Hello all! I am a new keeper of a male red-eyed tree frog. Our 5 yo son is fond of calling him Cal, short for A.callidryas, so I guess that is as good a name as any.

We bought our frog on 8/19/2010 from a LPS which specializes in reptiles and amphibians. The clerk said the frog had been in the shop for two weeks, was wild caught (yes, captive breed is always better and more responsible. but what can you do?) and had been eating medium crickets with no signs of distress, illness or injury. Here are the basics of my current set-up:

He is currently quarantined in a standard 10 gal. with paper towels on the bottom, a pothos ivy to help maintain humidity and reduce stress and a small 1 inch deep watering dish. I mist several times a day to maintain humidity and change the water and paper towels daily. I mist with RO water and use reconstituted RO water in the small dish. I keep the temperature around 77-75 F during the day and 70 F at night. the humidity is around 80% in the day and around 70% at night.

After the quarantine period he will be permanently moved into a 18x18x24 exo terra. The enclosure has a FB with a waterfall and a 1 inch deep pool. The substrate will be aquarium gravel covered with Zoo Med frog moss. There is a small planted area as well as a couple of pots on the sides and background. Plants will include pothos ivy, small Nephrolepis exalta ferns, a couple of Dieffenbachia sp., and a small Chamaedorea elegans palm. Planting medium is as described in AZA's Amphibian Husbandry Resource Guide. All planted areas will be covered with sphagnum moss. the background is foam board and GS covered with silicone and peat moss. Lighting is an AH Supply 36w 6500k 18" compact fluorescent bright kit for day and a Zoo Med five inch deep dome with a night 25w lamp. The water will be filtered with a small TOM drive power mini and will be heated to 78 F with an aquarium heater. I also have rigged a Safety 1st ultrasonic humidifier (the kind used for infants) with pvc pipe, hoses, and adapters to provide mist periodically. The enclosure is also decorated with several manzanita branches and some of the bendable faux vines. All equipment will be cycled by timers. At the moment the water is still cycling and I am still trying to work out the fogging schedule to maintain the appropriate humidity levels.

For the most part Cal has been displaying what has been described as normal behavior on this and other sites. He sleeps on either the underside of a pothos leaf or on the back glass behind the plant. Around 8 pm he will wake-up. In the mornings around six-seven a.m. he is normally on the bottom of the tank near his water dish, but active. By eight a.m. he is asleep again in one of his normal spots.

The first night he ate two moths. The moths had about the same body size as a medium-small sized cricket. Prior to feeding the moths to cal I put them in my freezer for 90 seconds to sedate them and then I dusted them with Fluker's calcium & vit. D3 powder. Once they were revived and flying within the enclosure the didn't last very long, LOL. Perched on a leaf near the light, which of course attracted the moths, Cal greedily gobbled the moths up in short order. I must say I was surprised at just how large his mouth was!

*A side note on the moths we collected: while herbicide/pesticide contamination is not outside the realm of possibilities it is unlikely within my local moth population. I do not use any of these types of chemicals and the nearest home is one mile from ours. The nearest farm is about five miles away. And we live in the "country" about ten miles away from the nearest city.*

The problem is Cal did not eat last night. We offered him two Fluker's Orange Cube gut-loaded, vitamin dusted crickets. He watched them after waking up and climbing down, but never ate one. This morning his abdomen was noticeably full looking. Now, that is not to say it hasn't been that way since consuming the moths, but this morning while I observed him climbing back to his sleep site was the first time I noticed it. His abdomen could be described as normal when we purchased him and brought him home.

I also have yet to collect any feces. I would love to so I could take it to the lab at my university for examination. I am a biology major and I always have access to one of the labs at school.

So, after a lengthy, but detailed, description of my frog and enclosure here are my questions:

Is it normal for this slender species to look full in the abdominal area after eating, even after 48-72 hrs?
Understanding that feeding will vary among individuals, is 2-3 times a week usual in captivity?
What does Red-Eyed Leaf Frog feces look like? Pictures welcomed! The other feces thread only has White's and Pacman feces pictured.
How often should a healthy Red-Eyed Leaf Frog have a BM?
Generally, where will a Red-Eyed Leaf Frog have a BM?

Thanks for taking the time to read my LONG post, but the more details the better.
-BH