New Amazon Milk Frog - Not Eating!

[ChoptimusPrime]

Hello all,

First a little background. New the the forum, and new to frog keeping (but not herp keeping - Also got a Rhino Iguana, Frilled Lizard, and Bearded Dragon). I found a few care sheets recommended by several people on this forum (sometimes conflicting information), by I am following this one exactly:
Amphibian Care >> Amazon Milk Frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix) Care

During the day, the temps can be between 78-85, and at night/in the morning they are around 72-78. I do not heat the vivarium with anything besides the ambient temperature in the reptile room, which then is the same temps mentioned before. A 13 watt compact florecent non-uv full spectrum bulb is on a twelve hour light cycle during the day. Humidity stays between 70-80, with morning and nightly mistings. I have her in a 18x18x24 Exo Terra Congo Kit, with an added sand blasted grape vine, coco fiber soil, large water dish, and a magnetic rock deco ledge. Three sides of the viv are covered.

For the first night I got her, I had her in a 20 gallon long aquarium with basically the above conditions, but I wanted to get her something taller being a tree frog and all. That night, I went to dinner for 2 hours and she managed to escape through a hole in the top of the screen that was meant for a fogger hose (past reptile). In a panic, I gave her a bath to get off any dust or anything that might have been on her and put her back in the 20 gallon with the hole covered. The next day is when I got the new setup and moved her in.

So now it's wednesday night, got her saturday evening, and she hasn't eaten yet. She did poop once yesterday though, so that means that she did eat recently with the vendor I got her at. I have tried tong feeding wax worms and crickets, and let the wax worm crawl around in front of her supervised to no avail. Tonight, I am trying to leave a small 1 1/2 inch tall plastic cup the wax worms came in with a worm and a few crickets with the back legs pinched off so they cant get out in there. What worries me is that she has been on the magnetic ledge these past three days, moving around a little up there, but I have yet to see her off of it. During the day she has her eyes closed sleeping, and at night they are open and she perks up a bit whenever I mist. I have also not handled her since the bath the first day I had her.

This covers basically everything I have done since getting her. Is there anything else anyone has tried for fussy eaters? I assume she is just stressed, but I'm not sure what I can do to ease that. Thanks in advance.

[CPLfrogger]

it is a good possibility that the frog is stressed out from moving from terrarium to terrarium. your best bet is to throw a dozen live pinhead crickets in there and try to keep track of them and watch for more poop for a few days. the frog will only eat every few days anyways. i only say crickets because the two red eyes that i have will only eat crickets. ive tried feeding them different types of worms and they wont touch them.

[demon amphibians]

it is a good possibility that the frog is stressed out from moving from terrarium to terrarium. your best bet is to throw a dozen live pinhead crickets in there and try to keep track of them and watch for more poop for a few days. the frog will only eat every few days anyways. i only say crickets because the two red eyes that i have will only eat crickets. ive tried feeding them different types of worms and they wont touch them.

I agree with this post every time you get a new frog there is going to be a period of time it wont eat due to stress. So take CPLfrogger's advice along with putting your frog in a room were it will be distrubed as little as possible. Make sure you have its required humity, temp and setup. Then just give it the right size of food and give it its privacy.

When i got my cane toads it took almost 2 weeks for them to eat and these guys are probably the most resilient amphibian species i can think of.
Just give them time. you will be very surprised how long a frog can actually go without food. So dont worry about starvation.

[flybyferns]

Hello all,

First a little background. New the the forum, and new to frog keeping (but not herp keeping - Also got a Rhino Iguana, Frilled Lizard, and Bearded Dragon). I found a few care sheets recommended by several people on this forum (sometimes conflicting information), by I am following this one exactly:
Amphibian Care >> Amazon Milk Frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix) Care

During the day, the temps can be between 78-85, and at night/in the morning they are around 72-78. I do not heat the vivarium with anything besides the ambient temperature in the reptile room, which then is the same temps mentioned before. A 13 watt compact florecent non-uv full spectrum bulb is on a twelve hour light cycle during the day. Humidity stays between 70-80, with morning and nightly mistings. I have her in a 18x18x24 Exo Terra Congo Kit, with an added sand blasted grape vine, coco fiber soil, large water dish, and a magnetic rock deco ledge. Three sides of the viv are covered.

For the first night I got her, I had her in a 20 gallon long aquarium with basically the above conditions, but I wanted to get her something taller being a tree frog and all. That night, I went to dinner for 2 hours and she managed to escape through a hole in the top of the screen that was meant for a fogger hose (past reptile). In a panic, I gave her a bath to get off any dust or anything that might have been on her and put her back in the 20 gallon with the hole covered. The next day is when I got the new setup and moved her in.

So now it's wednesday night, got her saturday evening, and she hasn't eaten yet. She did poop once yesterday though, so that means that she did eat recently with the vendor I got her at. I have tried tong feeding wax worms and crickets, and let the wax worm crawl around in front of her supervised to no avail. Tonight, I am trying to leave a small 1 1/2 inch tall plastic cup the wax worms came in with a worm and a few crickets with the back legs pinched off so they cant get out in there. What worries me is that she has been on the magnetic ledge these past three days, moving around a little up there, but I have yet to see her off of it. During the day she has her eyes closed sleeping, and at night they are open and she perks up a bit whenever I mist. I have also not handled her since the bath the first day I had her.

This covers basically everything I have done since getting her. Is there anything else anyone has tried for fussy eaters? I assume she is just stressed, but I'm not sure what I can do to ease that. Thanks in advance.

Hi
Welcome to Frog Forum
We look forward to sharing your experiences
You have gotten 2 good responses here!
I agree as well--- it needs some peace and quiet.
Keep an eye out for any minor skin abrasions.

Cover three sides of the enclosure/ continue to feed well, as mentioned, feed smaller dusted crickets.
You can put some of the crickets into a clear class bowl ( 3" ) side.
The crickets cannot climb out.
You don't have to remove the legs off of a cricket........ the cricket should simply be the appropriate size.
Go smaller if in doubt. ie I keep red eyed and black eyed tree frogs --- I feed mine 'small" crickets only.
Put some of the crickets on the substrate --- in case he is not accustomed to bowl feeding.
LOTS of small crickets running around in a glass bowl -- will get his attention !!!!
May I respectfully suggest holding off on the meal worms as they can cause digestive issues; you simply don't want two things going on at the same time.

Keep us posted !
Lynn

[ChoptimusPrime]

it is a good possibility that the frog is stressed out from moving from terrarium to terrarium. your best bet is to throw a dozen live pinhead crickets in there and try to keep track of them and watch for more poop for a few days. the frog will only eat every few days anyways. i only say crickets because the two red eyes that i have will only eat crickets. ive tried feeding them different types of worms and they wont touch them.

Maybe I should have mentioned the frog's size... she is about 2.5-3 inches. Is this too big for pinheads? And one thing I have heard over and over is that crickets kept in with you herp longer than a feeding period can get your pet chewed on. I have seen on some forums that frog owners do this however... is there a reason for that I am missing?

I agree with this post every time you get a new frog there is going to be a period of time it wont eat due to stress. So take CPLfrogger's advice along with putting your frog in a room were it will be distrubed as little as possible. Make sure you have its required humity, temp and setup. Then just give it the right size of food and give it its privacy.


When i got my cane toads it took almost 2 weeks for them to eat and these guys are probably the most resilient amphibian species i can think of.
Just give them time. you will be very surprised how long a frog can actually go without food. So dont worry about starvation.

This makes me feel a lot better. Starvation was definitely my biggest concern, as she has been much more active since I posted last, bathing in her water dish at night.

Hi
Welcome to Frog Forum
We look forward to sharing your experiences
You have gotten 2 good responses here!
I agree as well--- it needs some peace and quiet.
Keep an eye out for any minor skin abrasions.

Cover three sides of the enclosure/ continue to feed well, as mentioned, feed smaller dusted crickets.
You can put some of the crickets into a clear class bowl ( 3" ) side.
The crickets cannot climb out.
You don't have to remove the legs off of a cricket........ the cricket should simply be the appropriate size.
Go smaller if in doubt. ie I keep red eyed and black eyed tree frogs --- I feed mine 'small" crickets only.
Put some of the crickets on the substrate --- in case he is not accustomed to bowl feeding.
LOTS of small crickets running around in a glass bowl -- will get his attention !!!!
May I respectfully suggest holding off on the meal worms as they can cause digestive issues; you simply don't want two things going on at the same time.

Keep us posted !
Lynn

Thanks! I will try more smaller crickets then, so that way they wont jump out. I now have a 4x4 tupperware container in the viv with some crickets. I've also never fed my herps mealworms.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll post later with updates.

[CPLfrogger]

general rule of thumb for frogs, you don't want to feed them crickets that are larger than the width of their head as they can get stuck. they will always eat pinhead but they will eat a lot of them. i prefer starting with pinheads and then gradually moving them up in size. as far as the crickets chewing on the frogs, i had my worries since the red eyes are a nocturnal species, but i have kept a watchful eye over them and haven't had any issues. i think it is mainly because they prefer to sleep on the glass and the crickets simply can't climb there, otherwise it may be a possibility as they will try to eat anything including fake plants, molded foam "furniture" and fake vines.

[deeishealthy]

If you keep a piece of carrot in the corner it gives the crickets something to eat so they don't destroy anything.

[deranged chipmunk]

Crickets will only "nibble" at frogs if there is no food for them to eat i.e. live flora/vegetable matter. Crickets can cause some serious damage to frogs, so they really shouldn't be left to roam if there is no live vegetation in the enclosure.

[ChoptimusPrime]

general rule of thumb for frogs, you don't want to feed them crickets that are larger than the width of their head as they can get stuck. they will always eat pinhead but they will eat a lot of them. i prefer starting with pinheads and then gradually moving them up in size. as far as the crickets chewing on the frogs, i had my worries since the red eyes are a nocturnal species, but i have kept a watchful eye over them and haven't had any issues. i think it is mainly because they prefer to sleep on the glass and the crickets simply can't climb there, otherwise it may be a possibility as they will try to eat anything including fake plants, molded foam "furniture" and fake vines.

Crickets will only "nibble" at frogs if there is no food for them to eat i.e. live flora/vegetable matter. Crickets can cause some serious damage to frogs, so they really shouldn't be left to roam if there is no live vegetation in the enclosure.

She tends to sleep on her ledge or vine, but it's good to know that they will go for the vegetable matter before the pet. Still hasn't eaten yet, trying more smaller crickets tonight.

[ChoptimusPrime]

Just a quick update. I think she ate! I counted 4 crickets missing from the feeding container her viv. I did however see one of the missing four wondering around the substrate, so I will continue to look for the others to be sure. Either way, she is still active and i'm seeing her in new places in the viv all the time. Another interesting note, I walking in Friday night right as she started shedding. I pretty strange and fascinating sight!

[ChoptimusPrime]

Looks like she ate this past weekend! Friday night I found her sitting in the tupperwear with the crickets, and there were 4-5 missing. Thanks for the advice everyone.

[helm96]

This is great to hear! I am happy things are looking up.