Pacman Frog - Alive, but wanting to lay on back. HELP

[thenickisme]

(If this is in the wrong area, please move it or I will be happy to)


Hello all,

My pacman frog has been acting strange lately.

Just to give some info.
-I have had him since March '11.
-I feed him primarily crickets as he refuses to eat anything else.
-He is kept in a nice cage that includes proper substrate, places to hide, and a shallow water bowl. I also keep the temperature between 76-82 and use a hygro to monitor humidity and keep it at proper levels.

Over the past few weeks he has not wanted to eat much. I tried everything from differing types of worms(all from what I have read on these forums) and different crickets from different suppliers. All of them he would watch walk away and then leave alone. This is very different from his normal attitude where he hunts them down and attacks.

He showed no signs of estevation.

After going a month of refusing to eat I did tons of online research and consulted a few friends who keep amphibians and I came to the conclusion that I should offer a pinkie. From what I learned they supposedly cannot resist the smell of pinkies. So with the aid of a friend (who works at a petshop and has years of experience feeding) we bought a pinkie and ended up having to force feed him. After the initial bite, he continued to eat the rest and finished it.

The next day I offered a cricket and he refused. I am sure he was simply just full at the time. I say that because the next day I offered another cricket and he ate it like he did months ago.

Since then he has gone back to being very weary about eating and will leap for them but if he misses he completely gives up.


Okay back to the main issue. Yesterday I came home from work and my brother informed me that my frog was laying on it's back in his hole. I quickly ran to his cage, assuming death, to find him laying there as described. I nudged him gently and he immediately rolled over and hopped away. I offered him food and he promptly rejected it. I continued to watch him over the rest of the afternoon and he acted normally. I concluded that maybe he fell into the hole accidentally and wore himself out trying to flip back over. Today I came home to find him in the exact same position, completely flipped over and spread out. Now I am very worried. I nudged him over again to find him alive and he hopped away like he did yesterday.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this type of behavior? I am assuming he is sick and/or close to death and want to try and do anything I can to help.


tl;dr After almost 2 months of spotty eating my frog has decided to flip over and lay on his back when unattended.


EDIT:
Here is a picture that I took today.
http://i51(dot)tinypic(dot)com/wu5agy.jpg

Please do not try and flame me for the moss. I am very aware that it is an impaction hazard but I just put it in a few days ago as a last resort to insure that his humidity was at a good level. I also made sure he was no where near the moss while feeding. Also, it may be hard to tell from above but the water bowl is at an even level with the substrate so it is very easy for him to get in and out of.

[thenickisme]

Update: Day three of this behavior was yesterday. Every day I have come home to him flipped over. I can nudge him or mist him and he immediately wakes and attempts to roll over. I don't know though, it just seems like he really wants to be on his back.

I found some forum posts that were similar to mine and I found that one lady found success by giving him regular soaks with fresh water every time. I placed him in his water bowl last night and woke to him still in his bowl(as opposed to flipped over). Hopefully it will help.

[onedge30]

Are you dusting the crickets with calcium powder?

[Groffy]

How is your frog doing? I had the same issue with my tomato frog and found out from a friend who is a biologist that my frog was stressed. Is there anything in the surrounding environment that could stress your frog?