# Question about Pac Man frogs



## Trekky (Feb 4, 2009)

Hi there,

I am new to this section of the forum and hoped that you might be able to help me with a question my husband has.

We have kept frogs for a while in the past we have had green tree frogs and a pixie bull frog. We have been the proud owners of a green horned frog for sometime now but this weekend he displayed a behaviour we haven't seen before in any of our frogs and we can't seem to find anything on the internet that would explain why he does it. 

Saturday morning hubby came down to find his frog lead on his back with feet in the air. First thought was that he had died for some unknown reason then as he went to get him out the frog jumped back onto his feet right as rain as if nothing was wrong.

We looked on the internet but could find any info about why they do this. We have also turned of his heat mat now thinking that with tha hot weather we have just had he was getting too hot. then this morning i got called down by the kids as he had done the same thing again. This time i was more convinced he had died has he was upside down in his water bowl but again as i went to pick him up he rolled himself over.

Once i realised he was still alive i took the opportunity to take this photo to show you what i meant, is there anyone on here that might know why they do this?


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## Animal madness (May 28, 2011)

i have only ever known of this when the frog has a problem and is not healthy and usually past curing the problem , there can be many suggestions as to what it could be here are a few: 
= parasites
= the water you use is not dechlorinated water
= red leg (Red leg is a common problem in amphibians that causes redness, and in prolonged cases sores on the underside and legs. its caused by unhygieneic conditions and can be transmitted between frogs, so its a possibility (from the shop not you)
There is a product called Mela-fix thats for fish, but it works brilliantly for amphibians too. You dilute it down heavily, and using a cotton bud bathe him gently once a night and rinse it off. I know its worked for other very sick frogs. I can get exact instructions if you wish.
Another product thats easily obtained is Tamodine. its an iodine solution that helps to kill any bacteria etc, so if its something fungal, bacterial or an irritation or wound, the same instructions apply as to mela fix. Just mkae sure you rinse very thouroughly. Pure iodine can burn badly so you wouldnt want to risk leaving it on)
= also if they are shedding but are not moist enough, even though you have a water bowl in there do you spray it daily?

how long have you had the frog for?

i wish you all the luck and hope all turns out well, you can take a poo sample to a specialized vet if you know of one


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## Trekky (Feb 4, 2009)

Thanks for that advice animal madness :2thumb:

I will get him booked in at vets to be on safe side (just phoned my regular vets and the exotic specialist has left them so will have to do some phoning round for a new vet :gasp

In the mean time i will also try your other suggestions as they probably won't hurt to try.

We do filter the water before putting it in his bowl or his spray bottle but would it be better to buy bottled water to use for him? We do spary him daily but again with the filtered water.

The condition he was being kept in at the shop wasn't great and the staff didn't seem to know how to look after him properly saying that he could live in their small tub he was in all his life:devil: Luckily we had done our homework on the net before getting him so had a lovely spacious home waiting and his whole appearance seemed to improve once he had settled in. 

We got him at the beginning of Feb this year and this is the first time he has given us cause for concern.

Many thanks again for all your advice :no1:


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## Animal madness (May 28, 2011)

yes it is always wise to get more advise as always could be better lol, i keep 3 myself but have had more previously and yes it is always the shops reason for poor health, also do you dust your livefoods with calcuim / nutrobal? and do you also feed mice/rats as these are fab for them i feed mine a varied diet mainly locust and mice but as babies they had crickets, pinkies and wax worm morio's etc


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## Trekky (Feb 4, 2009)

Thought i would quickly add a pic of him the right way up to show you what a handsome chap/chapet we have. We think he may be a she from what we have read on the internet.


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## Trekky (Feb 4, 2009)

Animal madness said:


> yes it is always wise to get more advise as always could be better lol, i keep 3 myself but have had more previously and yes it is always the shops reason for poor health, also do you dust your livefoods with calcuim / nutrobal? and do you also feed mice/rats as these are fab for them i feed mine a varied diet mainly locust and mice but as babies they had crickets, pinkies and wax worm morio's etc


Sorry i hadn't spotted this post before i posted the last one :blush:

We do dust the live foods for him so far we haven't yet introduced pinkies properly but are planning on getting some this week for him to try now that he is getting bigger, we did try pinkies when we first got him but he didn't seem interested and we just put this down to him being a baby, he has had crickets, locusts and morio's although he seems to prefer the locusts.

Is there a trick to feeding the pinkies? or do you just dangle them in front until he takes it?

Hubby is very taken with him and is talking about getting another one that he has fallen in love with recently... I think the bug has hit him lol, so i am sure i will be sharing our experiences with you again in the future


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Just a quick caution: pinkies are ok as a treat, but not as a steady diet; they are high in lipid fats that frogs find very difficult to metabolise. The fats therefore build up in the body and can cause lots of health problems, including (in extreme cases) blindness.


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## REDDEV1L (Nov 27, 2008)

One of my toads did this, and the reason is she has deformed/abnormal back legs from MBD. But she can't right herself again...just lays there, so its probably not that in this case if your HF can flip back over.


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## Trekky (Feb 4, 2009)

Ron Magpie said:


> Just a quick caution: pinkies are ok as a treat, but not as a steady diet; they are high in lipid fats that frogs find very difficult to metabolise. The fats therefore build up in the body and can cause lots of health problems, including (in extreme cases) blindness.


Thank you for that i will keep that in mind.

What other things are good for them that we can use to give variety to his diet?


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