Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted here a few weeks ago about my frillie who I was having trouble with the humidity. I followed some of the advice here and some from a friend of mine and fixed the humidity problem. But I think it was too late for him. Over the last couple weeks, he has slowly been degenerating. He has become very lethargic and does not chase after his food. I tried using wax worms and he ate a couple two nights ago, however, he regurgitated them tonight. Now, all he has been doing is laying at the bottom of the tank with his open. He's still alive, but barely it seems. Currently, I do not believe he's eating since his meal from Monday was lying on the floor plus I've been pulling all of the crickets out of the tank (I leave the wax worms in a bowl). I am at such a loss right now; I am going to be crushed if I lose him. Is there anything I can do? Or does it sound like it's too late?

Ok. So I looked over you last posts from a while back and what you are describing sounds like Metabolic Bone Disease which is very common amongst reptiles. Some symptoms are bumps on the skin, not eating, throwing up, low activity, etc. You may have proper uvb and calcium supplements but there are many other things that can cause it. There are a few steps that you can take to try and save the little guy. http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/reptilesgeneral/a/metabolicbd.htm. That site lists all of the possible reasons that can cause MBD, and what you can do from here on. If you are still puzzled, you could try and take it to a veterinarian. If one really isnt available to you and you really care about the frilled, you could even sent it out to me and I will babysit it and take it to my reptile specialized veterinarian and see what he can do for it. It may be something as simple as a parasite problem that can be corrected quickly, but it really sounds like MBD to me. Hope I helped.

Oh yeah... forgot to say something... If the heat of the basking spot is not hot enough- which could be the problem because you said that it threw up its meal from the other day, it will cause the frilled to develop MBD and it just cannot digest its food, make sure that the basking spot is at about 100 degrees.

Thanks for the tips breaker. Sadly, he passed away the next morning.

Essentially, here is my setup:

I had him in an Exoterra tank (one of those fancy ones) with a 60 watt red glass heat bulb with an ESU desert 7% light for UVB. However, I did use the bulb the ESU fixture came with since the box said it was a UVB bulb in the required spectrum. I used EcoEarth substrate with some terrarium moss as a light top layer. I kept a flexible vine that was thicker than him as well as a tree for basking purposes. The basking temp was def upper 90s low 100s as I had checked it several times before.

When he started to not shed properly, I did spray him excessively which might have made it stick to him more. I did pick a little bit at the skin, even though I know I shouldn't have (I did soak him before hand though).

I mean, once I got the humidity fixed, it seems like everything was according to what the majority of people suggested as a setup. I fed him every other day a dozen small crickets (though in retrospect, I think I could have fed him med/lg) dusted with Zoomed's reptivite. Does any of this sound off to you? I am disappointed he went, but it doesn't mean I want to give up on raising these guys in the future. Any suggestions/corrections to my setup?

It pretty much sounds like you did everything you could. A lot of these guys just don't make it past the baby stage. The fatality rate for them is higher at that age and in the wild most babies end up dying as in many species. It may have been something such as parasites but its too hard to tell. Im sorry that it passed away, but it does happen. Good luck in the future.

One thing to keep in my is to not over supplement. Every other feeding is over doing it if you are gutloading your crickets. I go through 3000+ a week, and I havn't supplemented in months. Just something to keep in mind. Hopefully I'll have some frilly hatchlings this year to offset the $60 a week I spend in crickets.

Sorry for your loss,

I too had a baby frillie die last year. It happened in a little over a day. I had made an appointment with the vet, but i was too late. I was heartbroken.

I took some advice and spent extra money on a juvenile frillie and, he is doing extremely well.

hang in there, best wishes