FBT stopped eating

[FBTmom]

Hi Jace.
The rubbermaid bucket is blue, so he can't see out. But I didn't put a lid on it because it would be totally dark in there. Should I use something else, or is dark ok?
He was only in cooler water (70 degrees) for a few weeks tops before I got the heater. Now the water has been 78 for just over a month. I try feeding him every few days, sometimes in the bin, sometimes in his tank. He only has one tank mate (who eats fine) so I'm able to monitor his food. I can guarantee he hasn't eaten a thing, unless he's eating the frog moss off the ground. He was quite obese prior to this, so maybe he's been living off his own fat? I don't know, but he definately doesn't act like a starving, sick toad.
I can try the warm bath prior to feeding and see if that helps, and if the bin I'm using isn't good I can find something else to use.
I'm posting a pic of him that I took just around the time he stopped eating. It's not the greatest as far as showing how fat he was, but it's the most recent and does show his plumpness. His belly would flop and spread out under him when he 'sat'. My avatar is also the same toad. I'll try to get a new updated pic of him and post it.
Another things that's odd is since the heater went in, the toads spend very little time in the water, where as before they were in there 99% of the time. Yes, the water is treated.
Thanks!

[Tony]

FBTs are from temperate regions, they can handle the cold just fine and will slow down quite a bit. I wintered mine in an unheated room that got down into the 40's some nights (about 8C for you metric types). They maintained their body mass just fine even without eating much, if at all, for a few months.

[Jace]

Wow, he was very portly, wasn't he?? If he's not acting sick, then I would just try and keep feeding him and one day he is going to pig out and look at you like "what's the big deal??". Like all frogs and toads, FBTs do need to see movement to know its food-if the container you are using is too dark, I am not sure he will eat. My solid white one still allows light, but the lid allows me to put all the toads in there, snap a lid on, and do other stuff without risk of them escaping. When I only had 3-4, I used a white or yellow ice cream bucket...that worked really well too (and gave my family an excuse to eat lots of ice cream for "extra" feeding buckets! ). Keep trying and unless he gets really thin, he might just be on his own personal toad version of Jenny Craig.

[FBTmom]

Portly! That's the perfect word for how he looked.

I have an ice cream bucket I can use (who doesn't!). I'm going to gut load these crickets for a day (since he turned his nose up at them already today), and try tomorrow with the ice cream bucket. I'll let him sit in a warm bath first like you suggested, then remove the water and add crickets.

Hi Tony.
Thanks for your response. I'm suprised FBT's could handle the cold like that. I thought they always needed some warmth.

[Jace]

Best of luck and keep us posted on how he's doing. I've had a stubborn toad turn his nose up for a week max, so this has me kind of stumped, to tell you the truth. I will try and do some more research on my end and see if I can come up with something else for you to try. Until then, fingers crossed!

[FBTmom]

Thanks, Jace.
Here is a picture of him (Spuzzum) that I just took 5 min. ago. Like I've said, he looks far from a starving toad! Still some tummy on him, even now. If I wasn't 100% sure, I'd say he's getting food from somewhere. But there's no way. My son hand feeds the other one, and we don't just dump crickets in for a free feed. If we do put one in loose, we watch from a distance and Spuzzum just ignores it, even if it walks all over him. Same as in the bin. They walk all over him (dumb crickets!) and he just ignores them.
But, we'll just keep trying.

[FBTmom]

HE ATE!! Spuzzum finally ate not one, but two crickets! He darned near took my son's finger off, too, grabbing them so fast. We are so excited and relieved.
Thank you everyone for your great advice.

[Jace]

Awesome news!! Good thing they don't have teeth, eh??

[FBTmom]

Just picturing these guys with teeth. LOL

[Jace]

Lol-kind of hard when you look at those sweet little faces to imagine Jaws! However, let's not give them any ideas...mine are eyeballing me as I type (cue theme music ).