Faking His Death

[Crystal6]

. I would also like to know why his eyes are solid black. Anyone have any ideas? Also, has anyone had this experience?.

My White's can have "solid black" eyes too. Or at least it would appear that way. I think he secretly has brown around his eyes but they are hard to see without a camera's flash illuminating all the details.

Your frog is smaller then mine so I'm guessing that helps in making it hard to see too. But as long as his eyes gain color when you turn on some lights there's probably no problem.

[SethD]

It sounds like a classic case of insufficient blood calcium caused by not enough calcium in the diet. Stress or excitement such as handling, feeding, or just opening the enclosure often can cause such occurrences as you describe in calcium deficient frogs. This problem is unlikely to be a neurological disorder and almost certainly can be fixed by increasing the calcium levels in the diet. If no change is made the froglet will probably die within a month or two at the most though. Better act as quickly as possible.

[crhoads18]

It sounds like a classic case of insufficient blood calcium caused by not enough calcium in the diet. Stress or excitement such as handling, feeding, or just opening the enclosure often can cause such occurrences as you describe in calcium deficient frogs. This problem is unlikely to be a neurological disorder and almost certainly can be fixed by increasing the calcium levels in the diet.

I honestly hadn't thought of that before. I use Rep-Cal Calcium with VIT.D3 and Rep-Cal Herptivite, but perhaps he just isn't getting enough. I feed all of my frog-lets like that at once and since the others are all normal, the thought never even came to mind. It does seem to make sense since he hasn't done this from day one, it is just a recent occurrence. Thank you very much for pointing that out to me.

[TheMaskedMan]

Whats the best/suggested calcium product to give your frogs?...

[IgbyKibbits]

I'd keep him separated for the time being and feed him away from the crew. Perhaps the others weren't letting him get his share! See if his behavior improves once you KNOW he is getting enough calcium!

[Elphie]

My toads, when really small, if turned onto their backs would do the same thing. I called it "Playing dead toad". I always just chalked it up to a defense mechanism. Once they felt safe and realized there was no danger in their environment, they flipped back over. My assumption is that it an automatic response to a fall in nature. If they fall in nature, they have no idea what they are falling into so their best chance for survival is to play dead until they assess the situation. My toads are all wild caught and as they get older and more comfortable with me, they no longer do it.

[flybyferns]

My toads, when really small, if turned onto their backs would do the same thing. I called it "Playing dead toad". I always just chalked it up to a defense mechanism. Once they felt safe and realized there was no danger in their environment, they flipped back over. My assumption is that it an automatic response to a fall in nature. If they fall in nature, they have no idea what they are falling into so their best chance for survival is to play dead until they assess the situation. My toads are all wild caught and as they get older and more comfortable with me, they no longer do it.

I rescued a red eye (froglet) about 1 1/2 years ago. He was in really bad shape. My vet bill cost me ten times more than the forg did. He had injuries/ parasites/ and was severely malnourished having been kept w/ some kind of newt? He did something similar to this. He was in a quarantine tank for 6 months. He use to start to climb down to get a cricket, get about an inch from the bottom , and make a little leap only to flatten out spread-eagle. He use to stay that way for at least 5 minutes. The vet ( a good herp vet) was convinced it was due to a severe calcium deficiency and did not expect him to live.
She said it was probably painful?

I was never convinced of that? Plus he has developed normally. In retrospect, I think it was severe stress! Don't know.

WELL- he is alive and well. Very shy though! On the small side. I have to keep an eye on him.

I have had many,many pets in my life. I have never worked so hard to save a little creature as I did for him.

Lynn