Chomper - C. cranwelli

[Sylphie]

Thank you Cory! For now he's in a small plastic tub on paper towels as I don't want to scare him with too big enclosure (I'm not sure if this can happen with frogs, but it's very popular problem with young snakes so I'm doing it, haha!). In future I'd like to do more naturalistic enclosure for him (or her... for now I'm going with a boy). Our home is all the time around 80-82F, so I'm not using any additional heating in his enclosure (with all the reptiles it's easier to just keep the home at one temperature and only heat additionally the most exotic ones like ball pythons or bearded dragons.). As for feeding we tried to give him a pinky mice yesterday as the breeder told us that he should eat without problems but I guess he was stressed and didn't want to even look at it. I think I will go with the snake route, few days of leaving him totally alone (beside misting) and then we'll try to feed him. As for water we also have chinese pond turtle so some dechlorinated water is always available.

Would the same vitamins and calcium used for bearded dragons be good for this guy? We're using Repticalcium and Reptivite for them so it would be cool to just use the same for our frog.

[monster]

He will be ok in the tub on paper towel but once he poops if all looks good I would put him in something with some cocofibre so he can bury himself, this will help him feel secure. And yes you are right that some of these little guys get stressed over big enclosures where as some are fine. What I do with mine is I start with a 10 gallon and divide it in half, as they grow I gradually move the divider giving them more space until eventually its the full ten gallons. They grow like weeds so they tend to out grow enclosures fast so it doesn't take long for them to be comfortable in full 10 gallons. You are lucky you don't need additional heat, you shouldn't have to hard of time keeping humidity since you don't have an extra heat source to burn off the moisture. For the vitamins I'm not familiar with the Repticalcium but if it has D3 in it you should be fine, but if it doesn't you will need a vitamin that does have both. The Reptivite should be fine though.

[Sylphie]

Thank you for all the tips! Yes, we have calcium with d3, so it should be okay. How can I best give it to him, just sprinkle the mice/roaches with it? Our dragons just eat the vitamins/calcium mixed with some water from bowls, but it woul not work for a frog. And second question, would a dried moss bought in reptile store be okay to add to his tube? I was thinking it could be good at holding some humidity, of course we will add cocofibre too... I just want to make sure that he eats and poops fine firstly. And the breeder was keeping his babies in sterile tubes too so I did not wanted to stress him more with a new substrate that he totally doesn't know.

[monster]

Hi again, ya when giving him his roaches and pinkies you just sprinkle the vitamin right on the food. For the pinkies I just dip there butt in the vitamin instead of covering the whole thing. For the moss its up to you butt if he happens to eat any while feeding it is high impaction risk. if you plan to feed by tongs the moss risk decreases a lot, its more for when they are hunting on their own. They aren't the most gracefull eaters and are very eager so they tend to miss sometimes causing them to pick up substrate.

[Sylphie]

Oh, okay, I totally understand what you mean, some of our reptiles are the same way with being over eager and missing the food! I think we will stick with tongs for now, and when I'll be rearranging his home I'll think how to do it both safely and nicely for him.

[Sylphie]

I tried to feed the little guy today. The breeder told us that he was just rubbing the pinkies on these guys mouths and after few seconds they were opening them enough to slid some of the pinky inside (and from there the instinct kicked off and they were eating themselves). I tried it today but our Chomper just froze in place... The pinky was rather big, so I'll try to give only the head in the evening, maybe it'll work.
We also gave him a little roach yesterday but he was totally uninterested in it.

Any advices what could be best to get him started on eating?

And yeah, I know that after moving they can not eat for a few days, but after talking with the breeder that claimed they should eat offhand I'm curious what I'm doing wrong... It's always stressing when new animals don't want to eat, even after all the picky reptiles we had.

Edit:
Woo-Hoo, he ate one mealworm! I know it's not the healthiest of food but we just wanted to make sure that he in fact is teached to eat by himself (and not only by partially force-feeding like in his breeder method). Since one of our beardies was scared to death by fast roaches for a long time (we now teached her that it's food) I thought that maybe this poor frog was just scared too. So now I know that he will eat, just need to teach him the same lesson our beardie girl was taking!

[monster]

Hello again, I really wouldn't worry right now because he is just probably adjusting to new surroundings. Just keep trying and if he was eating good before he should start again in the couple days. Rubbing under their bottom lip with the food will sometimes get a reaction, or with my guys when they were small I found if you touch their front foot with it they will strike at it. They don't all react to these things but there things you can try. Did you try feeding him during the day or at night.