White will not eat and tries to escape

[EZweasel]

I have had my white's tree frog for about a year. Just recently he has been acting very funny. He has almost stopped eating, lost a little weight, and when the lights go off at night he really tries to escape the terrarium, always climbing near the top and pushing his head against the roof of the cage and the glass. I also seen that he had an incomplete shed. Any ideas?

[DonLisk]

Hi EZ, I would provide a little more info such as size of enclosure, temps day and night, humidity, or even some pics to help give suggestions.

[Kurt]

He may have outgrown his enclosure.

[EZweasel]

He may have outgrown his enclosure.

He really isn't that big and the tank is an 18x18 terrarium.. I have him by himself now in a seperate tank. What's interesting is that he is putting off an odor. he stinks up the tank. The tank he was in stunk before I movied him out of it and now it smells fine.

[Leefrogs]

Well it's really hard to tell what's going on with no discriptions!!! And frogs don't smell, cages do. Probably, after leaving cage open to air out, smell dissipated. Although moss has anti bacterial properties when left too moist it will mold and rot. If u have standing water in your viv and poor airflow u will have toxins build up in air of viv. You need to tell us your cleaning reginine and frequency, heat, lights, plants, temp, humidity, substrate, drainage, viv lid and Picts would help.

[EZweasel]

Well it's really hard to tell what's going on with no discriptions!!! And frogs don't smell, cages do. Probably, after leaving cage open to air out, smell dissipated. Although moss has anti bacterial properties when left too moist it will mold and rot. If u have standing water in your viv and poor airflow u will have toxins build up in air of viv. You need to tell us your cleaning reginine and frequency, heat, lights, plants, temp, humidity, substrate, drainage, viv lid and Picts would help.

Tank is an 18x18 terrarium with a water dish that gets changed daily, Coconut subtrate with moss topping, 12 hours of UV daily and twelve hours of darkness, humidity is about 75 during the day and at night..

Anyways, I have bad news and good news. I believe my frog was having early signs of red leg desiese. Luckily enough, I think I caught it early enough to save him. He is strating to eat once again, not trying to escape his cage anymore, and looks to be in perfect health (skin color etc.). Thank you for all of the support.

[gtr319]

@ EZ: what are the signs of red leg? I think my WTF is doing the same thing as yours, and her belly and is some what red, but there are no open wounds and all... and she wasn't going for the crickets, i did not know whether it is the new substrate I put in or what.. please give me a pointer... thx~

And you mention shed, I saw Marshy on the floor, with trails of glue like stuff on glass. She also have a brief 5 minutes thing where she looked like she is barfing (like when we are drunk and all), but there is nothing coming out from the front nor the back... should I be concern???

[EZweasel]

@ EZ: what are the signs of red leg? I think my Whites Tree Frog is doing the same thing as yours, and her belly and is some what red, but there are no open wounds and all... and she wasn't going for the crickets, i did not know whether it is the new substrate I put in or what.. please give me a pointer... thx~

And you mention shed, I saw Marshy on the floor, with trails of glue like stuff on glass. She also have a brief 5 minutes thing where she looked like she is barfing (like when we are drunk and all), but there is nothing coming out from the front nor the back... should I be concern???

The barfing thing is it shedding its skin. That is just how they look when they do so. If Marshy is doing it more often than not, it may be a bad sign. That is exactly what my frog started to do before it got really bad. The glue like stuff is the skin it didn't consume. the red color underneath the frogs belly is another sign of what could become red leg. Actually, from my reading red leg may not be a disease at all. Frog's naturally have bacteria in them that could possibly take over at any time. Anything could set this off, but I think stress is the number one reason. This is how I was able to cure my frog. Buy a separate tank (may be a small tank), put humidifying moss on the bottom, give him/her a place to hide, keep the humidity around 70-75, give the frog 12 hours of UV's a day and total darkness at night, and change his water bowl daily. allow the frogs own immune system to take over. One thing that is also vital is to leave the frog be by not handling him whatsoever, staying out of the room, and keeping noise levels to a bare minimum. Red leg is less likely to be curable in the later stages. In the later stages red leg seems to look like red veins in the legs. These are blood vessels that have popped. Hope this helps.

[gtr319]

@ EZ: Does this look like red leg to u?
http://www.frogforum.net/tree-frogs/...-reacting.html

[EZweasel]

@ EZ: Does this look like red leg to u?
http://www.frogforum.net/tree-frogs/...-reacting.html

The pinkish/darker tone to his legs is natural I think. The picutures with his belly showing seem a little red, but the picture is dark so it is hard to tell. He seems really healthy as far as his size is concerned. Are you handling it alot? The more you handle them the more it stresses them, even though they seem to not mind it that much. Does the frog have a tank to himself or is he with other frogs as well?

[gtr319]

Marshy has been eating and all, but just this week she just doesn't have the appetite to eat... and I wonder if this has anything to do with her close to shedding

[Kisa]

Marshy has been eating and all, but just this week she just doesn't have the appetite to eat... and I wonder if this has anything to do with her close to shedding

My White's sheds healthily every two or three days and sometimes right before he's ready he will ignore his food, but he usually sheds immediately after waking up at night, so it's easy to wait for him to finish before feeding him.

If your White's hasn't eaten for a few days it is unlikely that this is because it is close to shedding as it should only take one day of sleeping and about 10 minutes for it to shed completely and go about it's regular routine.

This info might be inaccurate to other's experience, just in case shedding happens on different schedules for different frogs, but I just wanted to provide you info based on my information.