Aestivating ABFs?

[Jace]

I went on vacation at the beginning of the month and before I left, I cleaned my African Bullfrogs tank. I added extra substrate and extra moss for them to hide in, as we were experiencing a heat wave and my house has no air conditioning. My friend came in every day and misted both frogs and attempted to feed them, but they buried themselves down deep and stayed that way. It has now been a week and one came up, soaked in her water dish for one night and then buried herself again and my male has stayed hidden. I rather miss seeing them and I am concerned about them not eating. Should I remove some of the moss coverage and not allow them to burrow, or should I just leave them alone and hope that when they are hungry, they will come out? I am having problems keeping their humidity up-could this explain why they are hiding??

[John]

Low humidity and long interval between feeding will encourage them to do this. They will come up on their own though. If one is aestivating and you remove the moss, it won't break out of its skin - you'll have to pick the frog up and soak it in water for a while and peel the skin off once it starts to loosen. However I wouldn't touch them at all - just leave them be. If you want to increase the humidity, cut off a lot of the ventilation in the terrarium and mist it regularly for a few days.

[Jace]

Thanks, John. They didn't have enough substrate to bury in before, so doing what comes naturally to them is un-natural to me!! I will bring their humidity up and mist them a couple of times a day and see what happens. I have a superworm (or two) waiting for them when they do make an appearance. Nothing like amphibian crack to get the taste buds going again!!

[John]

I hope they don't miss out on the superworms!

[Douglas]

Hey jace, two things. If they want to aestivate, I would just let them do it. They will be fine. I know you will miss them for the time they are down but it is best to let them be. Be sure to have plenty of food for when the wake up

Also, I would advise removing the moss. Like gravel, moss runs a high risk of causing impaction and possibly killing your frog.

[Kevin1]

A similar situation happened with Chubbz and I
He was asleep for 2 months but instead of going to sleep while I went on vacation he woke up the day i was leaving.
I had to scramble to get his food and tank set up for him it was quite hectic. lol
He was all right though.
I did nothing different for him to wake up.
The only thing i could think of was that he sensed the pressure in the air.
The day we left we had massive amounts of rain and thunder.

[Douglas]

That's interesting. Seems to support John's breeding theory that air pressures could have something to do with everything

[Jace]

Thanks guys! They did pop up again with regular mistings-and boy were they hungry!! So they got their worms, and their desert (superworms) and then they soaked in their water dishes for two days straight. I got some might frosty glares when I shooed them out to change the water since they grossed it up rather quickly, and then they were right back in.

Douglas-I removed the majority of the moss, though some is mixed in with the substrate. Kadesh and Obi usually get fed in their water dish, so I haven't had too much trouble with them swalling substrate, but I will be very careful. Thanks for the concern!

[Douglas]

Glad to hear your frogs are awake and doing well. One more thing...in some of your other pics it looks like you have small pieces of bark as part of the substrate. This, like moss, can cause problems for your frog. If you have access to coco fiber, I would suggest that because it passes easily through their system. Organic topsoil would also work well if coco fiber is not available.

[Jace]

I tried coco fiber when I first bought Kadesh-back when he was small enough to fit in the bottom of a dainty teacup (now he could swallow the teacup!)-and it had a sour smell to it. I think I might have been over-misting though, too. I was going to try soil, but I like being able to see the colouring and markings of my frogs, and in dirt they get...well, dirty. Sounds dumb I know. Maybe I will try coco fiber again...

[Kevin1]

That's interesting. Seems to support John's breeding theory that air pressures could have something to do with everything

I highly believe that, that is true.
I believe that understanding the air pressures and their relations to pyxies is very important to anyone who wants just a slight shot at breeding pyxies without hormones.