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Thread: Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

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    Default Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    Hey all, thanks for reading.

    I'm in a pretty awkward situation here, but before that, a little bit about me: I'm an experienced keeper of herps, snakes, fish, and generally anything that's kept in tanks or cages. I've been making aquariums and vivariums for a few years and I have about 7-8 tanks littered around my house with anything from leopard geckos all the way to an albino BP... I have a reputation in my town of taking in rescues and helping them get better.

    That's why, when I rescued this sweet, skinny little frog, I was a little frustrated. I have read so many gosh darn care sheets and posts about caring for and preparing FBT diets, but for the life of me I cannot get this little guy to eat. I'll post some pictures once my internet decides to not be painfully slow.

    Story time:


    I rescued him from an old friend from high school who at first said that he didn't have enough time to care for his two FBTs and that they had stopped eating. A few weeks went by before we were able to meet up (5 hour drives suck) at which point he told me that the other frog had died and the survivor wasn't eating anything. This led me to believe that the two possibilities were A.) Horrible tank conditions and improper housing led to depression and stress in the animal, or B.) A parasite or other kind of illness had befallen this adorable little monster.

    Tank set up:

    Right now I have him set up in a spare 10 gallon that is approx. 3/4 land and 1/4 water with the deepest water level being around 1 1/2 inches - 2 inches with large rocks (bought from a pet store and rinsed then dried before being put in) to give the frog something to sit on so that he won't drown while giving him plenty of water to swim.

    I live in a cold area of the country with central heat, but the temperature in my house drops anywhere from 55-60 degrees at night and around 65 - 70 during the day. I do have a small aquarium heater that I could use, but I got that as part of a previous rescue a few years ago and I don't know whether I'd put it and it would boil the water or something, so I elected to not use it.

    The substrate is using small gravel as a base (cheaper) then using small to medium sized rocks on top (he can't actually touch any of the gravel so risk of impaction or ingestion is minimal at best, if not impossible)

    I got a simple waterfall-style filter circulating the water.

    Food:

    Right now, I've got a small bowl of mealworms that are small enough for him to grab. They've been gutloaded with nutritional supplements. I chose mealworms as they are listed on many caresheets and I know that they have a large fat content. He really needs to fatten up because his body is like a stick, and in his condition he can't even eat mealworms hardly.

    Behavior:

    He's a pretty chill animal. Usually he spends him time in the water, usually right under the outflow from the filter letting the water run over him. I've seen him jump into the food bowl and lunge at a few worms. He's managed to grab onto one a few times but he never has the strength to get them down. From this, I do know that he at least wants to eat, but can't.

    At this point, I am completely out of ideas and I would appreciate some help. I'll get some photos in a little bit.

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    Default Re: Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    I don't know why mealworms seem to always be included in lists of acceptable food for FBT's. The ones you get at a pet store are never active enough to attract an FBT's attention. Maybe mealworms from the "wild" are more active. FBT's go after things that move. Crickets, small and recently fed/gutloaded are the primary food for my FBT's. Sometimes small earthworms like a red wiggler that flop around alot when you put them in the tank. I thinks others use waxworms, but again if they are not moving your FBT will likely ignore it.

    Nor do they like to take food that you dangle in front of them..... at least mine won't. Do you know what the other guy was trying to feed them? If mealworms, then definitely try something else.

    Do you know any details of the previous owners viv? If it had small gravel as you say you have, then there is the possibility of impaction. FBT's can't stick their tongue out, so they wind up having to open wide and lunge at their prey. Misses, of which mine have plenty, can result in a mouth full of substrate. Small gravel like you'd use in a fish aquarium might get swallowed but won't pass through and could plug them up. I don't know what the symptoms of impaction are but maybe that's something to look at.

    It might just be that stress is keep it from eating. FBT's don't care much for being handled. Mine only get fed every two or three days and I've read that they are tolerant of missing meals occasionally for as much as a week to ten days with no ill effect.

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    Default Re: Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    The problem is with reading so many care sheets is that care sheets are not always a good source of information, which leads to conflicting info. What you want is a book by a reputable herpoculturist and breeder. Popular amphibians by Philippe de Vosjli is a book I would recommend.

    Fire bellied toads are often wild caught, which is terrible as they're considered to be the easiest frogs to breed. So the frog your friend had died before could have been from parasites or stress. Your one may be fine, they will sometimes take a few weeks until they adjust and start feeding but I've never had this problem with fire bellied toads but have with other amphibians and reptiles.

    I would avoid using gravel as the only substrate, it's abrasive but you can slope the gravel so half is land and half is water, then top the land with sphagnum moss but not green moss. Your temperature range is too cold, keep them warmer, between 72-78f during the day. If temps are too cold they may slow down their metabolism and go off food. A 5%uvb over the land area will provide the needed UV and some heat but if more heat is needed then you can use a heat lamp as well the UVB but I would avoid an aquarium heater, especially in such a small set up as the frog may come in contact with it and burn it's skin. Don't feed mealworms frequently, they're not healthy and can cause digestive problems. The toad will fatten up on crickets when it begins to feed, as they are gannets! Remember to lightly dust them on a calcium with d3 and multivitamin supplement such as Repashy calcium plus.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    Update on the FBT:

    I managed to get him to eat a cricket by dangling it in front of him. I tried a few more times to get one in but he didn't seem to be any more interested in food, so I'm assuming he's just adjusting to eating food again.

    Jason, privet:

    Substrate: I only use the gravel as a base. He has no direct contact with it. I covered the entire land area with small rocks above the gravel (more like a natural creek bed) (they are definitely much too big to be ingested.



    Here should be a picture of his enclosure.

    and here is a picture of how skinny he is:



    I moved his tank into my room where I have an additional space heater and the room stays about 70-72 degrees throughout the day, that's the best I can do for him short notice.

    Thank you both for your comments, but would you recommend a way to feed him something other than mealworms and crickets? mealworms are bad, then. But the crickets also die within minutes because they are f-ing retarded and drown themselves.

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    Default Re: Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    Many times the crickets that jump in the water are just playing possum. Some will stay still for over a minute before they finally try to swim back to safety. Of course not all of them make it. I use a long handled spoon to get the drowned ones out after the feeding time is over. Sometimes the FBT's will grab the cricket as it attempts to swim out.

    Crickets and the occasional earthworm are really all I give mine. But there are other threads here where others have discussed what they give their FBT's.

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    Default Re: Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    Cute little FBT! Hope you will keep offering him tiny worms and crickets until he gains weight.

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    Default Rescued a sick FBT, won't eat. Any help would be great!

    Hi Leo, can you get hold of wax worms? I feed these to mine when they need to put on a bit of weight, the reptile shop recommended cutting them up but mine have no trouble swallowing them whole. As you have said you would, I'd suggest staying clear of mealworms, I've always been told it's a no go. Mine are spoilt and are used to being hand fed, they also don't see anything if it's on the ground but will leap into the air to take something out of my hand. Or just try and eat my fingers, they are not fussy lol. Also mine go off their food every now and again, what I do if they are not snatching the wax worms is I gently rub the worm on their nose/mouth, they seem to get annoyed, open their mouths and accidentally take the worm in the process. Hope this helps. I started my collection with a rescue just like yours, he unfortunately never put on the weight and frequently wouldn't eat. But I know I gave him a good life for his last year by providing him friends and a nice environment. Hope he does well

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