cobalt tinc refuses to eat

1190 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Ed Martin, Jan 21, 2005

Discussion Starter · Jan 20, 2005

I recently aquired a young adult pair of cobalt tincs. The male is as voracious a feeder as I have ever seen. The female has been very slowly losing wait for 3-4 weeks since Ive had them. I watch them for many hours a day, and have never seen her eat. Ive tried fruitflies-mel and hydei, rice flour beetles-adults and larvae, springtails, pinhead crickets, field sweepings. She has no feeding response whatsoever. She is otherwise normal, not listless or unresponsive to stimuli. I have even tried to change the color of the substrate to improve visual contrast between the food item and the substrate. All have been to no avail.

I have tried treating with cutaneous calcium supplementation, as well as a water soluble vitamin/mineral mix. I havent treated for any kind of parasites, as I am trying to avoid harsh medications if possible. Ive also played with the temperature and humidity to try and find a solution.

One thing I noticed is that the frog has no reaction when you put your finger close to it. Even a vigorous movement of the hand right in front of her eyes illicited no response. As soon as you touch her though she makes a giant escape leap away from you. The male tinc retreats from you as soon as he sees you getting close to him. If I were to just throw a diagnosis a diagnosis out there, it almost seems like she's blind. Has anyone ever heard anything about blindness in herps, frogs, darts?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I'll try anything at this point.

Thanks
Brett Berger

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Ed Martin

· #3 · Jan 21, 2005

There was an interesting presentation at last year's IAD on the Wyoming toad recovery effort. One of the problems with this effort was that the gene pool for the population was so small that they were seeing a large incidence of genetic issues. One in particular was "short tongue syndrome" where the toads seemingly had tongues that were too short to catch prey items. The interesting thing was that after necropsy, it was determined that the tongues were normal length, but there was a problem with the eyes of the animals and could not see the food items.

That being said, I think that you should get the frog to a herp vet right away to check for other things i.e. parasites or neurological issues. I would think that unless the animal is very close to death that even a partially blind frog would react to sudden movements close to it. As Tim said find out about her behavior/ captive conditions from the person you got her from, it might help with the diagnosis
Ed

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