Need some assistance, new owner

[tytons]

Hi Guys,

I just got a new pacman frog for my GF, I would like to have some advise. Been reading around and there's some difference in opinion and I would like to clarify them.

Housing,
I read around it was mention that the sponge/water method is not good as they could have bacteria. What if a new set of sponge is used every time the frog poop? Is it still not recommended and we stick to coconut fibre?

Feeding
1. I'm not sure how old my frog is, but from it's size all I can tell is it's young. How frequent should I feed it? the shop currently feeds it every 3 days. Also how much should I feed? It will be on a diet of crickets for now. Shop fed it fish.
2. Certain sites say the feeding routine is daily till 18 months of age and it will be spread out to 4-7 days a meal, opinions?
3. Which type of calcium powder should I be using? Is the calcium powder for bearded dragon recommended?

Morph
Can help me identify the age and morph of this little fellow? I was told its albino...so im guessing cranwelli ?
its size is about 3.7cm

[GrifTheGreat]

Looks to be a normal Albino morph.

If you use the water and sponge setup you will need to clean the enclosure daily to every other day to prevent fungal and bacterial growth. Coconut Fiber is best and only has to be changed once every 3 weeks or 1 month.

Crickets are fine, but be sure to gutload them. Dust with a calcium powder with Vitamin D3 every other feeding to every two feedings and with a multivitamin once per week, but not at the same time as the calcium. Earthworms are a much better staple food and highly nutritious. You just cut an appropriately sized piece off the worm starting at the tail. The rest of the worm will survive. Earthworms(Night Crawlers not Red Wigglers) can be quite filling for the frog too. The worms will survive in your fridge for weeks.

Offer food daily until the frog reaches around 3" to 3.5" then you can feed every other day to every two days. Feed the frog as much as it can eat in 15 minutes.

I use Fluker's Calcium Powder with D3 and my multivitamin is Rep-Cal Herptivite.

[dubbean]

I'm pretty new to pacmans too but I will help with what I do know:

I believe that coconut fiber is the recommended substrate because they can burrow and live like they do in the wild.

1. It should be fed every day as much as it will eat in one feeding.
2. From what others have told me on FF, the frog will start refusing food every day as it ages, that is when you cut back on feeding.
3. You want to use Calcium with D3 every other feeding. One for a bearded dragon may be fine.

I agree that it is an albino and a cranwelli. I think it is very young (maybe a few weeks old) because it still has a little bit of its tadpole tail.

[tytons]

thanks for the reply guys...

if im going the coconut fibre route..do u just scope out the poop part or change the whole thing?

Yea it does look like it still has a bit of its tail, ill start feeding it daily for now till it start refusing food. I thought they wont refuse...good to know they have limits.

[GrifTheGreat]

You only have to remove a small amount of coconut fiber with the poop. Less than a hand full. Most of the time they use their water dish as a toilet.

[nok1888]

Amazin looking frog m8 are they easy to look after?

2.0 Border Collies - Jinky and Chance
3.0 Cats - Monty, Dodger and Crunchie
1.1 Royal Pythons Orlina and Sedrick
0.1 BCI Boa - Aasia
1.0 Western Hognose - Hagrid
0.1 Bearded Dragon - iiara

[tytons]

gotcha..thanks!

im starting to get really fond of these guys...they are really adorable...do you guys exercise them? as in make them jump a lil?or they just spend their whole life waiting for food to come by their mouth? O_o

[dubbean]

scoop the poop daily. they will move to a new spot after pooping in their old one so that is a good indicator to look for poop. Change the substrate entirely as needed.

A little trick I will share: use sphagnum moss UNDER the coconut fiber. So, about an inch of sphagnum moss then 2 inches of coconut fiber on top. The sphagnum helps keep the coconut fiber from getting too wet and moldy. You can rinse and reuse the sphagnum moss many times. The coconut fiber is safer for the frogs, as they will ingest some of their substrate, and it is a lot harder for crickets to hide in. As the frog grows you will need to increase the depth of the coconut fiber but not the sphagnum moss.

The babies tend to jump around quit a bit while running after food. But no, don't but your frog to make it jump around. That will stress it out and it may stop eating or become ill. I will give mine a little push to make it move if I'm doing cleaning though. They really don't need exercise. They are supposed to be fat, eating machines.

[tytons]

noted...thanks for the tip Dubbean, I may not leave crickets in there roaming around as from other people's post ive seen their frog got bitten and stuff from them.

is there a chart or a reference for size vs age?

[GrifTheGreat]

gotcha..thanks!

im starting to get really fond of these guys...they are really adorable...do you guys exercise them? as in make them jump a lil?or they just spend their whole life waiting for food to come by their mouth? O_o

The most exercise they get is when they change burrows or get in their water. They will sit in their favorite spot for days. They become less active as they mature. They are ambush predators so they wait patiently burrowed in the soil with their head exposed awaiting unwary prey to pass by sonthey can attack.

They do not require exercise.

[GrifTheGreat]

noted...thanks for the tip Dubbean, I may not leave crickets in there roaming around as from other people's post ive seen their frog got bitten and stuff from them.

is there a chart or a reference for size vs age?

No, but judging from the size of your frog it is probably around 3 weeks out of the water. Maybe less.

[NialR35]

Looks very young, you can still see part of what used to be the tail. Very healthy though. Grif's advise got you covered, just follow it because he is the GURU around here

I'm a big fan of Canadian Night crawlers,

1) No need to gutload
2) No need to feed them
3) Live for a LONG time in the fridge
4) More nutritious than a gut loaded cricket
5) Very easy to digest
6) They don't stink like crickets
7) They don't escape like crickets
8) They don't chirp or make any noise
9) You can easily cut from the tail according to your frog's size as they grow
10) All of the above and more.

[tytons]

thanks for the info...

i fed it for the 1st time today..and i notice his "spot" look a lil discolored from yesterday..they seem to look more "see through" now...and there some colors disappearing..do they sort of change color?or lose their colors?

[GrifTheGreat]

thanks for the info...

i fed it for the 1st time today..and i notice his "spot" look a lil discolored from yesterday..they seem to look more "see through" now...and there some colors disappearing..do they sort of change color?or lose their colors?

They change color depending on their surroundings, stress, mood, and various other reasons. It is normal