Reptile & Amphibian Forums

1) How fat is too fat?
My albino pacman looks pretty chubby. His belly is really squishy...almost like jello. He's about 2 inches in diameter and his gut hangs out a bit around the sides.
Should I not feed him for a couple more weeks? My books and care sheets say they can sometimes go months without eating.
He hasn't eaten in two weeks.
In fact, the last time he ate, I gave him a hopper mouse as a "treat" (normally I use night crawlers). Is it possible it was just such a big meal that he's still digesting or just not hungry?

2) Any way to enjoy him more during the day?
What I mean is since he is nocturnal I only see him when I first wake up. He tends to wander at night, but once the lamp goes on, he digs himself all the way under the bed-a-beast and I dont see him until the next morning. I'd like to see him more than those 30 seconds every day.
I was thinking of having his lamp go off around 5 or 6 pm, and come on in the real early hours. I'd change the timer over a long period of time of course so as to put minimal strain on biorythyms.
But would this kind of thing work? Its kinda hard to feed him late at night and I hate to wake him up for feedings duing the day.
Suggestions?

Your frog got chubby because of the mouse; mine will get like that for a week or so after eating a large prey item, or a lot of smaller ones, say, nightcrawlers. He will also bury himself while digesting this large prey item. Nothing wrong with him, I would just wait until he defecates to feed him again. This is my "rule of thumb" that I use. I would give him a week, then maybe feed some smaller prey, like several crix or crawlers. Mice are only really good as an occasional treat (one every few months, I would say.) Otherwise your frog wil most likely become obese, and they can even get lipid buildup on the eyes as a result of too much fat, and this leads to a blind frog who will bumble around his tank. I saw this happen to a frog fed only mice, and it was Not pretty. These frogs are not really active during the day, or anytime else usually. They can spend months buried in the wild, so I guesss they are not very entertaining in the way of watching them move around during daytime. If your frog is active at night, I would sneak up and watch him by flashlight. This sounds corny, but I always peek in on my guys at night, the only time I can ever see my bullfrog juvenile eating his crickets

I agree with ginevive but I would say if you wanted a pet to watch during the day you should have done some research before purchase of a pacman. even at night they are not active. if it does move around at night alot then it probably does not like the setup. but it will not be active during the day.

Your post was genuinely appreciated. I'm glad some people are a little nicer when giving advice.

Now I got a question for you. That picture you posted. Is that a normal size or is he too chubby?

Thanx again.

Benne is my adult female horned frog. she is slightly overweight in the pic, it was after a feeding of 6 nightcrawlers. she is also a bit puffed up with air; when feeling threatened (and getting photographed,) Benne will inflate a little with air, but her weight is pretty healthy, seeing as you can see her front legs (i have seen a photo of a horned frog that was so bloated, you could not see his arms.)

Well, he's not bloated enough to hide the arms, so thats good.
He looks about the same as your pic, so looks like I'll put him on a diet for a little while and stay away from the mice completely.

Thanks again!

whatever. truth hurts doesn't it. I don't know why your knickers are in a bunch. everything I said is the truth. I had to learn the hard way. you have this forum and many books. I did not have any help and there weren't many books. I just wish you would listen to me and your frogs would be much happier

Do not post to me. You are not worth talking to.

?

then find another forum or get a different pet. fish are more your speed.

MarkC knows what he's talking about. He's full of info, but can be a little rude sometimes. Jusdt ignore it. Check out his tanks and stuff on becki's page. He does know how to keep frogs. We all know how to keep frogs here and offer our advice, you can take it or leave it, just don't complain when we can ignore you and you will get no info.
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Derek

Monkey Frogs Are The Best.

Ok nobody cares about how you feel. You asked for info, you got it. So if you want it with flowers and candy, go somewhere else. No one even has to give you info. We could choose to ignore you, as I often do thanks to ingrates like you. If you beg, you don't have the luxury of choice. And you my friend, would be classified as someone who begs. Therefore, you should be happy you got any information from someone who VOLUNTEERS their time on this site. I used to be on here everyday to help answer the multitude of [HIGHLY REPETITIVE] questions, but it gets old, and the people get rude. So if you don't like mark, leave. If you don't like him and want to stay, deal with it because we don't want people like you taking up our space and time with frivolous finger pointing. We could probably point a finger at you as just about all information that we relay is in a book, magazine, or article somewhere. So drop it. Sorry to join in this utterly pointless debate made by a hopelessly uneducated and uncompromising person. Andy
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Andy Maddox
The Reptizone

Who are you who can say it's ok to live through me? Alice In Chains

Sorry bro, but my first reaction to your post was "you've got the wrong animal". No one who knows anything about these frogs would have told you that you would actually be able to see it move around. That is the simple truth.

To answer your first question, I would say that the diet you are giving your frog is pretty adequate. Nightcrawlers are hardly something they can live off of, and then to top it off with a mouse that is hardly good for it as well. You should be feeding a staple of dusted crickets. You should also consider using hissing cockroaches that is actually an appropriately sized food item.

I guess that since I agree with Mark’s post, I am hereby banned from replying to your questions as well? I find it hard to believe that if you know Mark's posting habits so well that you can criticize him, that you wouldn't have picked up on his personality yet?

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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)