My gray tree frog doesn't trust me anymore!

[Dace]

Greetings. I'm new. A couple days ago, I decided to feed my dubia roaches a spicy radish. I plucked one off of the radish and went to feed it to my smallest gray tree frog, Copper. I noticed just before he ate it that it vomited a red drop of radish juice, but by that time it was too late. I didn't think much of it, but the next day I somehow managed to give him another roach that had been eating radish. After that, he refused to eat (I hand- feed them otherwise the roaches hide) and I was was worried about him- he refused to eat from my hand and only ate when I put him in a small container with a bunch of roaches. These past two days he has completely refused to eat roaches. Last night I put a ceramic bowl of roaches in the vivarium but he showed almost no interest and the other frog devoured them all. I feel like my attempts to feed him are just stressing him out. I know he's not sick because if I show him a video of a crawling ant through the glass, he leaps right at it and tries to eat it through the glass- yet he ignores actual roaches! I'm pretty sure that the mouthful of radish juice is deterring him from eating roaches or eating out of my hand- just like that experiment where they fed the toad bumblebees. The weather is too cold to find flies or moths, and he's a 1.5 inch baby and is getting skinnier already! How do I get him eating again? Will he never forgive me for the radish roach?

[Frogman1031]

Hello and welcome to the frog forum !

That doesn't sound good . Remember, your frogs are what they eat eats and that radish obviously did not sit well.

Have you tried feeding crickets? Maybe he will take them instead of the roaches.

You should not be getting food from outside. They could have parasites that can be harmful or worse, fertilizers/pesticides.

You can also try earthworms that are dye and chemical free. Make sure they aren't red wrigglers as he won't thank you for those either.

I would hold off on feeding roaches for a while. Maybe he'll forget his bad experience eventually and start taking them again.

For future reference the best foods to feed crickets are carrots and leafy greens. You should also be dusting with calcium+vitamin d3 powder every other feeding and a multivitamin powder once a week.

I hope your frog starts eating soon. Good luck!

[elly]

I fed one of my white's a red wriggler worm once and he never forgave me. Since then I've had to bowl-feed or put the crickets on his ledge.

[Dace]

I fed one of my white's a red wriggler worm once and he never forgave me. Since then I've had to bowl-feed or put the crickets on his ledge.

That's depressing. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess he may never eat out of my hand again.
no I have not tried crickets. Don't have any. I'll bet he would eat them if I did, though.
i know you people aren't big fans of feeding wild insects, but I've done it for years and my frogs are fine. No pesticides or fertilizers around here. And where are you going to get more nutrition and variety? I know my bugs pretty well and only feed species I know to be safe.
I'm gonna try putting him in a small Bare Kritter keeper for a few hours till he's calm, then throw in a bunch of really tiny roaches. Maybe he won't recognize them.

[elly]

Well he might. My frog started out skittish and not used to people ( so the worm didn't help. Yours may be more tame.

Parasites are a problem since wild crickets and grasshoppers are especially known to be carriers. However if your frog is a native wild-caught species, it may already have parasites so more might not be a problem. Or you might be a bug expert and able to find ones that don't carry large parasite loads. I don't know.

[Dace]

It was a complete failure. He wanted nothing to do with the roaches. Yet I show him a video and he goes nuts trying to catch the digital ant. This is actually really interesting though because it shows me that frogs are more aware than I thought. I used to think they attack anything that moves and spit it out if it's nasty, but apparently he can recognize species.

[Dace]

Ok... I believe he ate 2 crickets tonight. unless I'm really bad at counting.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

That's good! At least he ate something!

[Bruce]

Hey! Just read up on this, you've been given awesome advice

Here's a pic of my setup for my girl, if it'll help you with some design ideas...



I have a small water dish in there, which she likes to soak in regularly, and i mist at least once a day. It's a simple set up, a bendy branch and a mature pothos plant, eco earth betting with springtails added to help maintain waste and tend to the pothos' roots. Room temps are fine, my room sits around 70-75.

These are very easy treefrogs to care for you can handfeed occasionally, but they are right about stress, I don't touch her unless I need to for that reason. Stress can be a serious issue with delicate frogs.

My opinion, if she is eating and soaking and the temps are right, just give her time to adjust and relax, she'll be fine.

I might have missed this, but are you supplimenting? If so what are you using and how often?

[Dace]

I don't fully agree with the necessity for water bowls for this particular species, but they have water bowls now and I'm not going to argue. But I can assure you that my frogs were not dehydrated before...
I dust their roaches with calcium and vitamin powder in the winter every few weeks, in the summer they get a wide variety of wild caught insects.
And I think the little guy is getting better. His colors are lighter and he's eating more. Hopefully he'll stop pacing.

[Crispy42]

Since frogforum's care sheets appear to be down right now, here is a link to a gray tree frog care sheet: http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forum...olor-grey.html

[Dace]

That's basically identical to a care sheet for a whites or green tree frog...
Gray tree frogs are not as sensitive to temperature and humidity as tropical tree frogs. A water bowl is more of a luxury than a necessity. And it's a luxury that needs to be cleaned and changed every day, or it will become a breeding site for disease. In the wild they most likely get their water from rain and morning dew. If they get too dry, they bury themselves in moist soil.
My frogs get all the moisture they need (and probably more than they need) from being sprayed with water daily. They never bury themselves.
I've seen gray tree frogs not only resting on trees out in the open on dry days, but also once on a concrete building surrounded on all sides by sun- baked pavement. These things are probably more tolerant of heat and dryness than some reptiles...

[Dace]

We'll, I'd have to say he's just about made a full recovery from whatever was up with him. He stopped pacing, his colors are beautiful, and his appetite is back to normal. Still won't regularly eat roaches, but that won't be a problem till next winter.

[victorsgrace]

De-stress him (!) and take him by a vet.

If all is fine with the vet, leave him be.

They don't feed while molding and force feeding is always super stressfull...


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[privet01]

Is this the same frog you originally wrote about in March? If so, it might be you that's stressing it out so much. Leave it alone. It'll eat when it wants to. Just ensure food and water is available and the viv habitat suitable.

[Dace]

No, this is not the same frog! They original frog I started this thread about has recovered completely and is now my best eater, in fact he's doubled in size since march.
I started a new thread about this frog.

[Dace]

De-stress him (!) and take him by a vet.

If all is fine with the vet, leave him be.

They don't feed while molding and force feeding is always super stressfull...


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how exactly does one "de- stress" a frog? Do you mean just leave him alone?

what do you mean, "molding"?

[ColleenT]

how exactly does one "de- stress" a frog? Do you mean just leave him alone?

what do you mean, "molding"?

To de-stress, you turn off all lights, cover the tank so it's dark for a few days and he meant stop HOLDing the frog.

[Dace]

I dont handle him...

[monster]

Im pretty sure he meant they don't eat while shedding(molting), and he said this because when you said you tried to feed while he was in shed and he spit it out. They will have no interest in food while in the middle of this process, heck my pacman wont even look at food while he is shedding. I know this because I went to feed him one night and couldn't figure out why he wouldn't eat then I noticed what he was doing so I stopped. All you are doing by trying to make him eat while in shed is really stressing him out, and you have to remember they ingest the excess skin so it probably wouldn't be the best time to force feed not knowing what is already half way down. You wouldn't want the poor guy to vomit or even choke, if he isn't eating a lot you really don't want him to vomit because then he is going to throw up the little bit of food he does eat.