Concerning frogs, chopsticks and crickets

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Ever tried to force feed a frog?
Didn’t think so. If I am wrong please post any tips or hints here.

Just engaged in a nightmare experience with a variety of wildlife plus MrsIteki. One of our Whites Tree Frogs has been poorly for a few months now. Listless and loosing weight. We have discussed force feeding him to combat the weight loss for a while. Tonight was the night.

Ever seen somone try to pick up a live cricket with chopsticks?
Hehe, knowing this board it wouldn’t surprise me actually…
While I tried to hold skinnyfrog tightly enough to restrain him and yet not so tight as to harm or frighten him, MrsIteki chased crickets around with a pair of chopsticks. Her being asian only added to how bizarre this scene was. This also invloved holding them tight enough to grip yet not squeezing them to death. Which meant they escaped. And crawled on me. Have I mentioned that I am phobic about insects? And not wild about holding the frogs?

Little fecker wouldn’t open his mouth, and eventually wriggled free dropping about a foot and a half into his enclosure. We gave up. Now we get to go to bed and see if he is dead in the morning either from the trauma of the feeding attempt or from the salt/chemicals my hands must have been pumping out as my body went into adrenaline overload.

What a crappy evening for both us and frogface. His brother (who is a picture of froggy health) spent the whole procedure croaking maniacally. I think he found it funny.

If anyone happens to be a herpitologist, do please chime in.
Anyone who is the praying kind and wants to remember a well loved pet in their prayers is welcome to, all positive vibes are appreciated. They may not be cats, but we love them anyhow.

2

Sorry about all the squirming and jumping around, but sometimes being proded with chopsticks really hurts!
And does he really have to eat me? I mean I could just give him a quick kiss and maybe he will turn into a prince?

All joking aside I hope frogface gets to feeling better soon and that you haven’t traumatised him terribly in your attempt to help him feel better.

3

I’ve never forcefed my frogs. I just provided them with living, squirming food, and they usually just … welll… eat it up.

If you are forcefeeding a frog, then it doesn’t have to be alive and squirming, which means that you don’t have to worry about picking up a live cricket with your chopsticks. You can use safe, non-squirming dead crickets. Or hamburger, for that matter.

Dr. Haas, director of the Miami Serpentarium, used to demonstrate force-feeding of snakes to the tourists. He pushed a flexible plastic hose down their throats and basically pumped in liquid nutrition. You could always try that with your frogs.

4

Assuming that the frog is set up properly (maintained at correct temperatures, good substrate, appropriate sized enclosure, etc.), I would suspect a few things. Red-leg is pretty common, but this is usually caused by dirty conditions. It’s easy to rule out, as normally the back legs will appear streaky red, especially on the underside.

My initial thought is some type of parasitic infestation. It’s not uncommon for frogs to come in to a shop/dealer with parasites, but appear fine. As the parasitic load increases, the animal becomes lethargic and often stops eating. You may want to consider worming the frog, if you have reason to suspect this. There’s a lot of wormers available, what I’ve always used is Pancure which can commonly be found at feed stores.

The frog could be impacted, especially if it has been kept on gravel or other improper substrate. You can check the cloaca, or look for evidence of fresh feces. Oversupplementing a frog can also cause this.

I know there’s others, but the other cause I’ll add is some other type of infection that would need to be treated with antibiotics from a vet. I listed these because in my experience they seem to be the most common. If you take the frog to a vet, try to bring a stool sample.

If it’s been a few months, the frog is probably pretty weak, and may have difficulty being force fed. When things get to that point, it’s usually a “cure 'im or kill 'im” situation. Instead of using crickets, you might consider a pinkie pump. Some pet stores stock them, or at least have one that you could use if you brought your frog in and bought a pinkie from them. It’s easy to damage or suffocate an animal while trying to force feed, so it might help to have someone with experience do this.

Force feeding is probably not going to help the frog out, unless you determine the cause of his illness. I wish you luck and want to be more encouraging, but when things get to this point you stand a good chance of losing the animal. I hope things work out for you.