Feeding problems - white's tree frogs

[janer1114]

Hello there -

i'm having problems feeding my white's tree frogs. the crickets at the store are the right size when i very first get them, but after a few days get too big for my frogs. (my frogs are so tiny - and inch and a half maybe) also, they have a hard time catching them - so they do not eat as much as they should for being baby frogs. one of the frogs will eat off a pair of tweezers, but the other won't.

is there anyone else who's had this problem? is there something else to feed them besides crickets?

i'm worried because it's been a while and one isn't looking so good. please help!

[ViperJr]

If the crickets grow too big, try buying smaller sizes. I'm quite certain that they can eat hatchling/pinhead sized feeders.

To easily monitor how much they are eating, try adding a glas bowl. The crickets can not get out of it, so you can see if they have eaten or not. A full thread on the topic can be found here:
http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...owl-trick.html

You can also modify a good looking bowl to make it unclimable. I'm quoting my own post in the Valuabe advice-thread.

1. Get yourself a good looking feeding dish (e.g. from Exo-Terra)
2. Get yourself a plastic box
(I used http://www.mathem.se/images/products...l-gb-glace.jpg )
3. Get a glue gun and a knife

Just cut out enough plastic to cover the insides of the bowl with it. It needs to be approximately as high as the glass bowl needs to be (it works in the same way, the crickets can't climb the plastic either). Then just glue the plastic to the inside of the bowl (and be sure it's completly dried and ventilated before putting it back, if you have frogs in the terrarium while doing this), and tadaa! A nice looking, escape-proof feedish dish!

[John]

The glass bowl trick really works. You may also find that keeping them in a small vivarium when they are young will make it easier for them to find food, and should help them grow faster.

[mrk]

My 5 WTFs were also this small and we had the same problem at first. I fully agree with keeping them in a small vivarium at first can help them find their food (we put 2 or 3 each in 2- 10 gal. aquariums with screen lids for a month or 2. Also, we tried the glass bowl trick but it didn't work for me because one of the babies was 'piggy' and would jump into the bowl and eat ALL the crickets. Someone on this Forum suggested 'Spot Feeding' so, for awhile, I would remove my problem eaters one at a time from the tanks every evening and put them in a small Kricket Keeper (with the tube ports closed off) with a bunch of tiny crickets and watch to make sure they would eat a few, then switch frogs. I also put small crickets in the aquarium at night so that they could catch more if they were still hungry while also practicing their hunting skills. This seemed to do the trick as they are all hunting on their own now. They wouldn't always eat in the Kricket Keeper but it made me feel better to at least give them the chance. As for the cricket sizes, I got tired of going to the store that often, but I would buy just a few nights crickets at a time because they would grow so fast! Now we are breeding our own which works much better. Four of our babies doubled their size in just two months and we are getting ready to put them in the hugh (150 gallon vivarium this week). Sadly one died- no idea why. The fifth will have to stay in the small tank for awhile longer- he must be some sort of runt because he hasn't hardly changed size at all and I was worried he would die also. I have now witnessed him catching crickets in the aquarium so I am not spot feeding him anymore, just watching to make sure he doesn't start to look skinny again. Hope this helps!

[janer1114]

thanks - spot feeding sounds good and glass bowl should do nicely - strange the crickets don't jump - i'll have to try it for myself.

the spot feeding may be tough if the one tricky eater won't eat in light . . . but i'll see how it goes.

i bought some mini- mealworms too, thinking they'd be easier to keep in a shallow dish. what do you all think about meal worms for white's tree frogs.

(really helpful to hear about someone's experiences with tiny baby tree frogs!! - thank you!)

[mrk]

You're welcome! This forum has helped me so much, its nice to pass it on! The mealworms sound like a good idea but I've never tried it. Are those the kind of worms you have to cut the head off of first so they don't bite the frogs' insides? I know I've seen that mentioned somewhere, so find out for sure first! Also, I forgot to mention that I had good luck using an appetite enhancer spray (sorta like liquid garlic). It seemed to help some but is hard to find and a little bit sticky, so douse the crickets in a different container before spot feeding so it doesn't get all over the baby frog's skin. There was a recent discussion about this topic as it is somewhat unproven and new. You might search for 'garlic appetite enhancer' and see if it comes up.

[janer1114]

so - I tried spot feeding the frogs. the one who i've hardly seen eat ever, and wavers in and out of looking ok, started slapping the crickets away and making a tiny clicking noise. :-(

the other frog just ignored the crickets and tried to climb out.

i put 4 crickets in overnight as well as a dish of mealworms. the crickets were gone in the morning!! (that doesn't mean that the bad-eater got any though....)

i'm away for a little under a week now - light on a timer and someone coming in to feed and water them.

one one hand - i want to take good care of them and make sure i'm doing a good job
on the other - i think, they are animals who have instincts to survive and will eat when they're ready (so i'll provide the food and it'll happen)
on they other - they are little babies - maybe they didn't learn the right instinct - AW!!!



The one next to the nickel is Dumpy - the one who isn't eating well (I don't think it's cause I named him Dumpy...but, if you think I should change his name - perhaps it'll help!) The green one is Jim. How do you think they look? They hop and move around at night and bathe in their water dish....

Has anyone ever fed baby frogs pinheads before? I think going too small is not the answer - the mini mealworms I bought look too tiny, but the big mealworms look too big.

[mrk]

I know exactly what you mean, Janer! I worried about my little runt so much and tried everything I could, including searching everywhere locally until I found the Appetite Enhancer, and sometimes he would make me think he was coming around and then he would go days without eating (as far as I knew). I finally came to the same conclusion and am just leaving him alone but watching him closely to see if he looks skinny, stays active, has bright eyes, etc. Now that I finally figured out how to get an Avatar loaded (so proud of myself!), you can see my little runt in the picture. He actually has gained a bit of weight and may have gotten a TINY bit longer. As you can see by his buddy next to him who came from the same pet store at the same time, they have grown at remarkedly different rates. As for your little ones in the picture, I'm definitely no expert, but Dumpy doesn't look any skinnier than my runt stayed for quite awhile. Of my 5 (Named by my daughter after characters from the Goonies movie), other than the one who died (Data), Sloth is huge (but he started out that way), Chunk is shorter but fatter, and Mouth and Mikey (the other two in my Avatar) are close to the same size . . . and then there's Goonie (the runt)! I guess maybe its normal for them to grow at different rates, depending upon how well they hunt. As in nature, I guess some are better equipped to survive than are others. Its sure hard not to feel responsible for everything that happens though, isn't it?

[jjas12475]

Cut off the hopper legs!

[jjas12475]

On the cricket of course!

[mrk]

OOPS! Never thought of that but it should solve that problem. Thanks!

[Kisa]

I know it can be scary to get new frogs and have them quit eating on you, mine went through several phases while they were adjusting but like mrk said, it's probably normal. Unless you see some other physical indicator that your frog is sick you should just assume he's adjusting and maybe a little bit frightened or stressed out. I know both of my big White's went through phases where they stopped eating. Of course it was for short periods of time, but eventually they cam earound. Once they realize where they are and that you're not a threat to them they start to come around.

Just leave him be, but monitor him to make sure he's not loosing significant weight and believe in your little guy! Root for him and he'll come around.

[janer1114]

ok - he's losing significant weight. i can see his bones. he's not moving over the past 36 hours - much. he has been opening his mouth and wiping his face, which on another website says that means he's shedding - and I think I can see a bit of skin moving around. would he be lethargic and uninterested in eating when shedding??

[janer1114]

:-( ok - little guy who wasn't eating didn't make it. the appetite stimulator was on order, but hadn't arrived. :-( feel like a bad parent - but the other one is thriving and eating and doing everything a healthy frog is reported to do. i hope we have a good long time together.

i cleaned out the tank and made everything nice and fresh. had a little burial in the front yard under the tomato plant.

[DonLisk]

Sorry to hear that the little one did not pull through.