I need help with Guillermo del Froggo (my pacman)

[spiderbakesale]

I got him in late January from a lady off Craigslist. Great start, right? Well he is roughly four inches, maybe more it's hard to tell. He overflows in my hand a bit. At any rate, he is 4 years old and might actually be a girl but that's beside the point I'm trying to make.

Upon getting this frog, the woman shoved him and his dirty 10g tank with a metal dog bowl of dirty water and dry substrate into my hands. I was a bit shocked at the condition of the Dirt Mound of a frog, and as she was leaving she conveniently added "oh, he hasn't eaten for three months and he was eating pinkies."

OK, cool. Didn't get if they were live or f/t, but figured I would stop by my work and grab one (I work at a local pet shop). While at work I gave him a bath in RO water, and he shed a LOT OF SKIN. I was a bit worried because frogs are supposed to eat their skin and he showed no interest so maybe it was just mucousey dirt. Whatever. He pooped in the scarf I wrapped him in to keep him warm. Ungrateful dirt son.

Get him home, settle him into a nice "big" 20 long and set him to the side to get used to life with me. He has and bear pad set on the side, a big water dish, enough dirt to bury himself in (which he does), and the temp/humidity is always on point from day one in my care. I give him a few days before I try to feed him. Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement that the food is there.

LONG STORY SHORT, this pacman has been in my care for two months now and I've only gotten him to eat through assisted feeding (working his mouth open gently and tossing in worms/pacman food/feeder fish/that one pinky/crickets). Once the food is in his mouth, he acts 100% normal. Until that point, he acts like he can't see it.

He is quite active when we pull him out to feed him every week, and we only feed him a few small things a week, which is also his weekly bath in warm dechlorinayed water. He hops around (way more impressive than I expected for a frog his size) and he squirms when we pick him up. He doesn't bite or go for anything in front of him though, but we don't think he's blind. He has pooped three times since we picked him up.

Is he dying? Am I doing something wrong? Did this lady give me a defective pacman? I have a lot of questions but I've already posted a wall of text so I'll stop here and scream for help, loudly.

[Sajuuk Khar]

I think this is common with these frogs. If you read the forums you will see a lot of threads about pacman frogs stopped eating. Mine is exactly the same way. She is a year old now, and will no longer eat on her own no matter what I do. I have to do assisted feeding by opening her mouth and slipping in worms.

I have been doing this with success for several months, but lately she has been spitting out the food I put in, so I am running out of options on how to feed her.

Wish there was something more I can say to help you, but if you figure out how to get them to eat on their own, I'd love to know how.

[spiderbakesale]

Well, it might not be a real fix but I let him sit underground for a week and just today I carefully uncovered his face and used a mister to rain a gallon of water on the tank.

The rainy season has arrived, Guillermo del Froggo.

The good news is he started wiggling. And opening his mouth. And he started to eat his shed! He started to actively be a frog!

We just did this so he's still wiggling and shedding and such, but I'm feeling absurdly confident that he's going to be more active and actually eat on his own. Fingers crossed!

I'll update when I wake up if he's moved anywhere.

[alane]

Sounds kind of normal. Pacman frogs seem to have a rather low metabolism and although they can eat a lot of food in one bite, they can also sit contentedly for weeks after that meal.

One trick I found is: Watch for when they shed. When the frog is swallowing it's skin, you have a second where you can introduce food easily with tongs when its mouth is open, and the frog will likely accept it.

My adolescent pacman had its first night crawler last night. Froggy isn't getting a food trigger from this slow moving worm. Hasn't eaten in a week so I know its hungry. But, I am able to introduce food during a shed. The worm went half way down, came a quarter of the way back up, then went all of the way down.

I love to watch it when they do the "whole body swallow adjustment".

[monster]

Hi, your frog is more then likely going through a dormant stage due to winter and lower temps. If you want him to wake up you can try to up the temps and give it a heavy mist, like you were saying you want him to think its the rainy season. This is why he doesn't want to eat more then likely and hes staying buried, and if this what hes doing you don't want to force him to eat. If that food sits in there for to long your frog can go septic. The shed skin in the water was more then likely the mucus sac they make around themselves and this is why he didn't eat it, he wasn't ready to shed. He will make this sac to retain water, and they slow their whole system down. So you can try to wake him up or you could just leave it be till he decides its time and he will wake up and go back to normal and he will be very hungry. Force feeding isn't really recommended unless you really have to, like if you were instructed by a vet or if it was losing weight. Its very stress full on them. And all though when its shedding yes hes opening his mouth its still not the greatest time to feed him, the frog isn't swallowing the food because it really wants to its because hes already swallowing something and he isn't going to just stop. If he isn't sick he will eat when hes ready, and if you aren't sure a trip to a vet for a checkup never hurts.

[spiderbakesale]

Took him out today with high hopes and got nothing until we put him back in his tank and gave him another little misting. I noticed he was really alert so I put the tongs in there and he had a bite response!!! The first in my care!

I tried to get a video of it but of course, it was one and done so I made pacman food for no reason. But! If this is one day after, then I have a good feeling after a week of "rains" he might be hungry enough to eat.

The only reason we were opening his mouth to insert food was because he was quite skinny. He pooped today, and it looked (gross) great, for poop.

Fingers eternally crossed! I really want to see him thrive not just survive.