Hi everyone, I'm new to these forums. I've had a few herps in the past, and I recently got my new Pacman frog. He's (she?) great, but I'm a little worried about him...
I bought my Pacman on the 12th of Feb. He's about the size of a hackey sack (or golf ball) The pet store (Petco) told me that he had been fed the day before (the 11th) and that he has been eating crickets.
I took him home (a short, minimally stressful trip) and put him in his new home. It is a 20 gallon tank. Half the tank is large flat rocks and water (the water is anywhere from "zero" to about 3/4" deep, and the other half is a heavy glass tray that is filled with "bed-a-beast". The water is filtered (no chlorine). I have an 8 watt undertank heater.
When I let him out of the "cup" that Petco had given him to me in, he just sat on the bed-a-beast substrate and didn't move. I figured it was best not to bother him, so I went about my business for the rest of the day. A couple hours later I checked in on him and he'd buried himself in the bed-a-beast, exactly where I "set him down".
I had done a lot of research online before purchasing the frog, and most sources recommend feeding younger frogs every 3 days or so. Since he had been fed on the 11th, I went to feed him on the 14th. On the evening of the 14th he was still buried in the same spot. I put about 5 small crickets in the tank and left one thawed pinkie mouse very close to his "hole". The next morning the pinkie was gone and I only found three crickets, so presumably he had eaten the pinkie and two crickets sometime during the night.
Since then I have tried to feed him every 3 days, but he hasn't been eating. I have tried feeding him small crickets, "adult" crickets, and another pinkie but he doesn't seem interested in the slightest. I have tried both the "leave food in the tank" method and the "dangle food in front of the frog with tongs" method, and neither seems to get any response.
Around the 20th I checked the tank temperature with a very accurate digital thermometer (borrowed from work). I found it to be about 73 degrees during the day and I am estimating that it might have been dropping to 67 or so at night. This seems a little cold, so I installed a larger heater and got the temp up. The water is a constant 82 degees, and the temp in the bed-a-beast is 80 degrees, as of the 21st.
...but my pacman still seems very lethargic. Yesterday I carefully dug him out of the bed-a-beast for another feeding attempt with tongs, and his lethargy was extreme. Literally the ONLY movement he made was to breathe and blink his eyes if I got the cricket too close. He didn't turn away or hop around or anything. I left him alone (with some tempting crickets wandering around his cage) and he just sat on the exact same spot on the top of the bed-a-beast all night long. His skin also appeared somewhat dry. It certainly didn't have the "slimy" look of "frog skin" that I'm used to.
Sometime between 7 and 8:30 AM this morning he buried himself in the bed-a-beast again.
Is this behavior normal? I've had the little guy for over a week and I'd think that he would be eating more and would be a little more active. I realize that this is a fairly sedentary animal, but except for eating the pinkie I don't think he's taken a single hop! He hasn't touched the water, that's for certain.
Here's a little more info:
-I mist the tank daily, with filtered water
-The bed-a-beast is moist from misting (but not swampy)
-The tank temp for the last several days is consistently 80-82 degrees.
-The tank lighting is flourescent (no bulbs or heat lamps)
-There are definatley no "hot spots" in the tank which might have hurt him.
-All of the rocks in his tank are far too large to be swallowed.
Please help!
Bikedoc
