Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone-

I am so glad to have found this forum. I have tried posting on a couple of other forums over the last few weeks and I have taken many of the suggestions from the other forums already but so far, nothing has worked at all.

I have a White's Tree Frog that I purchased at PetSmart close to a month ago. It is not a full grown WTF...or at least if it is, it would be a small one..but it is not a tiny baby either. It is probably around 3 inches but I am trying not to mess with it too much since things are not going well.

I have it housed in a 12 X12 X18 inch exoterra cage which was recommended to me at the store but I understand now is a bit small. I don't want to change the cage at the moment though and I have heard from many people who have used this cage for a whites without an issue. I will look into upgrading her later once I get whatever is going on with her figured out first...it is bigger than her cage at the pet store was so I don't think the cage can be the primary issue anyhow.

She has fakes plants on two of the walls, a large corner water bowl, a bowl with her food in it on the other side and a flat piece of wood that she can climb on and hide under going across her cage. I started with reptile carpet in her cage, then had frog moss about a day and now have coconut bark (ecoearth) on the base of her cage. She has a lightbulb over her cage that is on during the day and off at night and a mini-zoo-med UTH on the side of her cage. Her cage is about 82 by day (hotter right opposite the UTH) and about 73 at night. Humidity is about 60%...I am misting a couple of time a day.

Since I got her, I don't think she has eaten at all...possibly one cricket but I think it got eaten by the other crickets. I have tried crickets, dubia roaches, superworms, meal worms, a night crawler (ewww...it was huge, died overnight and STUNK when it died), and now I have wax worms in there. I have been leaving food in there 24/7 in a deepish glass cereal bowl so the food can not get out and run around her cage.

At first, I figured it was relocation stress and no big deal....but it has been going on for weeks now and I was under the impression that getting White's to eat was not supposed to be hard at all.

It was suggested to me that I try soaking her in a pedialyte bath...10 parts water to 1 part unflavored pedialyte. I tried that tonight because I am getting desparate...she REALLY did not want to be in that water at all...climbed out and away as fast as she could...I put her in a few times to try to get some of the liquid on her but she seemed to hate it so and I really don't want to handle her or stress her anymore than I have to.

Oh, once I put in the ecoearth bedding...she buried herself for several days...I was told that was a sign of an unhappy frog...now she is up on the side of her cage all the time (not near the UTH though)...I hope that is a good sign of some sort but without eating, I am assuming she will die sooner or later and it is really awful to keep checking on her and wondering when.

Any ideas or advice about what I can do for her would be very much appreciated.

Thanks so much!

Alison

Try placing the frog in a plastic tub with one insect at a time. Don't use wax worms because they are not very active. Use something active like a cricket or roach or a superworm. After the frog eats, return it to the terrarium.

If that doesn't work, try picking up the food item and touching it to the frog's mouth. My frog immediately snaps at anything next to his mouth. Food, clothing, fingers....

I have a naturalist terrarium for my frog, but I don't leave food in it. Anything active enough to get his attention will most likely escape, and anything that escapes most likely will hide in the plants or soil.

Be sure to have a bowl of fresh water in there. My frog loves to soak at night. And once he starts eating, make sure you use calcium/d3 powder on the food.

Good luck!

i have had great luck with whites so i will share my ideas and hope they help. i tried the food in a bowl trick once and found it didnt work. i now just put calcium dusted crickets directly in the cage but not too many at a time it can be intimidating. i have found that a live plant works the best. all my cages have 3 inches of potting soil with no fertilizer included. topped off with a layer of sphagnum then a layer of nice pillow moss. this combo allows you to plant a live plant or two, i use pothos or a nice broad leaf green plant. it also allows the use of extra water in the substrate which will keep humidity up without having to spray daily. sometimes the act of spraying can be stressfull too. make sure you are using nonchlorinated water. your temps seem fine. the trick of holding a cricket in front of his mouth works great. mine snap up everything when i do that. infact most of mine now eat pinky and fuzzy mice without hesitation using that method. hope this helps. if you need more questions answered email me dirct at cjsreptiles@aol.com
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