Food refusal becoming serious

[monster]

This is my experience so please take this as a grain of salt, it may vary from others. I have the same type of frog carnwellie. He was an eating machine for the first 6 months (got him as a baby) and then slowly started eating less and less until l he stopped eating completely. I tried everything to get him to eat (warm baths, clean enclosure, turn up heat, different feeders ect ect) nothing worked. He started doing this around December so I though maybe the season change was the reason and he would start eating again by spring summer.

During those winter months, I was assist feeding him every 2 - 3 weeks so he would eat something. Its up to you if you want to do this or not. I did this because I thought he would never eat again on his own. Then come spring, he started staying on the surface instead of being underground all the time and started eating again on his own. So keep that in mind it could be seasonal?

Others say change the substrate once a month, I usually go 2 - 3 months between changes with no ill effects. I do however mix/churn the substrate every few weeks to mix it all together again, as they usually sit in one area and it would be contaminated and hardly touch the rest of the enclosure. Again its up to you as to how often to change, but changing it sooner is always better than leaving it.

If your frog is starting to lose weight, you may have to assist feed him. But this is not for everyone and if you are worried about hurting him then dont attempt it.

If your frog wasn't losing weight and started to eat again in the spring you shouldn't force them to eat over the winter months if they slow down or go into estivation, they slow down there metabolism for these months on purpose. Frogs are built to withstand the shortage of food over these months, all my frogs go into estivation from around November early December and turn back up around april/may and start eating as normal. Feeding them during these months and disturbing them if they are in estivation is actually more harmfull then good, to be honest your not even supposed to change there substrate if they make the mucus sac around themselves because they aren't peeing because they retain all there water over these months. And they don't need to poop because your supposed to stop feeding them a couple weeks before and let them totally empty out before going to sleep so they aren't holding food and they cant go septic. These are crucial steps to conditioning them for estivation. And I don't even try to let mine estivate to be honest they just do it for some reason no matter what I do so I just let nature take it course. I believe some of them even though you don't change temps and humidity that they still sense the change in the season and the pressures and dryness in the air and do it anyway. A lot of people that keep assist feeding or messing with the frog in these winter months end up with a very sick frog in the spring or a dead frog and then are stumped to went wrong not realizing the frog was doing this on purpose. I'm not trying to knock your advice or say this is the case with your frog but if you do think this is what could be happening if your frog isn't losing weight during this span of time it is just better to leave him till he comes around. Sometimes instead of going into full estivation they will just go into kind of dormant stage almost like a bearded dragon, and if this happens you can still offer food like with a beardie but if he doesn't eat it he should be ok. Again I'm not trying to say your wrong just thought I would throw this out there so if it happens to you again this winter it is something to think about.

[Sajuuk Khar]

If your frog wasn't losing weight and started to eat again in the spring you shouldn't force them to eat over the winter months if they slow down or go into estivation, they slow down there metabolism for these months on purpose. Frogs are built to withstand the shortage of food over these months, all my frogs go into estivation from around November early December and turn back up around april/may and start eating as normal. Feeding them during these months and disturbing them if they are in estivation is actually more harmfull then good, to be honest your not even supposed to change there substrate if they make the mucus sac around themselves because they aren't peeing because they retain all there water over these months. And they don't need to poop because your supposed to stop feeding them a couple weeks before and let them totally empty out before going to sleep so they aren't holding food and they cant go septic. These are crucial steps to conditioning them for estivation. And I don't even try to let mine estivate to be honest they just do it for some reason no matter what I do so I just let nature take it course. I believe some of them even though you don't change temps and humidity that they still sense the change in the season and the pressures and dryness in the air and do it anyway. A lot of people that keep assist feeding or messing with the frog in these winter months end up with a very sick frog in the spring or a dead frog and then are stumped to went wrong not realizing the frog was doing this on purpose. I'm not trying to knock your advice or say this is the case with your frog but if you do think this is what could be happening if your frog isn't losing weight during this span of time it is just better to leave him till he comes around. Sometimes instead of going into full estivation they will just go into kind of dormant stage almost like a bearded dragon, and if this happens you can still offer food like with a beardie but if he doesn't eat it he should be ok. Again I'm not trying to say your wrong just thought I would throw this out there so if it happens to you again this winter it is something to think about.

No worries I totally understand what you are saying. I am not sure if mine was trying to estivate as he didnt form a sac or anything like that. I didnt know he would start eating again, I really thought he was done eating on his own for good. Luckily my frog was fine in the spring and is very healthy. Knowing this now, I wont try and do this until I notice a drastic loss in weight, because now I know he should start eating again in the spring/summer.