Runt WTF?

[mrk]

Is there such a thing as a 'runt' frog? I purchased all 5 of my WTFs at the same time and they were pretty close to the same size, although one was a bit smaller. They were all out of the same shipment to the pet store (captive bred of course) so I am assuming they were probably about the same age. It has now been a month and a half and 4 of the frogs are now about 3 inches long (double their starting size) but the one which started out small has hardly grown at all, still only 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. I am starting to think I'm going to have to seperate them! I know that he is eating because I was spot feeding him every evening for a while, worried that he didn't know how to hunt. Now I have seen him catch crickets for himself in the cage. Has anyone else had this happen and should he eventually catch up with the others? I am dusting the crickets frequently, so vitamins / calcium shouldn't be the problem.

[John]

There could be a few reasons for this. Yes it could be a runt - that can happen, particularly if the frog doesn't feed well when it's young - it might never get back the normal growth rate. It could also be due to having a heavy parasite load, or it could be due to the frog being particularly stressed so that it doesn't have the same appetite as the other frogs. As you can see, it's very hard to guess.

[treefrogsrules]

are the crickets to big for him? that might be why he isnt eating

[mrk]

I actually started getting very tiny crickets because I was afraid the ones I was using were too big. I do think the smaller size helped, but he is still a very picky eater. When I spot feed him in the small Kricket Keeper, he usually roams around scattering crickets out of his path, yet he doesn't seem to notice them. Once in awhile, he even will use his 'hand' to brush one off of his head but he doesn't try to eat it. I did see him eat 3 in a very short time once, so I know the size is okay and he is able to eat them. I guess he eats when he wants to, but he sure isn't growing!