Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently posted a question about my brother's dart frog, who seemed thin, whereas his amphibian counterpart seemed rather fat. I seperated them for feeding because of the responses I got, but I noticed something odd. The thin frog, when placed in a seperate dish for feeding, was having much trouble catching the flies i fed to him (me feeding, because my brother is away at cammp.) The frog would see a flie, go in for the catch, but not get in into his mouth time over time. He just could not catch them. I believe he caught about two flies in a span of 15 or 20 minutes. Is this because of his eyes or maybe a tounge problem? has anyone ever seen something like this?

It may be he is to weak and giving him trouble, but I have a bearded dragon that takes 5 minutes to eat a non moving worm. He has bad eye sight.
if you have some tweezers or feeding tongs try hand feeding with those while its in the cage.

The reason your frog cannot catch the insects is because it has a vitamin A deficiency. It is very hard to correct, but you need to start dusting all feeder insects with not only calcium but also a vitamin powder. I say this but you need to realize that the only way to correct it is for it to get it to eat insects coated w/ vitamins which is exactly the problem. You can try also dripping a diluted electrolite solution that is safe for amphibians on him once or twice a day for a couple days to also help him to pick up. I hope this helps. Best of luck.

Luke.

2.2 Dendrobates azureus
1.1.3 Dendrobates leucomelas
0.0.6 Dendrobates auratus (Panamanian)
0.0.2 Dendrobates auratus (Spotted)
0.0.1 Phyllobates vittatus
0.1 Eublepharis macularis
0.0.2 Rhacodactylis ciliatus
0.1 Phelsuma grandis
0.1 Geochelone sulcata