Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's been about a week since my pacman has ate. There are about 5 crikets running around his enclosure. There is cricket feed inside his tank so they don't start nipping at him. I always gutload the crikets before feeding him. I do have a criket holder that has pipes to shake the crikets into the tank with. Everytime I tap it against the glass he attacks it, does this mean he is wanting bigger prey? I really don't want to feed him mice. He is in a 10 gallon tank with a large bowl of bead-a-beast, a large bowl of water, and wood chippings in between both (I am wanting to change this to moss). Originally I had bead-a-beast covering the enclosure (no woodchips), but I was having a problem with it moulding every week. It is much easier to change in the bowl it is in now. There is also an undertank heater, a 15 watt nightglow and a 15 watt dayglow for heat. Any help is appreciated,

Lisa

when I got him at the pet store they told me he was about a year old. They said he was only the size of a nickle when they first got him and that they didn't think he would make it. That is why he is not very big. I have had him for about four months. He has grown, but not much. I feed him about 5 crickets every day or 2 depending on how many he eats. He only eats them when they walk right past him, which lately they do not seem to be. This is a picture of him when I first got him. The first picture was taken about a month ago.

he's awfully small for a frog that age...i doubt he's over a year old...1. because of his size and 2. a pet store can't keep anything alive for a month let alone a year!!...

start with the basics...what is the tank temp??...should be 80-85

humidity??...should be around 65-75%

what are you gutloading your insects with and are you using a vitamin dust???

get rid of those wood chips...if your frog swallows one (and this is very likely) he will get impacted.

i have a small pacman (just a little larger than yours) and i noticed that the smaller the prey the harder it is for him to catch it....i rarely use crickets to feed him, instead, i use lobster roaches, nightcrawlers and superworms...do not feed mice, they aren't healthy and completely un-necesary.

if your bed a beast is molding then it is probably too damp

hope this helps

LOL, I agree with you on pet stoes, I really regret supporting them in the past. At the least he is six months old. I think he is still too small for even that age.

The tank is about 85, but I'm not sure about humidity (I have to get a humidity gauge

I'm gutloading the crikets with flucker criket feed and quencher and I am dusting them every second feeding.

I will definately get rid of the wood chips. I hope he is not impacted already. I was told their chances of getting impacted are slim to none, glad to know I've been given false info yet again.

I tried mealworms but he didn't take to them, I'll try again. I cannot stand superworms but I guess they are worth another try as well, they just would not stop escaping and/or digging under stuff before my gecko could eat them. Very good to hear about the mice, I don't think I could do it even if they are healthy.

Thank you so much for your help,
Lisa

I know they are very beneficial for my leopard geckos, would they work for my pacman?

Doesn't matter if the crickets have food or not. They still might bite the frog. Pull 'em out now. If the superworms have time to get away, either the frog doesn't recognize them as food or isn't hungry. They should go after them pretty quickly if hungry (with my larger frogs, they can barely hit the bottom of the tank without being swallowed). Silkworms are a great food source for added variety.

As for your frog not eating for a week, that shouldn't be that big of a deal as long as he is not losing weight rapidly. I would drop the humidity even from what the other person that posted suggested. 50-60% is perfectly sufficient. The frogs are from the dry plains of South America. They do not need anything higher than that. People just choose to keep them in rainforest like habitat as it makes for easier care. Some species like cornuta are from the rainforest (the amazon basin at that), but a lot of cranwelli's range is in the llanos.
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Andy Maddox
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I think he's just been having a hard time catching them. I just put one right infront of his mouth and he gobbled it up. I will take the uneaten ones out though. Do you know if butterworms would be ok for a pacman. I am looking into getting them for my leopard geckos. Thank you for all of your info,

Lisa

butterworms are high in calcium (good) and make a nice variation in the diet, as do silkworms.

I feed them as an occasional treat to my cham but haven't given any to the frogs yet...alot of the cham people feed silkworms as they're staple diet

np

According to the nutritional analysis of silkworms published by Donoghue and Langenberg in Mader's Reptile Medicine and Surgery, they lack sufficient calcium (0.5 mg/kcal calcium) to allow for sufficient skeletal formation and should be supplemented with a calcium supplement.

I am unaware of a complete analysis of butterworms at this time but I would expect them to be close to silkworms (although Arctiidae larva have a calcium content of 0.4% dry matter which is still insufficient as a dietary source of calcium).

Ed

Actually that is the reason that I want to get butterworms. Their calcium more than twice as high as all feeder insects, even crickets. They apparently can last in the frigde for 1-4 months, with no food. They only live off tebo plants which are only found in Chile. The butterworms themselves are only found in Chile as well, which is probably why they cost so much more.
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Pacman Frog (Phatty)
1.0 Lovebird (Tony Montana)
1.0 Elkhound (Otto)
0.1 Malamute (Paris)
5.0 Bettas

Hi statements of twice the calcium have no meaning if there isn't any dietary analysis to show the ratios of calcium to phosphorus. The ratios of calcium to phosphorus needs to be between 1.5 to 2 to one for the optimum ratio. If the levels do not support these ratios then the feeder item needs to be supplemented.

Ed

http://www.canadianfeeders.com/faq.shtml#nine

Sorry I don't know anything about phosphorous... but this website has a nutritional analysis for some insects. The more I read about them the better they sound.
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Pacman Frog (Phatty)
1.0 Lovebird (Tony Montana)
1.0 Elkhound (Otto)
0.1 Malamute (Paris)
5.0 Bettas

lol, I'll have to give Rob a call. The ratio is in ml, it should be in mg. Those levels seem awful high, but I'll ask Rob about it.

FWIW, I helped them develop their gutload although I am not sure I would call myself an expert on amphibian nutrition.

Ed

np
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Pacman Frog (Phatty)
1.0 Lovebird (Tony Montana)
1.0 Elkhound (Otto)
0.1 Malamute (Paris)
5.0 Bettas

np
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Pacman Frog (Phatty)
1.0 Lovebird (Tony Montana)
1.0 Elkhound (Otto)
0.1 Malamute (Paris)
5.0 Bettas