# Frogs & Toads > Pacman Frogs >  How long can adults go without eating??

## DVirginiana

I've joked before that my pac does better when I'm around because she likes me, but when I came home from college this semester she had gotten kind of skinny.  Even though my mom spends a LOT of time trying to feed her, she was apparently eating only two or three roaches a week.
I've been home for four days, and she's eaten between five and ten roaches each day (small to medium nymphs, so.. cricket sized).  I knew they could recognize people, but GEEZ.   
I've come to the conclusion that Trevor just has some secret desire to control my life through guilt so that I can never leave her  :Wink: 


At any rate... How long can adults go without food?  I mean, a couple months of eating not much of anything and she had lost a little weight, but not enough to look really malnourished or anything.

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## Colleen/Jerrod

> I've joked before that my pac does better when I'm around because she likes me, but when I came home from college this semester she had gotten kind of skinny.  Even though my mom spends a LOT of time trying to feed her, she was apparently eating only two or three roaches a week.
> I've been home for four days, and she's eaten between five and ten roaches each day (small to medium nymphs, so.. cricket sized).  I knew they could recognize people, but GEEZ.   
> I've come to the conclusion that Trevor just has some secret desire to control my life through guilt so that I can never leave her 
> 
> 
> At any rate... How long can adults go without food?  I mean, a couple months of eating not much of anything and she had lost a little weight, but not enough to look really malnourished or anything.


Depends on the overall health of your frog and what their last meal was. If your frog had a large meal before fasting they can go almost if not a whole month, but weight loss will occur. This also lowers their metabolism which at the time of fasting is not a bad thing, but when it comes time to eat again and their metabolism doesn't regain its full strength then your frog will substantially eat less and take longer to digest foods that normally took a day or 2. Doesn't normally happen though.

I'm pretty sure Trevor only likes when you feed her  :Wink: . You are her true caregiver.

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## DVirginiana

I've heard ppl talk about whether they need to force feed after a week or so, and seen pics of frogs that look super skinny after not eating for a short amount of time..  I guess maybe they have different metabolisms  :P

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## Randy

> I've joked before that my pac does better when I'm around because she likes me, but when I came home from college this semester she had gotten kind of skinny.  Even though my mom spends a LOT of time trying to feed her, she was apparently eating only two or three roaches a week.
> I've been home for four days, and she's eaten between five and ten roaches each day (small to medium nymphs, so.. cricket sized).  I knew they could recognize people, but GEEZ.   
> I've come to the conclusion that Trevor just has some secret desire to control my life through guilt so that I can never leave her 
> 
> 
> At any rate... How long can adults go without food?  I mean, a couple months of eating not much of anything and she had lost a little weight, but not enough to look really malnourished or anything.


                  I have  2 large  adult pacmans that can go 3 months without eating and  not lose  hardly any weight . they do bathe occasionally but they live off their fat stores and eat only when they feel like it.When they do eat they can eat 2  adult mice at a time .They are not ill nor are they unhealthy they do not have bone disease or redleg . thye simply are extremely helathy  and well  fed frogs.

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## reptileszz

According to two of mine they can go at least a month. My big ornate has not eaten since the beginning of May and my smaller fantasy frog has been fasting for 3 weeks. My albino refused food today but that he has been eating all along.

Carole

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## Helios

Not really of too much value, but I'm increasingly fascinated by the fact that feeding problems seem to crop up a lot in regards to pacmans (just in terms of the numbers of forums with posts in which a healthy looking frog is fasting), and the possibility that it can be a very normal aspect of their lifestyle.

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## chibikaie

I think we should take into account the percentage of newbie frog caretakers who get pacmans because they're relatively easy to care for. So then we've got a lot of novices, and that raises the likelihood of issues, even minor ones. It took me a couple weeks to sort out heat and humidity, for instance.

Also, I personally am starting to wonder if many people overfeed their pacmans and consider that to be the standard, appropriate behavior, while ones who eat slightly less but are still healthy cause their owners to panic because they perceive them to have a poor appetite.

I don't claim to be an expert. I just noted the other day that I have almost never seen a guinea pig (for an example!) who wasn't on the chunky side. Nearly everyone gives them too much food and they seem to think it's normal for them to be obese. It makes me wonder if we're doing the same thing with pacmans.

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## Helios

The interesting fact supporting your point is that Pacmans are opportunistic feeders. Identifying a time an animal with this quality is "hungry" or "needs" food is hard to do because in the wild they feast when food is plentiful, or eat as long as food is present. Once food is scarce they have to subsist on what they've accumulated. Of course, we obviously see instances in which opportunistic feeders do not appear to want more food/seem more enthusiastic about it. Factor in the fact that they're cold blooded and have a metabolism tied to external temperatures and I think it's safe to say pacmans and other opportunistic feeders reflect how little is known about herptile nutrition, at least in the hobby's body of knowledge. It's easy to gloss over the fact that herptiles function based upon instinctual drives for survival in ways very different than say... a dog or a guinea pig as you mentioned. 
I absolutely agree that a lot of new keepers can run into challenges tied to a first experience with the animal or the hobby.

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## Lija

Just to point out, this thread is 2 years old  :Smile: 

 as for the rest of it, nutritional disorders are fairly known, novice keepers are constantly asking same questions and run into the same problems and it is why it is important to keep telling them the proper way of doing things, helping save one frog at a time.
obesity is a big problem in north america in general, in people and in their pets. Frogs are different. Actually obesity in not that common in guinea pigs unless they are fed commercially made food.

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## Helios

Haha I realized. Just felt like remarking. What would you say are novice keepers biggest mistakes, Lija?

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## Lija

> What would you say are novice keepers biggest mistakes, Lija?


1.husbandry, it is the leading one by far and consequences are deadly if not corrected soon enough.
2. Nutrition, feeding junk food (mice, etc) and not supplementing food correctly. 
3. Getting a frog for fun, mostly after watching youtube videos of frogs owned by stupid people.
4. Quarantine ( luck of it or not suffient)
 That would be true for any frog, not just pacman.

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## Tongue Flicker

> *Just to point out, this thread is 2 years old* 
> 
>  as for the rest of it, nutritional disorders are fairly known, novice keepers are constantly asking same questions and run into the same problems and it is why it is important to keep telling them the proper way of doing things, helping save one frog at a time.
> *obesity is a big problem in north america in general, in people and in their pets.* Frogs are different. Actually obesity in not that common in guinea pigs unless they are fed commercially made food.


LOL

I've had a tree frog (Polypedates leucomystax) go off feed for 20 days without losing weight. I'm guessing an almost sedentary frog like a pacman can go longer than that

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## Lija

Sure *healthy adult* pacman can go for more then 20 days, especially after a big meal.

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