Frog not eating...possibly stress?

[MrSmith]

Hi everyone! I just joined after reading the threads on this website for a bit.

My pacman frog has not been eating very much lately, and I think it may be from stress. I've had to move him around a lot as I switched apartments to somewhere 4+ hours away, which meant I had to take him on that drive with me and move his enclosure around. He was obviously very stressed out about the journey, and now will not eat, when before he was a perfect eater and took his food from tongs, no problem.

Over about a 3.5 week period he's only eaten 3 times, when before he would eat every other day, so obviously I'm a bit concerned. Nothing has changed except the move, so I'm almost positive the stress is what caused this change in behavior, however I'm worried and wanted to ask if anyone has had a similar experience and has any advice.

Anyway, I don't have any pictures of his enclosure, however I'll answer all the questions below.


1. Size of enclosure
10 gallon tank

2. # of inhabitants - specifically other frogs and size differences
Just him

3. Humidity
65%

4. Temperature
79

5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish
Spring bottled water

6. Materials used for substrate
Cocofibre

7. Enclosure set up i.e. plants (live or artificial), wood, bark and other materials.
A ceramic soaking dish, a wooden hut, and a fake plant

- How were things prepared prior to being put into the viv.
All washed, no chemicals

8. Main food source
Crickets, and powdered frog food from Japan

9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often)
Once every other live feeding, none with powdered food

10. Lighting
Nighttime heat bulb, on all the time

11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure
Heat bulb, under-tank heating pad

12. When is the last time he/she ate
About a week and a half ago

13. Have you found poop lately
No, but he's never been much of a pooper

14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine)
I don't have any of the enclosure, but here's a very recent one of him:


15. Describe frog's symptoms and/or recent physical changes; to include it's ventral/belly area.
No physical changes, just much more reluctant to eat

16. How old is the frog
About 1 year

17. How long have you owned him/her
8 months

18. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred
Captive bred

19. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats
Fed every other day

20. How often the frog is handled
Only when taken out for cage cleaning--about once a week

21. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area
Medium, in my room

22. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc)
Water changes every other day, misting twice a day, stirring up substrate every 3-4 days, total change every 1.5 weeks

[DigitalPunk]

Hey MrSmith,

First and foremost Welcome to the best frog community on the interwebs!

secondly I am sadly no Pacman expert and any advise I give should be double checked before it is followed.

Your humidity is a bit low. You want to aim between 70 - 80% (75% ideal) and your daytime temps should be around 80-82. Night time temps can drop a bit down to 76-78.

You frog in the water bowl could be a sign he feels dehydrated. He could also still be stressed out from the move and any temp/humidty drops he went through during that.

but as I said I am no expert. Please sit tight, keep hitting refresh, I am going to run and get someone to come and help you.

[DigitalPunk]

Excellent job answering all the common questions in you main post btw (i like to speak like the cool kids do. Keeps me feeling young... btw mean by the way ). So very helpful when that info is offered up front. Thank you!

Someone is coming. Should be with you shortly.

[Lija]

Paul behave lol... Mr smith dont listen to him, he is just annoying, but sometimes says something smart lol

Hi and welcome to the forum!
Thank you for posting answers to the "trouble" right away


temp too low, it has to be in range Paul said, day 80-82 with night drop to 76-78. Humidity 70-80, but you wanna stay in a happy middle of 75.


Food - you need variety, crickets for adult pacman are no food, most wont even bother waste their energy for a food that small.
If he eats pacman food, he is tong trained, then feeding nightcrawlers wont be a problem for you. They are the best staple.


Undertank heating pad- where is it located?


What are you using for ca and what for multivitamins, are you alternating both or how do you do it?

Substrate changes, it is ok to do it once a month.

Now other then that. Yes moving might have been stressful, temp was different on a move, environment. Also you should keep in mind they eat less often as they mature. Would you please post pic of a frog from the top and pic of the enclosure, to check if there is smth i dont see, but if you fix mentioned things he should be fine.

[MrSmith]

Lija, thanks for answering!

Well I took a pretty literal reading of his tank, so that is his current nighttime temperature and humidity. I don't have AC and it's been hot and muggy where I live, so I know his cage has been reaching the 80s during daytime.
I will definitely work on his cage humidity, however. The top of his cage is just screen at the moment, so hopefully I can cover half of it up and keep some of that moisture in there!

For his food, I had no idea that crickets were too small at this point! I've been very used to feeding him the powdered food that I never really did thorough research on what insects to feed him at what size. I'll plan on picking up some night crawlers tomorrow and hopefully they will interest him. : ) I had also been reading that cockroaches are a good food as well? I work at my school's entomology department, so getting my hand on the correct species probably would't be a problem. Do you have any advice on cockroaches? Additionally, how many night crawlers should I give each feeding?

The heating pad is on the left side of his cage. So he has a hot area from the heating pad, and then the middle has the light, and then he has a cool area on the right side with his water dish.

I use Rep-cal and he probably gets a cricket dusted once a week, the rest of the time it's the powdered food which has everything in it.

Thanks for the tip on the substrate! Will save me a bit of money.

And finally a picture from the top:

[DigitalPunk]

Gorgeous frog!

[MrSmith]

Thanks! : )
HE'S actually the Mr. Smith, I'm just Madi. haha

[DigitalPunk]

Ahh lol! Nice to meet you Madi! I am actually Paul

Hope my humor and sarcasm didn't offend you

[MrSmith]

Ahh lol! Nice to meet you Madi! I am actually Paul

Hope my humor and sarcasm didn't offend you

No! I wasn't even close to offended. Nice to meet you, too!

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF Madi! Myself do not trust water companies in what they secretly do to water before bottling; so recommend you get either some Seachem Prime or ExoTerra Aquatize and use your treated tap. Change the water dish daily even if it looks clean (frog urine could be there) and always mix the substrate with dechlorinated tap until it clumps in fist without dripping water out.

Can get not dyed night crawlers at Walmart sports area or a local bait shop. Your frog should be able to eat whole ones. Once frogs learns to eat them, you can dust those too. More on dusting in here: http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...schedules.html. Avoid red wriggler worms; they taste foul to frogs.

If heat pad is below tank, it has to be moved to either a side or the back because frogs dig to cool off. Covering most of screen top with aluminum foil will help retain heat and humidity in enclosure. You will have to adjust coverage or use controllers (i.e. dimmers) to lower the heat output of heating elements to get it just right. Good luck !

[GrifTheGreat]

You have been provided with good advice. I will say this. Occational day time temps of 79° is just fine. This is usually the average ambient air temp. The warm side of the tank will more than likely be correct

Lower appetite isn't uncommon for a frog of 1 year of age and especially so for males. When they begin to call they will lose their appetite some, so once he is no longer stressed and it his appetite only increases slightly it will be due to your frog having reached maturity. He is a beautiful albino cranwelli.

Follow advice given. As long as he does not lose weight and does eat at least some food and a decent amount between each time he eats he should be ok. Keep a close eye on him.

Carlos is correct about trusting water companies. Some actually use bacteria to protect pipes from corrosion.

[MrSmith]

Thanks everyone for the responses! I've been keeping the humidity up, and using treated tap water. I'll post an update when he does finally end up eating again.

[MrSmith]

Just a quick update:

I placed aluminum foil over the top of his enclosure, and that's been keeping much more humidity in.
I also managed to get him to eat a bit of food, probably about the size of a large grape. I'm going to feed him again tonight and see if he eats again.

He's also started calling again, so I think he's a bit more relaxed than he was a week ago. I'm still paying close attention, but I hope this is a sign of things moving in the right direction. Thanks everyone! : )