Pacman wont stay out of water

[cwebster]

Olivia, thank you. I think you are right, that Cupcake needs more humidity. She finally went underground and wouldnt come out. I dug her up a couple of times and fed her a waxworm. Our other pacman, Mr Frog, in a smaller cage, eats and poops constantly; ijust mist him twice per day. Cuppy obviously wants more humidity so i will increase her misting a lot. Will get a hygrometer and will cover her cage with a towel. Mr Frog is an ornate and Cuppy is yellow and brown.

[Animallover3541]

Olivia, thank you. I think you are right, that Cupcake needs more humidity. She finally went underground and wouldnt come out. I dug her up a couple of times and fed her a waxworm. Our other pacman, Mr Frog, in a smaller cage, eats and poops constantly; ijust mist him twice per day. Cuppy obviously wants more humidity so i will increase her misting a lot. Will get a hygrometer and will cover her cage with a towel. Mr Frog is an ornate and Cuppy is yellow and brown.

I'm glad to hear you have a plan! Also, I'd like to retract my statement about honey/sugar water for prolapses. It can work, but it's dangerous because you will have wasted valuable time if it doesn't work. Just wanted to put that out there.

P.S. I love the name Cupcake! It's so cute

[GrifTheGreat]

Humidity is a possibility as was stated above, but sometimes especially if they've been remaining burrowed for long periods of time, they will choose to soak for extended periods sort of a way of cleaning out their system.

Refusing food can also be related to lower than normal humidity. If you are using lights as a heat source they will burn off ambient air humidity. It has to be countered with more frequent misting.

As for getting upset about you trying to feed her, well that is her telling you to leave her alone. She is likely a bit annoyed with all the attention she's been getting. You can just let her be and adjust her humidity though this time of year they do tend to slow down and not eat as much because they can still sense the changes outside even though their tank climate is maintained.

Raise the humidity and keep it up for a few days then offer her a more enticing food item like an appropriately sized frozen thawed feeder mouse and see if that interests her.

Best of luck.

[cwebster]

Kept Cuppy’s humidity high, then fed her a defrosted pinkie and later some waxworms. Also there were tiny gnats in the soil so i cleaned the dirt out and replaced it. She seemed very happy for a day, burrowing but sticking her head out. But the gnats are back. Any ideas on how to get rid of them? Thanks!

[cwebster]

Success! Found some fungus gnat predators at the hardware store. Changed Cupcake’s cocoearth again. Put fruit fly traps in the nearby kitchen and got rid of the fruit flies’ food in the kitchen(gooey grapes and blueberries). Cuppy is back to her old self! She was really bothered by the gnats/flies crawling her. Now that they are gone,i am still giving her more humidity. She is sitting in her usual partially burrowed pose waiting for food.

[Animallover3541]

Success! Found some fungus gnat predators at the hardware store. Changed Cupcake’s cocoearth again. Put fruit fly traps in the nearby kitchen and got rid of the fruit flies’ food in the kitchen(gooey grapes and blueberries). Cuppy is back to her old self! She was really bothered by the gnats/flies crawling her. Now that they are gone,i am still giving her more humidity. She is sitting in her usual partially burrowed pose waiting for food.

I'm so glad to hear that! I hope all goes well for you and Cuppy going forward!

[GrifTheGreat]

Success! Found some fungus gnat predators at the hardware store. Changed Cupcake’s cocoearth again. Put fruit fly traps in the nearby kitchen and got rid of the fruit flies’ food in the kitchen(gooey grapes and blueberries). Cuppy is back to her old self! She was really bothered by the gnats/flies crawling her. Now that they are gone,i am still giving her more humidity. She is sitting in her usual partially burrowed pose waiting for food.

That's good to hear. Fungus gnats are pretty common. They're attracted to the moisture of the substrate and will even lay their eggs on the rim of the Frog's water dish. They're harmless, but very annoying.

Now that she's back to normal you can relax and enjoy her.

[cwebster]

Cuppy seems happier without the gnats but has been looking skinny and sitting with her eyes closed, not eating much.i had her detox in water. Then i started hand feeding her crickets (if i touch her mouth, she opens it and i put the crickets in). She then started grabbing crickets again. Will supplement her food until she is back to her normal plumper shape (her hips were showing). She is tame, but pacmans are hard.