New to Pacmans, A Few Questions...

[Kaleen]

Hello my name is Kaleen, I posted a thread in Introductions earlier. I am new to Pacman Frogs and amphibians in general, and I have a few questions concerning my albino pacman Charlie. We have had him for about a week now and he seems to be thriving. Feeding time is exciting as Charlie is a voracious eater, and ferocious when it comes to food. I have been mostly tong feeding except for the few crickets I accidentally drop, which he has no problem hunting down. My first question is concerning the amount of crickets I should be feeding Charlie per day? He doesn't seem to get full, and I don't think I'm feeding him enough. I've been giving him between 4-5 medium crickets per day, is this adequate? I'll post a picture so you can see his size.
The other topic of concern is Charlie pooping. Since he has been in our care for approximately one week now I have seen and removed poop from the enclosure once. I also saw him pee right before feeding time yesterday. As I've never had a pacman frog before I don't know how often they poop, he has eaten everyday I imagine he's pretty full. I did feel his right side and there is no presence of a hard lump. Would soaking him at this point be beneficial, or be patient it will happen when it happens?
Here is the picture of Charlie for size comparison:


-Kaleen

[Mentat]

Pacmans do not overfeed; feed all it will eat once a day. Would not be concerned about poop; it varies but many defecate once a week or even slightly longer. If no poop on 2 weeks then would give it a soak in dechlorinated water (80F) with couple drops of honey for 20 minutes followed by a rinse in dechlorinated water.

Recommend get some night crawlers at bait shop (not dyed) or Walmart's sport section and feed those too. Can cut from pointy end same length as frog. Remember to dust it's food with CA/D3 2X and vitamins 1X weekly on different days with skip day in between. Good luck !

[Hypnotic]

I feed my babies about 5-7 medium sized crickets a day, depending on howmuch they eat. I use the rule, if all food dissapears, I add another prey item the next day. Some days they will eat 3 while other days 6-7.
If you don't feel a hard lump and he has been eating like you said he has, perhaps you have a subtrate pooper. (one who poops under his burrow and kicks it under it) Has he moved spots at all?
If he hassn't, check underneath him. Weekly soaks are never a bad idea, but since you don't feel a lump on his right side, I wouldn't add honey, just give him a luke warm 30 min soak and in the meantime, flip his subtrate around hunting for poop.

[GrifTheGreat]

Everyone has given excellent advice. Now I have to ask since the lighting in the picture appears bright. Are you using a daylight bulb for lighting or was the the camera flash? Albinos are sensitive to bright light and UV radiation. You cannot use any kind of daylight basking bulbs or you may risk damaging the frog's eyes and skin.

Use infrared bulbs instead. They can be used 24/7 and do not affect their day/night cycle.

Sounds like he is doing well. Follow Carlos's recomendation and get some Night Crawlers. He should love them.

[Lija]

Everybody got you covered, I'll just add. It is so refreshing to see a thread there somebody is saying a frog is eating and eating well and looking as good as yours
just fix light as Grif said.
Welcome to the forums!

[Kaleen]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I am definitely going to get some night crawlers today and feed them to Charlie tonight. At feedings we are dusting with calciumd3 3 days and vitamins 1 day.
Cuacuayatl, The one morning I removed the poop from the enclosure it was in his empty burrow/hole he had been in the day before. He has since been in the same burrow for a couple days now. We are planning to change his substrate today, so I will soak him in the dechlorinated water while I hunt for poop hahaha!!
Grif, we are not using any daylight basking bulbs. The light and brightness you see in the picture was from the camera flash. The room was/is dimly lit at night so I can see for feeding, but I couldn't get a clear picture without the flash. Also we are not using uvb. According to the care sheet Charlie is too small yet to be moved to a 10 gallon, so right now we have him in a critter keeper. We don't have any bulbs or lights over the critter keeper, but his enclosure is next to a heat source. During the day his temps maintain at 83 degrees and at night cool to 78-79 degrees.
Lija, thank you!! I think Charlie looks awesome too, and I am so happy he is doing great. I was prepared for a bit of relocation stress, but he has acclimated so well for only being with us about one week. It's probably just me, but I think he's grown a tad too!!

-Kaleen

[danfrog]

You are good to go! Be sure to keep us updated on Charlie. Lots and lots of pics!

[GrifTheGreat]

Yep! Everything is squared away. The flash won't do him any harm unless you were to take like a hundred pics in a row.

[Kaleen]

I made a trip to my local exotic pet shop to pick up night crawlers, and to my surprise they were closed for the day. I need feeders for Charlie tonight so I stopped at PetSmart and picked them up. I'm a little weary of the night crawlers because it took two employees to find them, when they did find them they told me to just feed him mealworms instead, and when I asked to make sure they were not dyed the sales associate opened the box and said, "no, look they are alive!"!! I took some photos so you can tell me if they are safe to feed him:



I know I'm being kinda paranoid, but I've read too many stories of people assuming things were ok and it ends up killing their animal.

-Kaleen

[Lija]

They look good! Fresh and big, you need to cut in about 1" pieces starting from the tail ( bigger, fatter end), this way a worm will heal if not fed fully. Keep them in a fridge, otherwise they'll die and gonna stink.... Very bad.....

I really like your attitude so my type, it is better to be paranoid, you just never know...... And later you might be so happy you were paranoid before!

[Kaleen]

I'm confused, is the pointy end the same as the bigger fatter end? Someone earlier told me to cut from the pointy end..

-Kaleen

[Lija]

Oh sorry, my bad, too late lol

yes pointy one, sometimes both ends look the same, then look for fatter ring, that part is closer to the mouth then butt, so you cut from the end that is farther from that part.

[Kaleen]

Thank you I appreciate it!!

-Kaleen

[Kaleen]

Charlie has a new favorite feederHe absolutely gobbled up the night crawlers. I fished one out I considered not too long, and cut it up in to one inch pieces. He ate the worm in it's entirety, which was 6 one inch pieces!!! I mentioned earlier he's ferocious when it comes to feeding, well while I was tong feeding him in between the first and second piece of night crawler he must have been so excited he literally almost jumped straight up out of his enclosure. It was as I was coming back over the enclosure with the second piece in the tongs dangling in the air. Guess I wasn't moving fast enough for his liking! The more time I spend interacting with him, and getting to know his seemingly large personality the more I'm falling in love with him.
Also just before I fed him he was hoping around his enclosure, and I noticed in the burrow he had previously been in a nice size poop. After I fed him my curiosity got the best of me and I dug a little deeper to discover that Cuacuayatl was exactly right. Charlie is a substrate pooper, sneaky devil he is! Thank you again for all the newb advice.

-Kaleen

[Kaleen]

Got some new pics of Charlie, hope you enjoy them!




He's such a little cutie, I can't stop taking pictures. Looking at him this morning while I was changing his water, my fiance and I swear he's gotten bigger in the week we've had him. Do they really grow that fast?

-Kaleen

[Hypnotic]

Yes they do. Absolutely, they are little monsters!
Take a look at one of mine. Take weekly pictures, that's what I do, you can actually see them grow week by week!

[Lija]

such a cutie!!!!!! i mean both of you guys have cuties, it is just little albino is cuter looking right now last pic is like " hm... i'm sorry i think you are starving me"
a month from now you won't be able to believe your was so tiny such short time ago.

[Kaleen]

I can't believe how fast they are able to grow!! You're right, in a month Charlie will be all grown up so it seems. I can already see this will be an new addiction for me, these little Pacman frogs are too cute!

-Kaleen

[Mentat]

Super cute on the last pic! Love when frogs are assertive and are aggressive eaters !

[Kaleen]

Okay I have yet another newb question. What type of albino pacman is Charlie? I have seen so many different types of morphs and I really can't tell just by looking and trying to compare pictures.
As for everything else Charlie still continues to do well. I've read that a varied diet is good for them, so I've been mixing up his feeders with a different type each night. I didn't think he could possibly eat any more than he already does, well he proved me wrong. How does he fit it all in that little body?! Crickets were on the menu last night, and he nearly ate a dozen medium. He finally pushed the tongs away after his 10th cricket!! I think he likes the crickets better than the night crawlers. The first time I fed him the night crawlers he ate 6 one inch pieces, the second time he only ate 4 one inch pieces. He just didn't seem too interested in them the second time, it was like he finally ate some to make me happy. I know that sounds weird, but he was looking up at me like hey Ma where's the crickets hahahaha....

-Kaleen