# Frogs & Toads > Pacman Frogs >  When is the ideal time to feed pacman frogs?

## jamien

So far I don't think my new pacman frog has been eating. He stayed burrowed for a while and resurfaced about a day ago. I believe a cricket may be gone but I'm unsure and may have miscounted. I recently just removed the crickets from his cage and I was wondering when the ideal time to feed him would be, morning or night? He seems to usually be burrowed in the morning but I just tried feeding him a little bit ago(at night) and a cricket literally walked over him and he did nothing.

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## Jason

Night, horned frogs are nocturnal as most amphibians. If you get a red or blue light you can turn that to help to see. What size are the crickets? They won't touch small crickets, aim for the width between the eyes for size to half the size of the frog. Try superworms to get your frog feeding, if it's large enough, my frog prefers them and goes for them straight away.

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## jamien

I've been feeding him pretty large crickets. He still isn't eating and I'm not sure why. He unburrowed himself for a while but now he's gone back to burrowing. I tried feeding him last night and again crickets were just walking over him and he did nothing. I can't figure out why he won't eat

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## Cory

Hi, did you end up getting more heating for him or are you still around 75f for heat? and have you found poop since he has went off food? If he is impacted and cant poop it may make him not want to eat.

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## jamien

My room is decently cold and with the heat lamp I have I usually get around 74-80 degrees. And he went to the bathroom the day I got him.

This brings about another question. Since my room is so cold, is it bad when I have to take the heat lamp off and the temperature drops down to around 70? 

I'm also not sure how to get more heat for him. I got a different type of lightbulb that is supposed to give off more heat, but oddly enough it doesn't seem as bright as my old lightbulb and the temperature still hovers around 75-79 most of the time. But my thermometer is a little weird. Sometimes it jumps from 74 to 83 so I'm not sure what the temperature is most of the time.

EDIT: I just checked his cage and the temperature is reading 81... which is weird because usually it hovers around 77. Not sure why its hotter now. Oh also, how do I keep the humidity at around 70-80? I spray some water in the terrarium in the morning/afternoon and it goes from 50-60 to over 80 then slowly drops back down to 60ish

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## Jason

You're probably better getting another thermometer, digital ones are best. For the humidity, you'll eventually get the idea of how much to mist to get to what percent but if it only goes over 80% for a short period of time that would be okay and 60% is good

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## Cory

And IMO if you can keep his day temps at 81f that should be fine.

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## jamien

So after giving him a hot bath and holding a cricket in front of his face for about a minute, he finally ate something. But now he's COMPLETELY buried himself in his substrate, which is unusual because he usually leaves a tiny bit of himself sticking out. Is this normal? He's dug pretty far down in the substrate right now and he's never burrowed this far before

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## Cory

Yes its normal for them to completely bury themselves. The handling for the bath probably really freaked him out and he buried himself to feel secure. When my lights go on 9 am I would say 20 minutes later all three of mine are gone completely under. My tanks during the day look like they house a couple fake plants. L.O.L

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## Jason

Depending on the temp, mine is usually half burrowed but on a cold day he'll burrow right down

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## jamien

That might make sense. My thermometer is reading 76 right now which is a few degrees lower than usual. Not sure why the temperature isn't going up. I was just wondering if he could even breathe buried completely under the eco earth. Should I spray some water on him? I haven't misted/sprayed the cage today but the humidity is at around 70

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## Jason

Na he can breathe under the substrate. I would never spray the water directly on a frog but if the humidity is at 70 then you don't need to mist, it's not a daily task really as they're not tropical frogs

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## jamien

Any idea why my temperature is reading lower than usual? What should I do? Its usually around 77-81 and I can't get it above 75 right now which is very strange.

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## Jason

Really seems like your thermometers poop, I would get another and then check again. If it's still not right then up the wattage of bulb, I used 40W in the summer and 60W in winter

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## jamien

I upped the thermostat in my house by 1 and now the temperature is reading almost 81... somehow going from 69 to 70 in my house made a 6-7 degree difference in the terrarium

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## jamien

Update: I can't get him to eat again. I gave him another warm bath for a couple minutes but this time he didn't eat afterwards, he just went and burrowed again. I'm not sure what to do this time because he seems content on not eating.

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## Jason

Is there any chance you could show us a pic of your set up? You'll have to upload it to a website then copy and paste the link to this. It may still be trying to aestivate because the tank went too cool but it mind come out of it in a few days.

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## jamien

There's not much to take a picture of. He's in a 10 gallon aquarium with about 2-3 inches of eco earth, a fake plant, and a small water bowl. And I don't think he's aestivating. He moves when I touch him. He just seems totally uninterested in eating.

And the temperature is around 75-81. Of course I have to take the heat lamp off when I try to tong feed him and it drops down to around low 70s, but I don't think that would cause him not to eat.

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## Jason

Everything's spot on, it's worse when that's the case, harder to fix the problem if there isn't one but the frog. What I'd recommend would be to keep a steady temp between 78-80F during the day, obviously if you take the heat lamp off to feed that will be okay but at night let the temperature drop down to 74F. Try not to disturb the frog during the day and just feed at night when it's active. So the light you have is a daytime lamp, isn't it? Keep it on for 12 hours per day and near the daylight hours of your area. At night use something that won't disturb the frog too much, I personally only use night lights for like an hour then switch to complete darkness, I'm not convinced the animals can't see them and so I use a ceramic heat emitter or heat mat at night instead. If your frogs large enough try something like superworms, locust or roaches. My frog used to turn it's head up at crickets and still does sometimes. Try also feeding the frog less, if it's over 2 inches then you could go to every other day or so.

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## jamien

The problem is he isn't active whatsoever. if I didn't dig him up today he would have been totally buried for about 2-3 days now. 

I know it sounds horrible but I've been so worried about messing up I've been considering taking him back to the pet store. I don't want anything bad to happen to him but he's not eating and he isn't even moving half the time. I love the little guy but he's been worrying me so much.

EDIT: and I keep the incandescent light on at all times because my room is absolutely freezing. I was told to keep it on at all times if my room is cold

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## Jason

I wouldn't do that, at least in your hands you can give him the attention and sort the problem but they won't. Is it a daylight bulb??? if so, they do not get kept on at all times and the result would be exactly what the problem here is

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## jamien

Its an incandescent 50 watt lightbulb.

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## Jason

like the ones you have in your house? they should only be kept on for 12 hours a day and when kept on 24 hours a day you can basically drive the animal insane, animals need a day and night cycle. the red glass ones can be left on 24 hours a day but i've noticed my animals can see them. you need ideally a daylight bulb and  then switch to a ceramic heat emitter for night or you can just use a thermostat controlled heat mat for 24 hour heat source

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## jamien

Incandescent lightbulbs are the purple ones that don't give off a lot of light like fluorescent light bulbs. At the store the guy who sold them told me they can be left on at all times. And I can't only keep it on for 12 hours a day as the room the terrarium is in is quite cold.

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## Jason

there's a few different kind of incandescents, especially on the reptile market but by purple do you mean this? http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products..._heat_lamp.php 
the normal ones that give of that orangey light like this http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products..._heat_lamp.php 

The second one isn't to be used 24 hours a day but the purple one in the link 'apparently' can but I've noticed my frogs freeze when it's on and become more active when it's off and I've read a lot of people having that problem too, so if you change that to a ceramic heat emitter for night and you might notice a difference. I use night lights for a while to view but I don't trust them on all night for heat sources

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## jamien

This is the type I have. http://www.amazon.com/Zilla-Incandes.../dp/B001VGX6MG

And I just tried feeding him earlier and he clearly wants none of it. My hygrometer is also reading about 50-60 and I sprayed it with water this afternoon. I noticed some of the eco earth in the cage is looking crumbly and dried out also.

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## Jason

That's a night bulb so yeah can be left on 24 hours I thought you meant normal daylight one so was worried. I still don't trust them though, I've used those before on my pacman, tree frogs and marine toad and all of them weren't liking it it but as few mins later after turning it off you can hear the tree frogs jumping about happily. If he continues to refuse food I would really consider looking into a ceramic or heat mat but you'll need a thermostat to use both of those. It took a lot of fiddling and money to get my frog happy but the stuff I don't use now I just use with other frogs but out of all the heating stuff I use I prefer heat mats as frogs in general don't bask so heat lamps aren't the best, though some tree frogs like them. 50-60 is fine really, as long as it's moist, they're not tropical like darts. I've found pacmans can be really fussy at times but they're so hardy and won't perish right away like most phibs would

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## jamien

So what do you think I should do? Just wait until he wants to eat?

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## Jason

I'd wait, see if he gets better and if not get a heat mat and thermostat. It works for me, a heat mat covering one third of the floor connected to a thermostat so the frog doesn't burn itself. The frog seems to know where he can the heat and burrows or moves away from the heat mat as needed. It doesn't have the drying effect as light bulbs or ceramics

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