worried about my male pyxie

[reece21]

hello. my male is now approx 7.5 inches and in the past 1-2 months his appetite has gone way down. when he was younger he would eat 20 dubia in 1 sitting and his feeding response was very enthusiastic.
now in the past 1-2 months he only manages 7-10 dubia and his feeding response is almost gone. only when the dubia is flapping in front of his face will he go for it. he will no longer chase the prey.
my setup has stayed the same since he was 3 inches long. only thing i can think of is that he always burrows in the cooler end of the 3ft enclosure i have him in. hot end is 85 and cool can be as low as 70 in cold weather. i dont know why he likes to burrow into the cool side.

do you think he wants to aestivate? i dont know what i should do tbh. hes lost his personality and doesnt seem too bothered about food anymore. hasnt croaked in about 2-3 weeks either.

please, any advice from experienced keepers would be helpful. cheers.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

hello. my male is now approx 7.5 inches and in the past 1-2 months his appetite has gone way down. when he was younger he would eat 20 dubia in 1 sitting and his feeding response was very enthusiastic.
now in the past 1-2 months he only manages 7-10 dubia and his feeding response is almost gone. only when the dubia is flapping in front of his face will he go for it. he will no longer chase the prey.
my setup has stayed the same since he was 3 inches long. only thing i can think of is that he always burrows in the cooler end of the 3ft enclosure i have him in. hot end is 85 and cool can be as low as 70 in cold weather. i dont know why he likes to burrow into the cool side.

do you think he wants to aestivate? i dont know what i should do tbh. hes lost his personality and doesnt seem too bothered about food anymore. hasnt croaked in about 2-3 weeks either.

please, any advice from experienced keepers would be helpful. cheers.

candidpets

 

[Viridis]

Is he losing weight? When was the last time you measured the temperatures? How are you measuring them?

 

[PYRU]

What's your setup like? 50/50 land water?

What's your humidity and what's you heat source? feeding frequency goes way down as they get big. I kept my old male just like a pacman with a big water section. He would go down in winter for months then wake up ready to grub out. This time of year I wouldn't think he would be aestivating.

 

[reece21]

hi. the humidity is in the 70s. his water bowl is a giant baking tray which takes up a 3rd of the enclosure. heat source is a ceramic. hot side is 85 and cold is 77f.

he actually started croaking a lot again yesterday which made me happy. his appetite is just nothing compared to when he was younger. he currently eats 8-10 adult male dubia twice per week with a mouse once a month. when he was younger he would polish off 20 males in a single sitting and i fed him every other day. and his feeding response is not what it used to be. he wont chase prey anymore.

is this normal for their appetite to drop so much as they approach full size?

i was thinking of aestivating him as he started to burrow a bit more than usual but im scared if i do he wont wake up from it. so i keep his conditions the same. is there a benefit to putting them in forced aestivation? im a inexperienced keeper and iv only had him for 7 months since he was 3 inches. just want references from other keepers. thanks guys

 

[PYRU]

That huge appetite was feeding a crazy growth rate so it's going to slow as his growth rate does.

Ceramic heaters can dry out an enclosure fast if you don't dim it. I think 85F is too high. I kept mine @ 80-82 with a -5 deg night drop or so. Humidity I would keep 78-80 unless he's goes down which you dry it out a little for that.

He's eating so that's good. It could be he's a little compacted. I'll not sure what kind of substrate you have (sphagnum is bad), but I would recommend the fine coco stuff. Try taking him out and soaking him in some warm water treated with prime or similar.

He's probably digging down because it's too hot/dry. This time of year I would think he would be ready to go. I live down south so mine would go down sometime in nov and I would wake him up late February by slowly wetting the environment.

What's your top like? It sounds crude, but aluminum foil taped to your top with a hole cut out a little bigger than the diameter of your light works wonders for keeping humidity on tanks like this. Darts I use glass with a strip of mesh screen and have a fan blowing over the vent on intervals which would be the Cadillac of fat frog tanks. Here's a pic

 

[reece21]

i could turn down the heat a bit. i use coco fiber. it does dry out eventually but it stays moist if i spray every 3 days. hes actually in a 3ft x 2ft plastic enclosure and the top isnt covered in holes so the humidity stays in quite well.

iv tried heat mats but they are useless and heating the room hes in is no option. ill lower the temp by a few degrees and spray every 2 days instead and see how he gets on.

also i do give him a warm bath every 1-2 weeks if he hasnt used his own water bowl and he did a big dump 4 days ago so hes fine on that front.

do you think keeping them awake for the whole year is bad for them? i havnt heard of anyone forcing them into aestivation before. i dont know if it harms them to keep them in the same conditions year round. cheers.

 

[PYRU]

Ok. That's a lot more helpful. I was guessing at the enclosure. How are you measuring your temps/humidity? If its something none analog believe your fine

I think he'll be ok. I guarantee he'll go under on his own at some point no matter what you do. Honestly they're fat lazy slobs when adults that don't do a lot except wait for food. If he's eating, has healthy weight to him, and your temp/ humidity is on point I wouldn't sweat it.

You could try another feeder to see if he gets fired up, but it just sounds like normal behavior. Mine was a killer for about a year then everything slowed down. It got to the point where all he'd go ape for was a small rat or mouse.

 

[reece21]

ok mate that makes me feel better.

he has become a lot more lazier recently, doesnt move from one spot until i take him out for feeding time every 4 days.

i measure the temps and humidity with a digital double probe thing and i put each probe on either side of the enclosure.

im in england so we mostly feed dead mice. im sure he would go nuts for a live mouse now but its not something i can get at the local pet shop, they only supply baby hamsters for like $15.
he does take dead mice if i tap it on his nose though.

thanks for your input mate. not many people keep pyxie frogs over here in the UK so its hard to get advice on uk forums.

 

[candidpets]

hey hes doing great seven inches now