Chomper - C. cranwelli

[Sylphie]

Quick update for now without pics: He's now switched to normal tub with coco mulch and is much happier. He also started to gain weight even if I'm not seeing him eating at all (but some of his worms are gone so I guess he's just very secret about his eating). Since he still refuses f/t pinkies here is the question: how do I supplement him with calcium? I tried dusting his insects but he let's them walk around for so long that all the calcium falls off them before he eats them. It was okay for a month, but it's now two months since he came to us and still did not received even a single dose of calcium. Any tips how to do it?

[monster]

Ya being a baby he needs to get those vitamins. What does he do when you try to feed with tongs? This is the best way to make sure he gets the vitamins before the insects clean it off. You could try liquid calcium. Have you tried feeding him in a separate container that's a bit smaller in size so the food can't escape or stay away from him? Or is he doing the i will let them walk all over me but won't eat them.

[Sylphie]

Yes, he's the type to let them walk on him and just look around with sad eyes... With tongs he just turns away.... He's like a very picky baby that will eat only after they spend 3 days with him and he has really no other option than just eat them. Maybe I'll try putting him in a separate box for feeding, but I guess he'll be more stressed with moving and won't look at them at all.

Ehh, and everyone says that they are such monsters with food.

[alane]

It seems that I've also done a few things to try and get my juvenile Pacman to eat.

I learned how to make various sorts of cricket corrals out of pieces of plastic. Cutting a section from a plastic gallon water jug, or cutting the bottom out of a pint container results in a temporary barrier that I can insert into my enclosure to keep a cricket very close to the frog. This greatly increases the chances of a strike whilst the cricket has dust on it.

Feed one at a time. It irritates the frog to have a cricket climb on them. Feed one at a time and there's only one thing for the frogs little brain to focus on.

Cricket trap. If I find the frog just won't eat, I put a 16oz water bottle with the top cut off, inverted, and inserted back into the bottom. Placed carefully, a cricket walking around the enclosure will eventually end up here for redusting or replacement to the cricket box.

My juvenile went from eating every day to eating on his own schedule and usually skipping days, sometimes many days.

Now, I almost always offer him food, he'll eat when he wants.

My frog will alert on prey much of the time, but it may take quite some time for him to strike at it.

[monster]

Hi again, the first thing I would do is get some liquid calcium into him like I suggested before because he really needs some calcium in his system. You never know this might give him some extra energy and he may become more eager to eat. I know sometimes when I don't eat right for a week or 2 when I get busy I start to feel sluggish and exhausted, once I get back to eating properly and get some of the vitamins and protiens I lacked during the 2 weeks I feel a lot better and more energized. For the eating if you try the feeding in a separate container what I would do is scoop him up and put him in the container your going to use, find the darkest room you have in the house and just let him sit in the tub for 10 minutes or so to calm down. When doing this I would just leave room then come back after the 10 minutes. When you go back in put the crickets in then just leave the room again for a little bit then go back in and check if he has ate anything, and I would remove the back legs of the crickets so they cant jump away and they cant rub the vitamins off as fast. For the tongs I had one that wasn't fond of them at first and every time I went close to him with them he would turn or puff up and go into self defense mode. What I did is I would lower the cricket down to the coco fibre with the tongs so the cricket was actually touching it, then I would let the cricket go running in the direction of the frog and most the time he would scoop it up. I started from about 3 inches away from him and over the next little bit I would just go closer and closer, eventually after about 2 weeks he figured out the tongs weren't going to hurt him and they meant food and he was jumping at the crickets because he didn't want to wait. And when doing this I would take the back legs off so they couldn't jump. What does his poop look like? You may want to bring him to vet soon if nothing works for you and get him checked out, you never know he could have some type of worms and this could set him off food.

[Sylphie]

Well, we tried some things today. First of all we bathed him and he did his poop here, it was normal, healthy looking poop, so not worries here. I know for sure that he ate one roach and one cricket as after 2-3 days they were gone, and I also guess he ate some small mealworms that I tossed into his tub. He's also rounder than before, so I know he eats at least a little, even if I don't see it. My main concern is the lack of calcium as like I said he eats his insects after such a time that they rub off all the calcium in the meantime.

Today while bathing him I cleaned his tub, switched it back to clean-hospital style, and then we tried the separate container method. I leaved him in it for 2 hours with one cricket in a dark room, but he refused to eat it. We decided to try to give him pinky like his breeder told us when we bought him (rub the pinky on the lower lip) and even some teasing on tongs (like "look, I'm just a live pinky walking there"), but again he refused. We'll leave him alone for few days now so he will be able to calm down as I guess he was pretty stressed today after all that. In Friday we'll go for our reptile shopping and just buy him one live pinky to see if he'll react to the movement. I'm normally against feeding live but after breeding snakes I know that it's often the best way to get them to recognize the shape of pinky as a food.

Edit: Pics I took few minutes ago, to my eyes he looks quite healthy and certainly got more round than before.





Also, I'll try to feed him some liquid calcium tomorrow. Is there a possibility that I may use too much of it? I'm not really sure how much calcium to water ratio I should use, and how much to give him? Thanks for all the tips, I never imagined that owning a pacman will be so stressing to both me and him!

[monster]

I was just looking at the Fluckers liquid calcium and it says to add 1/2 a teaspoon to every 8 oz's of water. If you think this may be to much because hes just small still cut the calcium amount in half. I imagine even if you cant get this brand the others would be roughly around same. Seems like the Fluckers one and Exo Terra have some really good reviews. I have never had to use it so i cant give a first hand opinion on which one is better. Maybe someone else that has had to use it in the past may see the thread and give there opinion. And your right all and all he looks round and healthy and he does look like hes eaten something, and if hes pooping that's clear indicator hes eaten. Its just getting the little bugger to eat them before they wipe the vitamins off. And yes some can be very stressfull to get eaten, comfortable etc where as others are good right from the get go.

[Sylphie]

I also get recommended to not give him food at all for few days by one of the breeders in my country. He said that he looks really well fed and that may be why he don't jump at the feeders immediately. It may be true because we were told to feed him every two days so he was having insects basically all week round.

[Sylphie]

Since it could help other people here is a side story thread about this guy: http://www.frogforum.net/showthread....539#post276539

It's a story abut how he "drowned" in his bath, was dead, limp and not breathing and then the next morning he was just sitting and alive like nothing happened at all.