so sad!

[mangoandlemon]

I had to go away for a while and left someone pet sitting my 3 whites tree frogs. He forgot to spray and give them water. When i came back Gilbert and Golfrey were dead.  Skylar was very dehydrated but she's fine now. When i looked in there cage there was FIRE ANTS!!!!! Skylar is in a spare terrarium. She soaked in her dish for a long time and ate a mealy worm. Her other terrarium is being cleaned. Im going to get a professional pet sitter next time. Do you think i should get her a friend?

[etana]

Sorry to hear about your loss. RIP, little frogs.

I don't know enough about frog social life so I can't give advice on whether you should get Skylar a friend, but yeah, the professional pet sitter sounds like a good idea.

[cliath]

Sorry to here about that.

[muddydragon]

I'm so sorry to hear this, it's always worth making absolutly sue the sitter knows what they're doing, it's entierly possible a proffessional wouldn't know what to do either so make sure they offer some form of insurance (so you can be more reassured that they will try extremely hard with them).

I can't help with wether that species needs a friend or not. I would advise mabe looking for froggy forums and asking on there?

I love frogs, it must be lovely to keep some. i miss the pond at my parents' terribly which is chock full of common frogs (Rana temporaria) and common newts (Lissotriton vulgaris) during spring and summer absolutely wonderful animals. The university pond here does not have frogs but does get crowded with common toads (Bufo bufo)which are fantastic, but i do spend a lot of my time with my coat pockets full of toads i've ended up rescuing from crossing the roads (or sometimes the middle of roads!) and delivery to the pond (they must think they managed to hit some brilliant super highway system to the pond).

[morningcoffee]

Dec 2, 2014 10:15:16 GMT muddydragon said:

I'm so sorry to hear this, it's always worth making absolutly sue the sitter knows what they're doing, it's entierly possible a proffessional wouldn't know what to do either so make sure they offer some form of insurance (so you can be more reassured that they will try extremely hard with them).

When someone's been looking after my kitty, I've always left a printed list of step-by-step instructions for absolutely everything they need to do, including things that seem incredibly obvious. Just telling someone verbally is unfortunately likely to result in them forgetting things, especially if it's a creature they're not familiar with.

The reason for this is that when I was in hospital a couple of years ago, my housemate at the time was looking after the cat for me and I just told him basic things like where her food was and when I usually feed her, thinking that he could manage to look after her properly given that we'd had her for about 10 years. When I got discharged I came home to find that he hadn't scooped or changed her litter box at all (I was in hospital for 5 days) and it was full of poop, stinking of pee, there was poop outside it, she'd had diarrhoea, and she didn't have ANY water to drink in her bowl. When I got angry and screamed at him, he looked astonished and said "but you didn't say I needed to check her litter box or give her water!". Since then I've ALWAYS made sure I've written down absolutely everything that needs to be done, even the complete basics!

I'm really sorry about your froggies mangoandlemon

[muddydragon]

The full list of things is a brilliant thing i always look a bit like a nutcase with all the bits of paper i hand over "and this is his vet's number and here's everypossible number i can think of to contact me directly or indirectly".

Another thing you can do depending ont the animal which people seem to find really useful, is have portion sizes sorted before hand with a date on either in bags or bowls when my dad was looking after my snails for quite a while i had the weekly wet food portions (still in their dry state) sorted into bowls covered in clingfilm, wth a number corresponding to a number stuck to the tank stuck to each one, and a date of when it should be put in. (along with a list of what veg could be given and when). He said he found this incredibly helpful and i think it's helpful to most people in general (or if it's a standard every day food a scoop as some people seem unable to use scales). maybe witht the frogs you could mark the spray bottle with how much water they need to spray a day?

glad to hear your kitty was OK in the end MC.

[mangoandlemon]

I put 3 dozen crickets in before i left and told him to mist them and check there water dish every day. A list seems like a good idea.

[morningcoffee]

Dec 2, 2014 14:16:39 GMT mangoandlemon said:

I put 3 dozen crickets in before i left and told him to mist them and check there water dish every day. A list seems like a good idea.

Yeah, the problem is that particularly if it's an unfamiliar species to someone it can be hard for them to remember what you told them to do - of course in this situation they should text or call you to check, but some people will just think "oh well they have some food, they must be fine"
At least with a written list the person caring for them can see exactly what they need to do every day - I would give this to a professional sitter too, just to make sure!

If I were you I'd ask the person who was supposed to be looking after them to contribute to the cost of a new froggy to keep the survivor company!

[Zorst]

Sorry to hear about your frogs, and def a list is a good idea. Personally I'd get your surviving frog another companion as its used to being with them and from what I can gather regarding the wild frogs here there pretty social.

Zorst

[mangoandlemon]

She been eating more and being more active so i think that she might like being alone?

[Zorst]

Sounds like she's doing ok , which I'm glad to hear.

Zorst

[mangoandlemon]

Ya she's doing a lot better

[muddydragon]

that's good news

[mangoandlemon]

Ya.

[Deleted]

:'(I am sorry to hear that sad news, yes I think you could do with getting her a friend.

[mangoandlemon]

Thanks