Hi, a few days ago I took in a rescue pacman from who had been fed crickets when it was young, but once it reached a certain size, it was fed only rodents and fishes. I have left it alone for a few days and put in crickets daily but he hasn't eaten any. However, when I drop a mouse in there and fish, he eats them immediately. I'm trying to get him on a more healthy diet with only occasional rodents and fishes, but he won't have anything to do with the crickets. In fact, I tried to tong feed him the crickets with no luck, after waiting forever he bit the cricket and then spat it out, removing it from his mouth with his hand. Also. I tried to feed him a fish and when he was biting onto the fish and there was a gap in his mouth, I sneaked a cricket in. He manouvered it with his hand so that the fish was swallowed and the cricket was pulled out. This has happened a few times and it seems obvious that he doesn't want the crickets specifically.

How can I convert him back to crickets? Is it just a waiting/hunger game?

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You can try not feeding him for a few days to get his hunger really worked up then introducing the crickets again or I think there is some type of spray that smells like rodents you can spray on the crickets

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MARSHA
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Letting him go without food for a while may help, as Marsha mentioned. It's like a bratty kid. If you don't offer him any alternatives, he might just give in to hunger and eat the "nasty" cricket.

Though there's no rodent spray I can think of, you can rub the crickets on some fish to get the oils on the cricket. For scenting purposes (such as when feeding snakes) you could do it with the mice or the fish, but for flavorful purposes such as this, I imagine the fish would yield higher success. They're likely to transfer more flavor to the crickets than the mice, though you could try both. The idea is that eventually the frog gets used to eating the crickets and eventually the flavor transfer is not needed.

You can also try offering some mealworms, just to see if he'll eat them. Maybe even try flavoring them in the same manor if he still doesn't go for the crickets.

Just a side note, when offering fish, livebearers are pretty healthy, but coldwater fish are not that great. That means mollies, swordtails, guppies, etc are pretty good. Goldfish, koi, minnows, and "rosey reds" (which are mutated fat-head minnows) are the "junk fish". I usually opt for mollies because they're larger than guppies but they breed just as readily.

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I have tried mealworms he won't eat them. My gut feeling is that he is prefering the fish and mice because of size rather than anything else, although I may be wrong. Unfortunately I can't test this hypothesis at the momenet because the only place I can buy bigger insects such as locusts and grasshoppers is from the local bird garden which is closed until further notice due to the bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong (AGAIN! Aren't you just sick of bird flu?)

Of the two methods you suggested (thankyou) I think that the hunger tactic would work more than scenting. I don't know, its just a gut feeling, and also that basically I was feeding the crickets and fish together at one point and it didn't work. But I may try that again. However, I think I will try the hunger tactic first, because he, being on rodents before, is quite fat anyway.

So my question is this, how many days can you safely not feed him before problem occurs? I don't know if water is part of it but he never goes into the water bowl. He is 24/7 burried in the substrate except his eyes and nose. I do keep the substrate moist though.

Also, generally how do you tell if they are overweight? They all look like a tub of lard to me anyway.

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1.0.0 Green Iguana - Tyler
0.0.1 Sulcata Tortoise - Mantow
0.0.1 Ball Python - Se se
0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake - un-named (Suggestions welcome)
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1.1.0 Normal Corn snake het Anery A het Amel 66% poss. het stripe - un-named
1.0.0 Red Chain Snake - un-named
0.0.1 Twin spotted rat snake - un-named
1.0.0 Grey Chinchilla - Gee Gee

I do not know how to tell if they are overweight, lol. But I get accused of my frogs being a tub of lard also, lol. I was told with my whites that if the fat folds over the eye, which they do on mine, lol, that they need a diet! My pacman frog is rotund also, lol.

I'm thinking the fat content is what he's attracted to more than the size. Horned frogs will normally eat almost anything, and if the crickets tasted ok, he wouldn't spit them out just because they're smaller. Both coldwater fish and mice are high in fat, which is appealing to a wild animal (and tasty). If you try the flavoring he may think he's eating the fish.

However, try not feeding him for a little while and see what happens. How often do you normally feed him? He could go weeks without food, but I'd start it off at a week. If he still won't eat, bump it up to a week and a half. After that, maybe give him a small fish, or try the flavoring idea. Then go on to two weeks from there and see if anything changes.

He likely won't go in the water dish that often if his habitat is moist enough. Horned frogs are poor swimmers and rarely enter the water in the wild. Still, it's important to have the dish just in case. It's possible he's soaking briefly, or peeing in it quickly, when you're asleep or away.

Good luck, man!

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