Reptile & Amphibian Forums

when i first got my frog it was about the size of a quarter and it would jump around and eat crickets sprinkled with calcium powder. i was keeping it in a 10 gallon tank, no heat source, the room is about 72 f. its now a pretty big boy http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v412/slimfadey/pets0007.jpg
i keep it in a rubbermaid now, same setup except the rubbermaid takes up less space in height. same substrate, same everything. but the way i feed it now is so un-natural. i have to push open his mouth and with tongs shove meal worms in it, and he'll grab onto em and swallow them down. he will not snap at food anymore. im thinking about getting a heat pad for it. is there any way i could get it back to the way it was as a baby? thanks
arlo

Sounds like you're force feeding the poor thing. General consensus is force feeding should be the last option. Unless the frog is seriously losing weight I can never recommend force feeding. They can go for weeks without food, no problem. Pac-man frogs when young are growing real fast and must eat often and plenty to support their rapid growth. But as they become adults it's normal for them to stop eating for weeks. Force feeding a healthy frog that's just not hungry can cause it unnecessary stress. Stress kills! You can try raising the temperature a bit to around 75-80F and offering different food items like feeder guppies or nightcrawler worms. If you decide on a heating pad, be careful as they're know to cause burns. Good Luck.

thanks alot for the response. i'll try offering it food every once in a while, but i wont force it to eat unless its obvious that it is starving to death. i will set some worms in front of his mouth, if he won't eat i'll just put them away and try again a couple days later. i hope he hasn't forgotten how to eat =(
(and i feel like such a[bleep] for force feeding it)