Puffing up

[Emily1]

My Pacman finally seems normal and I just had a curious question. He seemed to puff up for just a second while he was eating today, is that normal? No other side effects. He just puffs up for a second then goes back to normal, happened 2 times.

I was feeding crickets and mealworms. A few of each.
He did poop today too so thats good, first time since I have had him.

[DVirginiana]

Puffing up isn't that odd. Just a side-note though meal-worms are not really a healthy food for pacs. They have too much chitin in the exoskeletons which can cause impaction.

[Emily1]

It is not a normal food item, I am just trying to encourage him to eat so I feed one or two small mealworms to get his attention plus he can catch them on his own. The crickets I seem to have to fed him by hand, I was using the meal worms because they barely move and I want him to try and "Hunt" the crickets so starting with a few mealworms is getting him used to eating not out of tweezers.

[cobra1264]

If going with mealworms just gut load them their 1:7 of calcium to phosphorus so feed them well before you give them to your frogs. Phosphorus can deplete available calcium in the body crickets believe it or not are 1:9 of calcium to phosphorus and super worms are 1:18 and can still bite in the stomach so dust crickets well feed the mealworms the night before and avoid at all costs the super worms their worse then 18 hotdogs. But 3 mealworms a week are not going to hurt the big guy. Try night crawlers their 3:1 ratio and have 64g of protein and 4g of fat. Good for fast growers and helping build lean muscles and preventing gout in animals. This info comes from 2 vet techs that I work with that said to also feed fresh young bugs the older they get the less nutrients they retain. So happy feedings and don't worry if he rejects certain foods keep trying and see what he likes and don't forget to keep it diverse to avoid boredom

[monster]

Hi, if you want to him to hunt and catch his food a little on his own you can take the 2 back legs off the crickets so they cant jump. I did this for my guy when I first got him because he was very afraid of the tongs and after doing this he didn't have a problem catching them at all.

[DVirginiana]

Cobra: The reason for not feeding mealworms and superworms isn't the nutritional value, it's the impaction-causing chitin in their exoskeletons. Also, what is the source of the information that insects lose nutritional value as they age assuming you continue to gutload them? I have never heard anything like that before. Not to disparage the vet techs you work with, but vet techs are not experts (in other words I've heard some completely unfounded things from vet techs before; I'd prefer to see some sort of scientific literature or a rec. from an actual vet).

Emily: One or two mealworms probably won't hurt your frog but if he'll take other foods it's best to avoid them completely. Better safe than sorry IMO. If you follow Cory's advice you should be able to get him hunting the crickets.