Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased 4 Dendrobates tinctorius Patricia's from Black Jungle at the Herp show in Manchester, NH. They are all froglets a little larger than my thumbnail. I have been feeding them D. melanogaster flies that are dusted with Dendrocare Vitamin & Mineral Supplement. Three of the four are really plump and are doing great. I have one though that has trouble catching flies. It takes 3 or 4 attempts to catch one. The same results come from undusted flies. This one is alot thinner than the other. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else before. I have a empty 10 gal. tank that's fully furnished. Should I just put that one frog in that tank??? I don't know what to do??? Thanks!!!!!!

Companion stress could be a factor in this case, so eliminating this possibility will probably be a good way to tackle this problem. Setting him/her up in a smaller quarantine tank would be best, but a ten gallon can suffice if you have no other options available. Use damp paper towels as a substrate and add a few pothos for refuge. This way you can monitor him/her easily. Provide alot of dusted food, but not too much so that it becomes a nuisance to the frog. Make sure adequate humidity/ temps are given, but be sure to also keep ventilation in mind. Give it a couple days and let's see how it goes. Good Luck!
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Randy
Lawrence, Kansas
2.2 Azureus
1.1 Cobalt
1.1 Fantasticus
3.3 Bastimentos Pumilio
3.4 Bri Bri Pumilio
1.0.2 Mysteriosus

Thanks for the advice. I plan on putting the skinny one in the ten gallon tank tomorrow. The temp is a constant 75 and at 85% humidity and is planted, has live moss and tree bark background. The weird thing is that it just can't catch the flies. You can even see it's tongue come out. I'll try and see if the lack of competition will make a difference. Will let you know how things turn out. Thanks again.

I actually did have that exact thing happen to one of my Surinam Cobalt tincs. I was watching the 5 of them eat, and I noticed one of them lunging repeatidly at a termite. After several attempts, one of the other frogs got it. I kept an eye on him and noticed the same thing happening whenever I fed them. So I isolated him immediately so he wouldnt have any competition beacuse he was also geting very skinny. After I isolated him, he almost immediatly became very lethargic, not even attempting to eat. I figured he was upset from being moved from the colony since they had been together from day one (and I mean day one from the egg) So anyway, I moved him back in with the rest and he began to eat again, but not nearly enough. I dont mean to scare you, but he did end up dying despite my efforts of shooing the healthy frogs away from him during feeding, using tweezers to force feed him termites, and offering food every few hours. I dont know exactly what caused him to have this problem, and I probably never will. I hope reading this doesnt freak you out, but at least you have some ideas to get some food in his stomach. I hope you have better luck than I did.
-David Taylor

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully I will have better luck than you did with this feeding problem. I will let you know how things work out. Thanks again.

I had a simaler problem with one of my leucs. I originally got 4 leucs and 3 were growing and eating, but the forth was not eating as much. I could never tell how much it was eating since it seemed to hide away from the others almost all day. I removed it and placed in a small critter keeper alone, and after about a weeek it died. I still wonder if I killed it, by moving it since it was ok, but just smaller. I think it was beign bullied and then it got stressed in the small critter keeper. Hard to tell, but I still wonder.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
0.0.2 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

I have just put my skinny frog into a different 10 gal. tank. It is fully planted like the other tank and has a temp of 80 and humidity levels in the 90's. I will keep feeding him dusted flies every day and hopefully this will get him plumper and give it a chance to practice it's catching techniques. Thanks for the advice give from others on this forum.
John

1.1 D. Azeures
0.0.4 D. Tinctorius Patricia
1.1 Leopard Geckos
1. Ball Python
1. Tokay Gecko
0.1. Skunk Gecko
1. Whites Tree Frog
0.1. Red Eye Tree Frog

I have a small brazilian cobalt that morphed 2 months ago with similiar symptoms. It has shown very little interest in fruit flies, so out of desperation i tried some termites yesterday (even though they seemd quite large for a thumbnail sized froglet) and he has been eating quite well for about 24 hours. Still not hitting the target very well but at least he's eating and less lethargic.
Try some alternative food items - ya never know.

Donn