# Frog with short tongue



## MaherM (Aug 8, 2007)

I have a juvenile oyapock that recentley started missing fruit flies with its tongue. I have the proper humidity and temperature. I purchased new containers of rep cal and herpetive suplements in hopes that the supplements lost some potency. However, all of my other frogs are fine. I can't find many threads, postings, articles, or books that touch this topic. I would like to reverse this situation if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## twinsenw (Sep 18, 2010)

Do some searches for short tongue syndrome (STS) on this board. generally I've heard that repcal isn't great because frogs can't process beta-carotene.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Frogs can process some level of beta carotene because if they couldn't we would have seen a much greater problem over the years from hypovitaminosis A.. (as they pretty much stopped putting preformed A into supplements back almost 20 years ago, and used beta carotene exclusively). Beta carotene often appears to not supply sufficient vitamin A activity in frogs (Bufonids have a much greater problem) that are stressed for some reason. 

The problem with STS is getting preformed vitamin A into the frog. If the frog is not capturing most of the flies then you should contact a vet to assist in treating the frog. If it is only missing some of the flies, then adding a supplement that contains preformed A (like Repashy ICB) or a human grade vitamin with Dry vitamin A, can resolve the issue. If using the human grade vitamin, the rate of supplementing can range from once a week to once a month and probably should be made with the assistance of a veterinarian. 

Ed


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