Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi! I'm new to this forum. Wondering if someone could give me some help. We have a tree frog. The petstore called him a "gold tree frog" He is sort of a yellowish brown. Anyway, we've had him for a couple of months and he seems fine all along. He's mostly active at night and has a little sleeping area where he rests during the day. We feed him crickets. Yesterday, he started just crouching in the corner of his home and his belly looks really bloated! He looks very strange how bloated his belly is and he just appears ill. He doesn't look bright at all. I haven't seen him move since yesterday at about this time.
Has anyone experienced this?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

It sounds like he's impacted, which means he can't pass his bm. (poo). What is in your tank? pet store people often give bad advice rather than give no advice at all. Things like moss will harm your frog more than help. most Tree frogs don't use their tongue to catch their prey, they jump at them, which means they can ingest just about anything that happens to get into their mouth in the process. The crickets also have to be of an apropriate size, no bigger than the space between your frogs eyes.

Back to the bloatiness, take your frog out and soak him in warm (not hot) water. This should help him pass his bm.

Give a tank description so we can help you avoid this happening again.
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1:0
Mantella viridis : 1:1:2

Oh no! It sounds like we did get bad advice! They had us put moss in his tank. Oh I feel like such an idiot! I knew I should have looked it up on line. Ack! So we need to get rid of the moss and it sounds like they've been selling us the wrong size crickets. They have small and large and the large ones seemed big to me, but they insisted that those would be the right size. I've noticed before that his poos have what would appear to be undigested cricket in them (yuck) so I had suspected that the crickets were too big.

Oh...sorry I forgot to give you a tank description.
It is a ten gallon glass tank with a wire top. We have moss substrate and some branchy things for him to be on. He has a water dish to sit in. It's not very deep though. Do they like a deep water dish?

Ok, You're going to think I'm crazy, but we took him out and put him in a warm dish of water as you suggested and he didn't seem to think that was such a good idea. He refuses to stay in. I guess that means he's healthy enough to not cooperate with our plan?

having moss in the tank isn't always bad, it helps with humidity and provides places to hide, all of my tanks have moss. poor water quality is a common cause of bloat and my not be reversible. if so, your frog may lose it battle in the next two days, but if it is an impaction, then soaking in warm water is best. if the frog won't stay, get a plastic container with a lid that is about 2 inches deep, like for sandwiches. poke several holes in the lid and sides above the water level from the inside of the container out so the plastic edges are not sticking into the container. fill it with one inch of slightly warm water (75-80 degrees). put the frog in and genlty but quickly close the lid (watch for the frogs toes). leave the frog in a dark, quite spot for about 20-30 minutes and then place him back in the tank. do this three times per day. mif there is no change, then a vet is the next option. as for the tank, provide a water bowl with one inch of water, paper towels or a soil substrate, some live potted tropical plants or fake plants with large, broad leaves should be provided as well as hiding spots in the tank, which can be created using driftwood and/or cork bark, just wash it with salt and soak it in water for a hour, then rinse before using. gold treefrogs can be fairly large frogs, i have one at 2" and one at 3 1/2" (measured snout to vent, not including legs) and both are capable of eating large crickets 3/4"-1" in size. if your frog is smaler than this, then you will need to get smaller crickets else where in the 1/2"-3/4" size (i.e. petsmart). good luck

But moss is a hit and miss type thing. I have read a post about someone who has moss in her tank for 9 years before having trouble and almost loosing her frog (it swallowed enough moss that it needed surgery to get it out)

Better to use eco earth or bed a beast(same thing. It holds the humidity just as well, stays moist (my frogs aren't as bothered by it as they were with earth)

Yes a shallow water dish is good, but I would say, rather than it being an inch, that it just not go higher than the frogs head. It needs to sit in there comfortably without fear of drowning.

You may want to get a slightly larger tank, 15-20 gallon. Bigger is always better with frogs. Live plants can always be placed in the coco bedding, mine are doing quite well. and they don't need to be watered as often because the earth holds in moisture.

No one has mentioned water. Tap water is a nono, it contains alot of chemicals and stuff that can harm your frog. You can always treat it with a water conditionner, then let the water sit for 24 hours before giving it to your frog. Change the dish every day. Personally, I use the water you buy in 5 gallon jugs. Cheaper (bottles of conditionner are not cheap!) and you don't have to worry about quality and if you run out, you just go to the store and get more. yay.

if you can, lets see some pics!
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1:0
Mantella viridis : 1:1:2

just a side note, (i am not disagreeing with daystorm), but moss, bed-a-beast, eco earth, forest bed, jungle mix, sand, gravel and just about any other substrate can cause an impaction if enough of the substrtate is swallowed, which usually happens when a herp is attempting to catch prey and gets dirt, moss, etc. instead. if you want to ensure this is not a issue, you should try forcep feeding your pets instead of letting prey run lose (not all pets will do this though). paper towels are the safest way to go, though i only use them for quarintine. i use black jungle coco and denro bending bricks mixed with t-rex forest bed and esu reptiles jungle mix for most of my tanks.
as for water, tap water is generally no good for amphibs, store bought spring water or distilled water is best to use. letting tap water stand for 24-48 hrs will only remove chlorine, not metals, minerals, etc. and pureifiers reduce, but don't completely remove harmful things in water. water conditioners, like for fish tanks and ponds, can be used, but are generally expensive and not worththe effort, go to BJ's or sams club and get poland springs by the case for real cheap, less than a dollar per gallon.