Frenchy is finally eating! Red-Eyed Tree Frog

[MantidBro]

I quarantined some moss and added it to his terrarium... Came on here, once again mentioned how he's not eating, asked for more advice... I ditched the bowl feeding method, a member on here said it can stress some frogs out. I had about 10 crickets lose innthe cage, and I just let the rest lose, instead of keeping them in the bowl.

Anyways, I left and when I came back, the humidity was up to 95%! At first I was like, oh ****, but I watched him and realized he was awake. He was focused on a cricket, that had climbed a plant beside him. He snatched it, much to my pleasure! Then went right back to sleep, lol.

Damn, I've never been so relieved.

He stayed asleep for a while, and then woke back up tonight. He went to his favorite water bowl, the one above the heating pad. He hung out on the rim of it, and suddenly spotted a kaydid I had put in there. It had been living in there for four days, I put it in there hoping he might eat it. I wasnt sure if the crickets just werent lively enough or what. But he saw the kaydid climbing the stick in front of him, and he jumped up and snatched it! So that was two feedings that I witnessed.

After that, he had a nice shedding session. Before when he'd done it, it would come off in strings, this time it came off in globs. I really think the humidity was just too low for him. I was told 70-80% is ideal, but also read that some people will keep it as high as 90%. This seems to be working for Frenchy.

After his shed, he stayed perched there on the rim of his water bowl, and watched as crickets passed by. He ate two more! Ive been feeding the crickets carrots, lettuce and fluckers cricket quencher which is calcium fortified. I also sprinkle some calcium/D3 on their food. So thats some good nutrition and calcium and vitamins going into Frenchy! Then he had a big poop, which I inspected - it looks fine.

Satisfied, I stopped watching and let him be. When I returned, he was back behind a leaf. I've now shut the lights.

I'm wicked relieved!!

[DigitalPunk]

Letting him eat roaming crickets is fine, but you should be carefully not to release more than he can eat at a time. Crickets bite and have been known to bite tree frogs while they sleep during the day. Biting is never good...

Also uneaten crickets can stress your frog out if there are to many of them. Another thing to keep an eye out for is dead crickets that have not been eaten. These will foul of the Vivarium soil fast and should be removed asap.


For the above reasons is why we all push bowl feeding. I have never heard of bowl feeding stressing a frog out. It can take them a bit to get the general idea down and adapt to it, but it is a much saver, clear means of feeding your frog.

Supplements should be dusted on the crickets themselves just before offering them as food to the frog. I am not certain, but my guess is that feeding the crickets food laced with the supplements will add little to now benefit to the frog, largely due to the size of dose the frog would need versus the minute amount that the cricket actually ingests and doesn't digest before the frog eats it.

You should rotate between dusting the crickets 4 - 5 days a week with the Calcium w/ D3 added and 1 - 2 days a week of a multivitamin.

[MantidBro]

Letting him eat roaming crickets is fine, but you should be carefully not to release more than he can eat at a time. Crickets bite and have been known to bite tree frogs while they sleep during the day. Biting is never good...

Also uneaten crickets can stress your frog out if there are to many of them. Another thing to keep an eye out for is dead crickets that have not been eaten. These will foul of the Vivarium soil fast and should be removed asap.


For the above reasons is why we all push bowl feeding. I have never heard of bowl feeding stressing a frog out. It can take them a bit to get the general idea down and adapt to it, but it is a much saver, clear means of feeding your frog.

Supplements should be dusted on the crickets themselves just before offering them as food to the frog. I am not certain, but my guess is that feeding the crickets food laced with the supplements will add little to now benefit to the frog, largely due to the size of dose the frog would need versus the minute amount that the cricket actually ingests and doesn't digest before the frog eats it.

You should rotate between dusting the crickets 4 - 5 days a week with the Calcium w/ D3 added and 1 - 2 days a week of a multivitamin.

His terrarium is huge, and there are a lot of hiding spots, so I made sure there were enough so he could find some. I will remove them each night now that you say that. I honestly wasn't worried because he sleeps on the glass and the crickets can't climb up glass. I'm glad he's eating, I'm afraid to switch to bowl feeding since he's just finally started eating. I don't know if this is common for Red-Eyes, but he didn't go hunting, he stayed at the same spot and waited for them to come to him. I will try the bowl feeding method in a bit but for now I just want him to eat, and I want to replicate the environment in which he started eating in.

I had put cricket food in the terrarium, carrots and flucker's cricket quencher (calcium fortified). But I'll give up on that and just remove them for day time. Will dust the new ones I put in, with calcium/D3. I hadn't dusted those because I wasn't sure he'd even eat them, and I figured they'd clean it off before he even ate them. I'm going to start dusting them from now on.

Thanks bro!

[lnikkiy]

To clarify/expand my earlier comment to you:
Feeding in the tank (I find) helps pickier frogs get a good meal. In a few weeks or so, when you know your frenchy is heathy and eating, you may want to consider the bowl feeding method again.

I personally do a combination of both. My Ruby Eyed Tree frogs particularly will get extremely stressed if I attempt to bowl feed them, whereas my toads are perfectly happy eating an easy meal from a bowl.

If you do continue to feed from the tank (I imagine you will be able to tell what is best for your frog) make sure that there are not leftover crickets. I feed them in the evening, and then make sure there are none left in the morning. I also have my frogs on moss or water bottoms, so there is no chance of them ingesting substrate when they catch their food.

[MantidBro]

To clarify/expand my earlier comment to you:
Feeding in the tank (I find) helps pickier frogs get a good meal. In a few weeks or so, when you know your frenchy is heathy and eating, you may want to consider the bowl feeding method again.

I personally do a combination of both. My Ruby Eyed Tree frogs particularly will get extremely stressed if I attempt to bowl feed them, whereas my toads are perfectly happy eating an easy meal from a bowl.

If you do continue to feed from the tank (I imagine you will be able to tell what is best for your frog) make sure that there are not leftover crickets. I feed them in the evening, and then make sure there are none left in the morning. I also have my frogs on moss or water bottoms, so there is no chance of them ingesting substrate when they catch their food.

Tried the bowl feeding method again -- Frenchy's taking to it I switched quicker than I had expected to, because i did indeed see him gobbling up some substrate with a cricket! :/ its only coconut fiber so no wood chips or anything but still... That must be annoying.. I did end up seeing some substrate in his poop. Didnt seem to be hard to push out but i dont wanna risk anything bad happening. Im glad he understands how to work with the bowl feeding method! This method helps to keep the calcium/D3 on the crickets as well, when id been letting them roam, they would drag their bodies along the sticks and leaves, and even take a swim in the bowls, to try cleaning it off. They hadnt managed to get all of it off before he ate them but now they will get hardly any off because the glass bowl is so slippery, theres no friction to help take it off, plus its dry in there.

[DigitalPunk]

Awesome news! Our Reds will sit and stare where the bowl should be if we don't get it in the tank before the lights go out. They all just stare and wait, like they think they can will it into existence lol.

[MantidBro]

Awesome news! Our Reds will sit and stare where the bowl should be if we don't get it in the tank before the lights go out. They all just stare and wait, like they think they can will it into existence lol.

Lol thats hilarious. I put the bowl with the crickets in there before I shut the lights. Just before frenchy wakes up. So its already there when hes awake. He catches sight of them easily, even in such a big cage!