New and need some advice for my Pacman

[DaddyJ]

Recently I gave my oldest son (he's 9) a pet that he could take care of for his birthday. (His younger brother of 8 previously decided the cat and dog were his ) He shares my interest in reptiles and amphibians so we decided on a pacman frog for his first pet. Raising the frog is a father son project for the two of us to learn together. We began feeding Hoppity, as my son named him, crickets which we simply put into the tank with him(her?) and let the frog eat them as they came close enough. we would feed anywhere from 3 to 5 small crickets twice a day since the frog is still fairly young. after a week of this my son wanted to try different foods for the frog, so after a bit of research and several videos on youtube we decided to try it on feeder fish, super worms, and a pinkie mouse. I placed the frog into a smaller container and used tongs to give it the first feeder. it ate that one after about 5 minutes. we could not get the frog to eat anything else form the tongs and don't know why. We would love any advice for feeding this way anyone can offer. Here is Hoppity's first pic after coming home. Any clue as to species? we think its a C. Cranwelli

[Lija]

well.... where to start

yes you're right it is albino C. Cranwelli and as such is very sensitive to light, make sure you don't use any UVB ever and only dim light. he is adorable, but would you please take better pic, it seems to be something with his eyes or I think it is just a picture, so to be sure.

feeding: NO to superworms or fish! No to pinkies too but not until s/he is so little, when it is bigger then you can do pinky but no more then one a month. do gut loaded crickets or nightwcrawlers as a staple. make sure you dust Ca/vitD every second feeding and multivitamins once a week but not together.

youtube is the worst place for a research! by far! you better check a care sheet here on a forum! you can also post your answers to "trouble in the enclosure" here so we can go over and help you fix whatever needs fixing ( if anything

[DaddyJ]

Yeah I know youtube isn't the best source for research into anything (cept maybe viral videos lol) but it was the easiest way to let my son see each of the pets we were considering before going to the pet store. Actually most of my good research into the frog came from this very forum which lead me to join it for future help.
Your mention of not using uvb lights with the albino is the first time that has come up. all the info I found just said to use on with all pacmans. I currently house Hoppity in a 29 gallon tank. One half is lightes with a low wattage uvb baul ( at the pet stores recomendation) and the other with a red heat light (50 watts) I have provided ample cover in the form of a medium sized plastic bush and a half of a hollow log type decoration. Aslo i used eco earth for the substrate and keep earth worms in it to process waste as we plan to plant some live plants in with hoppity soon. At the frogs current size he/she can easily completly bury itself in the substrate. The tank stays around 75-90 percent humidity (variance has accured due to water level in the substrate i believe) and temp is around 68 at nite to 75 or so in the day. Below are a few more pics of Hoppity, hopefully better this time lol.

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Here is link to article Lija mentioned: Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding. It's important to provide for the frog's temperature, humidity, and substrate requirements because most problems are related to that. Yep, your Pacman eyes and skin are light sensible; but can use the reptile red or black (moonlight) lights 24 hours a day with no problems.

Do follow Lija advice for feeding and you will be fine. The crickets should be sized to distance between frog's eyes. With night crawlers (available in Walmart's sport section) cut them in pieces the same length from the pointy end. Night crawlers will heal and not die as long as the blunt end (head) and around 1/2 body are intact. Usually dropping them in front off frog's mouth will do the trick; but you can also offer food from plastic tweezers approaching from the side. In regards to amount, a good rule of thumb is to feed all food frog will eat in 10-15 minutes or until frog looses interest in food.

Do remember to change it's water dish with dechlorinated tap water daily; even if it looks clean. Good luck and enjoy your little frog !

[Lija]

yeah better pics, beautiful baby! congrats! and hey welcome to the forum by the way!

Pacman frogs don't need UVB, in a wild they live on the bottom of rainforest and are buried in ground for majority of the day, getting out ( not always) only during dark to eat. or just sit there waiting for food to come to them. They are one of those species that is adapted to metabolize without day light ( UVB), therefore they don't need UVB, but will tolerate low percentage of UVB. sometimes UVB is used in combination of other therapy to treat BMD.
Albino however is different story, it doesn't have pigment in it's skin and eyes. Imagine very pale skinned person to go outside in a bright sun without sunscreen...... imagining right? and now imagine that person is albino... ouch... and very fast... same with albino frogs, they won't be affected very fast as they would seek hide, but eventually it will affect it's skin and eyes. so take UVB out.

29g enclosure is huge, way way too big for a baby, it is actually is kinda too big for adult too, unless it is a a very very big female. They get stressed out very easily in big enclosure = not eating = big problems. you wanna get medium critter keeper for now and upgrade it for something bigger when it'll grow, or may be even place him in your current one. but that's later. you also need to cover 3 sides of it with something, static cling fish tank background would work, but basically anything.

substrate- that is a good stuff you'r using, but.... no live plants will survive with the amount of waste these guys are producing, go with simple and change substrate every month, spot clean as you see and water changes every day.

[Lija]

just re read your post
temps are way way too low for a baby, you want to keep a baby at 78 ( night) and 82 ( day) and forgot to mention, you don't have to take it out for feeding and if he eats from tongs, go for it , it is very hard sometimes to tong train, it'll save you tons of headache and stress for your frog if you ever need to give it meds or similar. so i would reinforce his eating like that so he won't forget.

[DaddyJ]

Okay, I figured the tank was a little big but used it since I had it already. I was considering dividing it in half and getting another pacman frog. By dividing I do of course mean physically so the frogs would stay seperate. The petco I bought hoppity at has one that is green and about twice hoppities size that I am hoping to get since it looks so lonely surrounded by snake tanks. (And I wonder why my wife laughs at me when I get new critters.) For tank lighting would a regular light bulb be good, low wattage of course. We werent taking him out to feed at first, just dropping the crickets in and letting nature take its course. I took him out that first time since my son couldnt reach into the tank even with tongs.

[Mentat]

... I currently house Hoppity in a 29 gallon tank.

That tank is too big for a baby and it will stress it out. 2 options are to divide a small section for it and expand it as frog grows (would start with 1/4 of tank for frog). Another is to get a plastic keeper box (I use the medium ExoTerra Breeding Box) with around 1 in. substrate and small water dish. Then you locate the plastic box into the regulated aquarium.

One half is lightes with a low wattage uvb baul ( at the pet stores recomendation) and the other with a red heat light (50 watts).

Recommend replace the UVB with a black-moonlight bulb (see more below).

I have provided ample cover in the form of a medium sized plastic bush and a half of a hollow log type decoration. Aslo i used eco earth for the substrate and keep earth worms in it to process waste as we plan to plant some live plants in with hoppity soon.

Most Pacman will trample the live plants. EcoEarth is good if not wet (see more below).

At the frogs current size he/she can easily completly bury itself in the substrate. The tank stays around 75-90 percent humidity (variance has accured due to water level in the substrate i believe) and temp is around 68 at nite to 75 or so in the day...

Your daytime temps are too low; need to bring them to 80-85F with a 10F drop at night. You could easily do this when you change the UVB bulb for a black bulb you can run 24 hours a day. Might need to play around with wattage until you get the right temperature. This is very important because the cold temps will permanently damage the frogs kidney and lymphatic system leading to water retention (edema).

There should be no water level in the substrate; shredded coco can be humid and compact into clumps in fist but water should not drip out. A water logged substrate will breed molds and bacteria.

Hope this helps you guys a bit. I would be careful following the pets store recommendations because sadly, a few of those are not correct. Good luck and if have any other doubts or questions, we are here to help !

[GrifTheGreat]

Okay, I figured the tank was a little big but used it since I had it already. I was considering dividing it in half a getting another pacman frog. By dividing I do of course mean physically so the frogs would stay seperate. The petco I bought hoppity at has one that is green and about twice hoppities size that I am hoping to get since it looks so lonely surrounded by snake tanks. (And I wonder why my wife laughs at me when I get new critters.) For tank lighting would a regular light bulb be good, low wattage of course. We werent taking him out to feed at first, just dropping the crickets in and letting nature take its course.

Absolutely no bright lights. They can damage their eyes. A heat lamp with a dimmer switch is preferable. Like a Fluker's 5.5" or 8.5" clamp lamp with dimmer. These heat lamps let you accurately adjust the amount of light and heat coming from the bulbs. No bulbs over 50 watts either for safety reasons.
Use the Infrared bulbs like Exo Terra HeatGlo. They work very well and last quite a while.

Contrary to what Carlos mentioned about the temps you do not want to stray far from 78° at all times. 80° to 82° during the day and 78° at night. 85° Is a little to high for babies. Once they reach adulthood they can handle a little more fluctuation in their climate, but not very much. 10° drop can be very stressful to them. Only a 5° drop is necessary even 6°. You want to try and go no lower than 75° or 76° with adults.

Humidity needs to be lower. 70% to 80% is ideal. An occational peak at 90% is ok, but not for extended periods.

[DaddyJ]

yeah the 90 percent humidity was a spike on day two, it seems stable at around 75-80 percent so far. I add a little more water to the substrate as it dries out but it is never 'mud' like in consistency. I try to keep it as you described - able to clump in the hand but not dripping wet. As far as lighting I should just replace the uvb with another heat source bulb (red or black) and use room lighting to illuminate during the day? also if I divide the tank in half for a second pacman, would the remaining 15 gallons be right for the little one? And for a non albino pacman would the same lighting arrangement work?

[DaddyJ]

completely off topic but seeing your avatar Lija made me realize that the Hypnotoad from Futurama must be a pacman!

[Lija]

lol

no 15 gal is still way too big, for a baby i wouldn't do with anything bigger then 8x8 or 10x10 or 12x12 but would put more stuff in it.

if you are putting a divider make sure it is not see through and frogs can;t see each other as well it has to be water proof so nothing, absolutely nothing would be leaking from one side to another. same light would do for albino and non albino