Phyllomedusa Bicolor HELP!!

[DanDrobates]

Can you describe the setup in detail? These guys like it a bit drier than most and will bask given the opportunity so Provide a uv/heat combo light and keep a basking spot near 80 at the top of the enclosure. Also provide a soaking dish. Make sure to provide a day night cycle of 12 hours each. Try placing feeders (smallest crickets you can find) in a plastic deli cup overnight and see what happens. Froglets of any species can be tough so be patient and let them be. Odds are they are stressed and hopefully will come around.

[Panthalassa]

The enclosure itself isn’t the largest, but I figured it would make do for a temporary enclosure until the baby grows larger. It’s a 4 sided glass with a screen top tall exo-terro. I’m using a soil, moss, and coconut fiber substrate. There is a decent size pool area filled only high enough so they can sit in the water. There’s a large plant and a column decor which I wrapped both with a vine that entagles all throughout the enclosure. The vine reaches a horizontal peak for a basking spot. I’m using a mini-halogen day lamp to provide their day and night cycle. Finally i’m using a ceramic heater to provide constant heat to the enclosure. The humidity ranges from 30-40% and their basking spot reaches about 85 degrees with a temperature of 75 in the enclosure (day time). At night the enclosure is about 70 degrees. I have a feeder bowl in there I put the smallest crickets I could find at local shops in overnight. They’ve still yet to leave their soaking disg/pool area or feed.

[DanDrobates]

Ok your husbandry seems to be spot on. I might consider switching the substrate to plain moist paper towels as it may be easier for them to spot the prey items and it can give you an idea as to whether or not they are defecating. Other than that there isn’t much else to say. If you can get a fecal sample to a vet that may give you an idea if parasites are a factor or not but I’m thinking stress is the issue. Stressed animals can be very hard to bring around. As far as force feeding goes it can be done but it must be done very delicately. You can restrain the frog on its back while wearing moistened vinyl gloves. Use a guitar pick or something similar, begin at the side of the mouth and gently pry it open. Introduce a small prey item and don’t force it. The caveat though is that force feeding may in itself stress the frog further so I’d use caution. I do have to ask though how you managed to get this species b accident? Who was the vendor?

[Panthalassa]

I was thinking of removing all the water from their water bowl and supplying a second one. The idea behind this was the bathing spot they have not moved from I could use as a new temporary feeding bowl to keep all the crickets in an area right in front of the frog. (It’s a decent sized bowl and I would remove the jumper legs from the crickets). And the secondary bowl could become a new watering spot until they’re eating a healthy diet.

I also was wondering if a baby no larger than my middle fingernail can handle eating even the “small” labeled crickets? Might I have greater success with fruitflies at this age? Additionally should I continue to tey to feed every night if I don’t immediately pursure force feeding? Or should I provide them some alone time to maybe decompress and get their stress down a little?

Also it was LLLReptile who sent it to me. I was recently ordering supplies from their shop for a bio-active red eyed crocodile skink enclosure, so I assume they just put one of my shipping labels on the package by accident. Was very surprised that managed to happen though.

[DanDrobates]

I would try offering prey often. Anything you think appropriate will do. However fruitflies are poor in nutrients so you may want to dust them. If you can, get pinhead crickets. All I can say is be patient. LLL doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation with frogs but be patient and hopefully they will be ok. You’re doing everything right but sometimes it’s up to the animal.