Okay..I need some help...recently purchased a whites tree frog and she/he..Andie has stopped eating and is losing weight fast. Cant seem to find a vet close enough who is qualified to see frogs. Closest one is about an hour or so, he didnt recommend the drive as the stress of a ride that long could do even more damage. He suggested supplements for Andies water, but so far that hasnt worked. Temp and Humidity are good, no signs of obvious illness...sores, lumps, or anything like that. I absolutly adore this frog and am scared of losing it. Is there anyone out there who may have some ideas to get Andie to eat!!??!!
I had the same problem with my white that it would stop eating. Luckily it started eating again. If you just purchased the frog then you should give it some time to adjust to the new tank. Or if it get really worse what i did with my white is i force feeded him. but that was only because he was really really skinny. when i got him. My whites is doing fine right now.
how long did yours stop eating for?? It has been like a week and a half since Andie last ate and it was only like 2 crickets.
is the frog showing any other signs of illness? discoloration, listlessness, loss of motor control, unwillingness to move? how do you know the frog is losing weight? i seriously doubt that going 1 week without eating is going to make a frog lose a whole lot of weight unless he has some sort of parasite or illness. healthy ectotherms can hrive on amazingly small amounts of food. herps can also get bowel impactions from swallowing gravel, wood chips, or food items that are too big. if you have gravel in there or crickets that are larger than 3/4" long (TOPS) get them out now. gravel is very dangerous for most herps. instead use large polished river rock and/or coconut fiber bedding. the only way to determine healthy weights of white's tree frogs is to look at the tympanic membrane (the small membranous circle just behind the eye. the ridge of fat just above this membrane should be apparent, but should not cover more than half of the membrane. if the ridge is barely visible, the frog is too thin. if the rigde folds down to cover more than half of the membrane, the frog is too fat. please let me know what the ridge looks like so we can determine if the frog really is an unhealthy weight. also, you said the frog "stopped eating" . . . so when you first got it, it was eating? and then after you had it for a few days it stopped eating? this suggests that stress is not the causitive factor. make sure you change the water *every day* - hundreds of pet frogs die each year because they get amoebic infections and other diseases from dirty water. even if the water doesn't *look* dirty, it is probably full of minute amounts of shed skin, fecal matter, dirt, and parts of dead feeder insects. change the water every day. also, the water must be dechlorinated. Amquel is the best option. click on the link to read why frogs need dechlorinated water AND why amquel is the best option for doing so. good luck, keep us updated, and get back to us with some answers to the questions i asked.
well, im sad to say that Andie died this morning. Finally was able to get her to a vet closer to home...however, she was a little on the thin side when we got her and the vet said that from everything we had told him it was his best guess that she was sick when we got her and the "stress" of a new place made it that much worse. When i say she was getting thin really fast...i mean it, she was pretty much bone by this morning. The vet had force fed her a cricket hoping to jump start her appetite..but it didnt work. I didnt have any gravel or wood chips, only moss. I changed the water everyday and only used dechlorinated water. Anyway, i plan to get another one sometime soon, and will be much more observant when choosing one. Not just go for the first one b/c its adorable!! Thank you so much for your replies, I really do appreciate them!
wow i am very sorry. i know white's are adorable and have great personalities and i'm sorry you had to lose that. definately think about getting another amphibian sometime. since you didn't have gravel or woodchips in there, it's probably not your fault that he got sick.
Thank you guys very much! I went and checked out a few whites today, found a place that seems to really take good care of their animals so I have one more place to check out but maybe this weekend I will get another one. This time, I will have a vet check it out first!! The one place has a 45 day guarantee and said if i took it to the vet and something happened to wrong, to bring it back and they would do their best to find a healthy one. I thought that was very nice. They are reptile breeders and ALL of their animals were in excellent enclosures, i guess that is one good sign. Anyway, I will let you know if I get a new one!!
