Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been away at college and my frog has been refusing mice since August. He's now been losing his slime coating, occasionally flopping around. I got him a mouse and it died before he would eat it. I am afraid my family did not moniter the temperature of the tank when they fed him, causing it to be too cold for him to want to eat. I'm back now and trying to save the life of my beloved frog. I guess i need to force feed him. I have a pond of feeder goldfish, thinking one of those. I also can get pretyy much anything at my local petstore.

Is it fully grown? Sometimes mature frogs can go a few months without eating, and it really isn't that big of a deal. If it is skinny, or young, then it is a big deal. Crickets are much easier to force feed IMO because they are much smaller.

he's a 2 years old, but its been nearly 4 or 5 months since he ate. He wasnt terribly skinny, but he ate the gold fish no problem. I think he was biting it in defense but he then swallowed it. hope that helps

It should help your frog. Hopefully from now on it will eat on its own. How often do you feed it crickets? I generally only hear about this problem with frogs who aren't ever fed crickets, and are basically only ever fed mice.

If there is a local vet that does herps, you may want to take the frog into for a checkup. If there is some major issue like an impaction then it is a critical life threatening emergency.

Here is a site that lists herp vets by state
http://www.arav.org/USMembers.htm so you can see if there is one near you.

Until you talk to a vet, I suggest soaking the frog in about 1/2 inch of dechlorinated tap water that is between 78-80 F for at least several hours.
If there is a small impaction this can help the frog pass the smaller obstruction. Large obstructions may need to be surgically removed (if this is indeed the cause).

Some times the exposure to the warmer temperatures will stimulate an inappetant frog to begin feeding again.

Typically a diet consisting solely or even mainly of goldfish is not ideal due to the higher levels of cholesterol in the goldfish and that goldfish are often treated with copper based medications.

Ed