Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had 2 White's TFs for about 2.5 years, and I am noticing some strange behavior with my male (who is now a full grown adult.) He is extremely active, in fact, he constantly tries to escape his cage. He looks healthy and calls out for a "froggy friend" regularly, but will not eat!!! It doesn't seem like he is ill since he is always looking for a way out, although he is starting to get a little thin from the "change in diet." My only guess is that he's looking to mate, but why wouldn't he eat? It's starting to worry me, I was just curious if any of you have ever seen this behavior in your frogs. It has been about a month now, and if he doesn't eat this weekend he's going to the vet!
Thanks for your help,
Kristen

The first noticed sign of illness with frogs is usually not eating. Increased activity can also be a sign of a problem, and they can also exhibit the behavior of trying to escape constantly if something is out of wack in their environment (set-up). Since this is an established frog who was not doing this before, have there been any changes in the set up recently? Or are there females outside of his tank in the room with him - as males will sometimes do this when trying to get out and mate. If anything has changed, you can try changing it back and you may also try doing a total tank tear down and cleaning to see if it may remedy the behavior. These are all just possibilities and having him checked by the vet may be the best thing. Hope this helps and keep us posted.
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Happy Frogging!!!

~Becki~

There are several possibilities:

1) He is now a fully grown adult male this year and there is a female in a tank adjacent to him, so he may be trying to get out and mate.
2) His cage is a planted terrarium, but it has been very humid and the soil is more moist than usual. He may not like the moist environment. I am thinking of rebuilding it anyway since it has been a while.
3) He has nematodes or some other parasite that is causing him not to eat. (I think this is the reason.)

I did the smart thing and scheduled an appointment with the vet for this coming Thursday. My female was sick when I first got her and the Panacur they gave me solved the problem (unfortunately I don't have any more.) I have heard that frogs can go for a pretty good amount of time without eating, but since it's been about a month already I don't want it to go on for much longer. Thanks for your help!
-Kristen

A vet visit and fecal exam is the best thing to do at this point. For future reference, if a frog hasn't eaten for more than a week or two, it justifies looking into, waiting a month is a bit too long. Since the visit isn't until Thurs, I would go ahead and redo the tank in the meantime and if you don't have background on 3 sides of the tank, add it. Best of luck and keep us posted.
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Happy Frogging!!!

~Becki~