Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My pacman frog has been hibernating since around 12/23/04. I mist her every Thursday (I noticed on my other frog, that if I mist more often, they think it's spring & wake up). I woke up today to find blood on her back side! I soaked her in my hand & found that she had a little crack in the skin on her "knees", which were bleeding a bit. It seemed she didn't really have the waxy shell over her knees. So I am soaking her in a bowl of warm water now. It took her less than 5 min. in the bowl to wake up & peel her shell off.

Am I doing something wrong during hibernation? My other frog died during hibernation this month (I don't know of what, perhaps age, but I don't know). I'm really worried. Both frogs hibernated for about 4 months last year w/o any problems.
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1 Pacman frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

I actually un-bury my frog from time to time. I do this mainly to make sure she is not losing any weight. She will re-bury herself within minutes of me doing this, sometimes even making digging motions with her hind feet in my hand.
Once in a blue moon (OK, maybe once a month or so) she will be out and I'll toss in a few nightcrawlers for her to eat.
You could try raising the tank's temperature slightly, which could bring the frog out. I would do this by using a heat lamp, raised above the cage so it's not burning the substrate to a too-hot temperature. Unless that is, your tank's temp is already warm; what's it at?
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2.1 Ball pythons
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog
1.0 bearded dragon
1.0 Tiger salamander
1.1 breeding Clawed frogs
1.0 black kittycat
3.1 Oscar cichlids
0.1 Paint horse mare

The temp's around 73 now. She woke up yesterday as soon as I soaked her. She soaked herself all day, blew up in size & now is out of the water. I'm not sure if she'll go back down or not, but I'm not feeding her, just in case she'll go back into brumation. She doesn't actually bury herself, so I can see her the whole time she's hibernating. I check her daily & mist her weekly when she's down.

Any suggestions?
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1 Pacman frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

I'm not sure, but that scratch may be something to look out for? What I mean is that there may be a risk of infection, though I'm no expert on that. Wait for more answers.
About doing something wrong during brumation, I don't think so. My temp is usually around 73-75 and my Pacman isn't brumating right now, so then there should be no problem. Maybe though, you could raise the temperatures a few degrees to make them stop hibernating, and raise the humidity(depends how high it is though)to "lure" the Pacman out of brumation.
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CokeOfMan

Her legs seem fine now. I rinsed them off as soon as I saw the blood & they did not continue to bleed. Once she was soaking, I could no longer see anything wrong in the area, but I will monitor for any signs of infection. She has fresh EcoEarth in there now, so at least the environment's tip-top.

I'm wondering if I should actively bring her out of brumation. Should I necessarily encourage her one way or another, or just let her do what she's gonna do & feed her if she stays "up"? (she's up now, but I suppose she could go back down, she's only been up a day).
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1 Pacman frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

On the rare occasions that I do bring my HF out of brumation, she will re-bury herself within minutes of me digging her up. I really don't like to, but sometimes after a month or so I admit, I get anxious to see how she's doing. Never at these times, have I ever seen her thinner than when she went in. I guess she is just a career brumator, hehe.
My temps are in the mid 70s like yours. I would imagine it;d be warmer than that in their native country (Argentina) But I will have to look up their weather patterns to be sure of that. I am under the impression, though, that in nature they spend most of the year (the dry season) buried, and come out just in order to breed.
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2.1 Ball pythons
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog
1.0 bearded dragon
1.0 Tiger salamander
1.1 breeding Clawed frogs
1.0 black kittycat
3.1 Oscar cichlids
0.1 Paint horse mare

The "rule" of thumb we use at work, is that the animal shouldn't lose more than 10% of its body weight (total over the entire period) while hibernating or estivating.

Ed

She buried herself today & has her eyes closed, so I'm guessing she's going back down, which I'm glad of. Thanks for the advice & comfort.
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1 Pacman frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena