Pin heads Drown in mist

[bshmerlie]

I've got a couple of small baby Red Eyes. I've been feeding them pinhead crickets but the crickets drown or are very sluggish with just the normal mist in the tank. I had the froglets on moist paper towels then the cricket would go under the paper towels. So I took out the paper towels and they would drown in droplets of water by simple mist. By the time I dust the crickets and then they come accross water droplets they don't move very much so I don't think my babies are eating very much. They look too skinny. Should I switch to fruit flys? Or does anybody have any recommendations?

[ryangreenway]

How large are the frogs?

[charlamanda]

I have been having this same problem. I had my 3 tiny froglets in a very small tank that I lined with paper towels, that I would change and dampen frequently, and removed the plexiglass top for a netting. I would drop the pinhead crickets directly into the tank and if the froglets were at the bottom they'd grab them and eat immediately, but if they weren't at the bottom or if they were full, several were always running around the bottom. I would check the tank daily and the crickets were disappearing so I'd add more. Since I replaced the plexiglass top with netting I'd have to mist more frequently and without the papertowel bottom they were constantly drowning, but when I would change the pt I'd find the crickets under the pt, half had died. It was making me nuts, so I made some changes.
In the small tank I kept the papertowel bottom for the frogs, but put the crickets in a lid from a brownie, it's plastic, see through 3" dia and about 1" deep. I lined it with a dry pt and put in several bunny food pellets I would dampen, so they would puff up, before putting them in with the crickets, this way they'd have food saturated with water so they could survive for several days at a time in the little container. Then when I sprayed the tank and try to avoid the container, but if any got in it, it would be absorbed by the dry paper towel, if any crickets did manage to get under the pt in the small container I could see them through the clear sides, but at least I didn't have to rip apart the entire tank, and they weren't drowning every time I'd spritz the frog tank.
I'd also constantly have fruit flies in the tank so they could eat any time in between crickets, they still eat both, but it was a very small tank and I had a plexiglass top. When I changed tops I'd put on a paper towel to keep the fruit flies in, but the frogs ate them up fairly quickly.
Yesterday I finally set up the 10 gal tank for them and had to change everything. Instead of pt I have soil and because of the size difference, soil, live plants and water bowel, I can not leave the ff in there or the frogs may never find them or they will drown in the water. In the small tank, when I had a water dish, the ff's would gravitate to the water and pactically the entire group would drown, so I had to take it out and make sure the pt was damp enough for the frogs and mist the pt only or the ff's will also drown in any droplets(on the sides or plant leaves). I have the same cricket container and set up in this tank too, but I have to take them out and put them in another container every few days, depending on how many crickets they are eating and how they are looking, to feed them their ff too.
It's not easy when their food is so small, but this system has been working very well for me so far. My frogs are thriving and very few crickets and or fruit flies are dying or drowning while waiting to be eaten!LOL
Hope this helps, let me know how it works for you.

[charlamanda]

Oh, I forgot to mention a few things...my froglets are really small close to 1/2 inch, they are Gray Tree froglets and look like they have just morphed and resorbed their tails, but its been months, they are just small from being underfed for so long in the wild, which is why I took them in.
Since froglets need to be fed basically all the time, I would definately feed them both and as much as they want to, can't hurt and if they are not too stressed take them out every few days, in a seperate container, to feed them as well as leaving the crickets in the container in the tank, this is what I still do, just to make sure all are eating and to see how much the can eat, so I can adjust how much to leave in the container in the tank and how often to take them out for ff's.
Even when there are still crickets in the container in the tank, when I take them out into another container with crickets and ff's they will gobble down several crickets and all the ff's...pigs!!

[ryangreenway]

I would try using bean beetles if you have a way to get some.

[bshmerlie]

They are just shy of 3/4 of an inch.

[bshmerlie]

I got these two babies because I want to eventually breed my Red Eyes and I wanted to make sure I could handle raising babies that were so tiny. Well, I never thought of drowning so many crickets. 5-10 crickets die for every one that is eaten if not more. I do have a small shallow cricket bowl but as soon as a wet froglet jumps in to grab a single cricket the rest of the crickets drown. Then of course, he chooses to sit in there with the crickets. So I let some crickets run around the paper towel then they go under it. Like I said before the crickets are already slow from being dusted...then add wet frog and mist and they're toast. I can't imagine having 100 wet baby frogs running around...how many crickets would I need to add everynight? What are the breeders doing to avoid this problem?

[ryangreenway]

I would resort to smaller food items such as fruit flies, probably heidei, and bean beetles, maybe rice flour beetle larvae.

[charlamanda]

I would resort to smaller food items such as fruit flies, probably heidei, and bean beetles, maybe rice flour beetle larvae.

Yeah, I agree go with the ff or what Ryan has mentioned. They climb around and are rarely stepped on (I loose several crickets this way too), but the ff too will drown if you have any water droplets or a water bowl. In fact I had to remove the water bowl because it was like a mass ff exodus into the water bowl. If you have the frog in a small tank with the pt bottom and a top, like plexiglass, so the ff can't get out, you rarely need to mist because it keeps the humidity in. I made a hole in the plexiglass top, stuck a straw through the hole and attached a funnel for vetalation. Very few of the ff found their way out and I'd turn a small fan on, occasionally, directly into the funnel to force air in. Every few days I'd check the ff count and frogs, open the lid, clean out the tank and let the frogs go for a romp in the plants on my deck. I did this while they were still very small and now I've moved them to the 10 gal and have been taking them out into another container to feed them their ff's and crickets as well as leaving the cricket bowl lined with a dry pt, only on the bottom so they don't drown, in the tank .
It took a lot of trial and error before I found this to be the best way and my froglets thrived, so I must have done something right.LOL

[charlamanda]

I had another thought...only put a few crickets in the bowl at a time, line the bottom of the cricket bowl with a dry pt, so they don't drown, and when he/she is in the bowl eating keep adding a few crickets at a time. At that size, which is basically the size 3 of my small ones are now, they only eat between 1 and 5 1/4" or less crickets in a day, but can eat dozens of ff's. Try only putting in 5-10 crickets daily or 3-5 in am and 3-5 in in the pm. Maybe this will help. Best of luck I know it's really frustrating.
Here are a few pics of Baby when I first took him/her in and Baby now with Mr./Miss Hoppy. They are still very small, but doing very well.