Sadly, one of our 6 baby WTFs died 19 days after we got it. It was very tiny (body was about 1 1/2 inches long) and he just never seemed to grow, then it just seemed to waste away. I know I saw it eat within the first few days we had it. Later I tried to tempt it and it refused. I kept asking at the pet store and they thought it would be okay. Didn't realize how bad things were in time to try a vet. The other 5 seem to be okay and we can't figure out what we could have done wrong. Daytime temps stay about 74 to 76. Nighttime only drops to about 70 to 72 because our house stays this warm. We watch humidity (ranges 50 to 70 with infrequent drops to 40- having trouble with this lately). We mist very often with distilled water, use spring or dechlorinated water for the bowls and change daily or e/o/day. The only advice the pet store had was that we were dusting the crickets every day and they felt that might be too often as the dust I have has calcium and vitimins (OD on vitamins??). Should I cut down on dusting? What about PH? I have never heard of monitoring this but saw something about it tonight on a past thread. We handle them only when necessary, wash hands and then wet them again with spring water. Substrate is eco-earth and frog moss with no pebbles, bark, etc. to ingest. Plants are live pothos which was washed very well and planted in eco-earth. We try to keep 12 hours on/ 12 off with lighting and I alternate days with the blue bulbs and the white (UVA/UVB). Pet store guy also mentioned maybe this was too much of the white light. Did we do something wrong or are tiny juveniles just that fragile?
These frogs actually were bought for my 17 yr old daughter who loves them already. She named them after the "Goonies" movie (Sloth, Chunk, Mikey, Mouth, Goonie, & Data, the one who died). Her friends felt sorry for her when he died so they are holding a 'froggy funeral,' complete with satin lined, white ring-box casket, a car processional to the burial plot, post-funeral dinner, and Facebook funeral announcements. Kinda quirky but touching! We've got to figure out what happened and fix it because I don't think the local teen-community can handle another funeral any time soon!