Darts difficulty eating flicking tongue and missing insect

[Peter Keane]

Hi ya'all I periodically come across a situation whereas a few of my darts, this example was D imitator tarapoto, agressively chase down a feed item, melonogaster and springtails, to flick it's tongue and come up empty, now I know no frog's strike to catch ratio is 100% but one of my male tarapoto's who is looking thin these days was having a hard time of it and normally his strike to catch ratio is in the high 80's to maybe even 90%.. but being he was skinny and being housed with 2 agressive females I decided to keep an eye on him.. after feeding the rack of frogs tanks where he resides I go back to view his eating habits.. Like I said he hunts em down as normal but he was flicking away and not picking up anything.. I then offered undusted fruitflies and same results he was able to nab a few flies and a few springtails but barely enough to keep up with his active lifestyle keeping 2 ladies happy.. I know there were some tests done in or around the late 1980's and again around late 1997 or 1998 and the culprit was eye problems associated with vitamin E, either too low or too high a dose.. I've also heard that if you dust too much they can miss.. but neither has proven to be a sure thing.. I've had a few episodes in the past with this most of the time the frogs recovered and fed normally but over the years my worst luck came with one particular specie.. 4 out of 5 D tinctorius alanis that had gotten this died.. and I took all the info I could at the time.. and one thing I now see that may be a cause is heat.. the floor of the tarapoto tanks had high temps of 83.3-85 degrees and the temps at the top of the tank were actually cooler within the 81 degree range.. so I put an extra exhaust fan and increased mistings in and it dropped the temps on the tank floor to a more manageble 75.6 degrees and all of my tarapotos were back to eating normally and the male has since gained weight.. perhaps this may have been something we call dry mouth and with the cooler temps and increased humidity (mistings) the frog was able to create more moisture on tongue to allow an insect to hold.. Has anyone in this board had any experiences with "strike and miss" problems? and if so what were your remedies?... Thanks for listening, Peter Keane

[Ed]

Originally Posted by Peter Keane

I then offered undusted fruitflies and same results he was able to nab a few flies and a few springtails but barely enough to keep up with his active lifestyle keeping 2 ladies happy.. I know there were some tests done in or around the late 1980's and again around late 1997 or 1998 and the culprit was eye problems associated with vitamin E, either too low or too high a dose.. I've also heard that if you dust too much they can miss.. but neither has proven to be a sure thing..

Hi Peter,

Its vitamin A not E. Unless there is another underlying condition such as bone deformation due to calcium metabolism disruption the problem is caused by insufficient vitamin A and is called short tongue syndrome (STS). It has been most commonly seen in bufonids (such as Wyoming toads) but it has been anecdotally reported in other anurans. STS is caused by an insufficient amount of retinol which then causes changes in the cells which secrete mucous allowing the capture of the prey item.
Most of the supplements in North America use beta carotene as the sole source of vitamin A and it appears in those species treated so far that there is something that disrupts or causes an increased need for retinol and the conversion rate of beta carotene is insuffient to supply that need. Alternatively there may have been a problem in the manufacturing of the vitamin supplement.

If it is STS and not some other problem then the frog needs an increase in the vitamin A content of the diet but care must be taken to not oversupplement as vitamin A competes for uptake with vitamin D3 and if this balance is disrupted the frog can develop one of the forms of MBD.

Ed

[Peter Keane]

Ed, I thank you, I know I kept literature on this subject and I wasn't sure if it were viamins A or E and at the time of post I took a 50-50 shot at it and as usual with my luck, when I leave something to chance I come up on the short end, lol... Thanks I was hoping someone with longevity in the hobby can point me in the right direction... STS!! ... I have a video presentation of the Wyoming Toad and it's plight for survival from an IAD sponsored event.. not sure if I remember this as source for my subject/question.. I must review that.. Again I thank you a ton.. I wasn't sure if anyone would remember these findings... Peter

[Ed]

Hi Peter,

You are welcome. Glad to help.

Ed