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Thread: Low pacman temps!

  1. #1
    100+ Post Member MeTree's Avatar
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    Unhappy Low pacman temps!

    Yesterday night, the tempreture got colder than the wheather predicted. It got cold at my house and, unfortunately, my pacman doesn't have a heater in its tank. My thermometer only goes down to 70*F, so I don't know how cold it got last night.

    Is my pacman going to slip into hibernation? I really want it to stay alert. Are there obvious symtoms of the start of hibernation? My pacman just started burrowing yesterday, and is in its burrow in eco-earth substrate right now. I accidently disturbed my pacman this morning and it went back into its burrow.

    The temp is at about 75-80 right now. I don't have an UTH, so it is a good sign that my pacman went back into its burrow, right? They dig to stay cool?

    I will not feed it for the next few hours. I want my pacman to be able to properly digest its food. I may not feed it at all today, since it really didn't seem all that interested in food yesterday. It only ate 1 hand-fed cricket, and 1 hand-fed mealworm.

    My pacman almost has a white-ish color near its head, I think it is getting slightly duller in color: is this signs that it will shed soon? I am wondering if that would make it more vulnerable to hibernation, if that makes any sense.

    What should I be expecting from my pacman frog?

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  3. #2
    Wormwood
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    I wouldn't worry to much, tempatures in tropical south american, especially in the forests at night during times of the year can get down into the low 50's and high 40's. Pacman's do enter a state of hibernation when faced with a big temp shift, it's skin might look like it's hardeneing (which could explain the white). It also won't eat, but most frogs/toads are like that with significant temp. shifts.

    It might be a good thing to get a cheap heat pad and stick it to the side of it's tank for those rare snap cold fronts in Texas.

    If it's burrowing though, I'd just leave it - the little bugger knows what it's doing and will come out when he/she feels comfortable again. Forcing it to stay active, or trying to shock it out with heat isn't a good thing.

  4. #3
    100+ Post Member MeTree's Avatar
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    Ok, again I made somewhat of a mistake, and I may have combated it with a different mistake. I feel overprotective sometimes.

    Anyway, this morning I turned my heater on like I said. The temps were good in a matter of 20-30 minutes. It was pretty cold today (for Texas), and I set the temp on LOW. I took a 4 hour nap (not usually, but I was dead tired today), and when I woke up, I checked the pacman temps and they were at 90°F.

    That was the first mistake, here is what I did after that.

    I took it into my Livingroom (under my very close supervision), and watched the temps quickly drop to 88, then 86, then slowly to 84, then when I checked later, it is at 76, just like it is now. *frown* Are pacman frogs sensitive to tempreture fluctuations?

    Now what do I do? I am trying to take my room tempretures in the preferable daytime range. That may take several minutes, though.

    I don't want to counter the counter mistake with another mistake. I should be slower to move it and change the envronment.

    I need you guys to rate some scenerious for me so I can make wiser descitions. Please rate on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is the pacman wont notice and no action is necesary, 10 is the pacman is dead.

    Asuming these conditions have been this way for an hour;
    90*F in the tank=
    70*F daytime=
    50% Humidity=
    95% Humidity=

    Asuming these conditions have been this way for 6 hours;
    90*F in the tank=
    70*F daytime=
    50% Humidity=
    95% Humidity=

    I am sorry about this guys. I am going to get a heater as soon as I can afford it, but then I am going to need to upgrade it to a 10g tank, because I don't want to put a heater on plastic. I am wondering about how to use UTH/Reptile Heat Pad, I guess that is on topic for this thread.

  5. #4
    Wormwood
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    90 degrees with 95% humidity?!?! Egads... might as well boil him in his own juices.

    You only need about 75-82 degrees in the day, 60-70 degrees at night. 95% humidity is so overkill as well, ever try breathing in 90-100% humidity? Even for a frog/toad that is excessive. Shoot for 60-80% max.

    Sounds like it's already plenty hot, but if you do plan to install a "SMALL!" heat pad, yes - get a 10 gallon glass tank and stick it to the side about a inch above the substrate level. They get quite warm and it won't over heat or burn the substrate or the frog at this level. It will still give off plenty of radiant heat and is much safer then installing it under the tank and substrate.

    It sounds like you don't have a screen or mesh top, which is limiting air flow , trapping in the stale heat of the enclosure. I'd suggest a screen top for your future 10 gallon or at least part of it screened to more easily control that out of wack humidity.

  6. #5
    100+ Post Member MeTree's Avatar
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    Quote Originally Posted by Wormwood View Post
    90 degrees with 95% humidity?!?! Egads... might as well boil him in his own juices.
    Um...I don't think I meant at the same time. I was just wondering about these scenarios if they were to happen, but not at the same time, if that makes any sense.

    My humdity has never been at 95%, I was just trying to figure out if that would be a super-major problem.

    Quote Originally Posted by Wormwood View Post
    95% humidity is so overkill as well, ever try breathing in 90-100% humidity? Even for a frog/toad that is excessive. Shoot for 60-80% max.
    I understand 95% is WAY too high, it was just part of a scenario, and again, I have never had this issue. And in this part of Texas, it is not uncommon at all to have a 95% humidity outside, and I don't find it all that hard to breathe, but that is just because I am used to it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Wormwood View Post
    Sounds like it's already plenty hot, but if you do plan to install a "SMALL!" heat pad, yes - get a 10 gallon glass tank and stick it to the side about a inch above the substrate level. They get quite warm and it won't over heat or burn the substrate or the frog at this level. It will still give off plenty of radiant heat and is much safer then installing it under the tank and substrate..
    I got the temp under control awhile ago, but it would be nice if that didn't happen again. When you say "small" heating pad, do you mean an 8W (recomended for 10g tank in many stores), or something smaller like a 4W? The next thing I buy will likely be a heating pad, and I will try to get that within the next 2 weeks.

    Quote Originally Posted by Wormwood View Post
    It sounds like you don't have a screen or mesh top, which is limiting air flow , trapping in the stale heat of the enclosure. I'd suggest a screen top for your future 10 gallon or at least part of it screened to more easily control that out of wack humidity.
    Too true, I don't have a screen top for my 7qt temporary setup. It is just a lid with holes in it. I may see if I can find a picture of the lid. It is usually just a little bit warmer in the tank than out, but that was somewhat by design, didn't want it to get cold. The 10g tank does have a screen, but the pacman from hasn't moved in it yet. I still need to get a heater.

    Hopefully, I can upgrade my pacman soon, and I wont have to worry about this kind of stuff! I'll be more careful about suprise cold-fronts in Texas, also.

    Thanks for helping!

  7. #6
    100+ Post Member MeTree's Avatar
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    The lid;
    http://www.frogforum.net/attachments...r-dscn3537.jpg
    http://www.frogforum.net/attachments...r-dscn3540.jpg
    Please check out the lid top, and post what you think (on this thread), I never got a reply on either of the other 2 or 3 threads I ask it on.

    Thanks!

    (edit: Note, please zoom in on the picture to where you can see both sizes of drilled holes clearly. Thank you!)

  8. #7
    Wormwood
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    Good to hear you didn't mean at the same time.

    If you do want to place a 8W, be sure to stick it on the side like mentioned before and let some of the heat vent out of the top. The 4W will work just fine to though since 10 gallon tanks are small.

    The lids look fine, generally the more holes the better in my experience. Good air never killed a frog :P. That's why I perfer screen or mesh tops as opposed to these nearly sealed in Viv's that people are building.

  9. #8
    Frogsaurus
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    I'm a bit worried about my tank temp as well. I have an UTH on one side of his 10 gallon and I see him thermoregulate himself quite a bit crawling back and forth as he likes. However on gray rainy days the meter says it's only 78 degrees. He doesn't seem to be feeding as well either and I'm worried. His feeding schedule was every other day as a younger frog but now that he's over 4 inches long/around I was slowing down his intake to every two days. I am still nervous since he is my first.

  10. #9
    Moderator Lija's Avatar
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    Frogsaurus hi and welcome to the forum! This is a very old thread, would you please start and new one and answer "trouble in the enclosure" questions in it. The questions are in a sticky thread in pacman frog subforum. This ways we can help you better.
    Save one animal and it doesn't change the world, but it surely changes the world for that one animal!

  11. #10
    100+ Post Member MeTree's Avatar
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    This brings back memories. It's kind of nice to be pulled back into old threads, sometimes. :\

  12. #11
    Frogsaurus
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    Default Re: Low pacman temps!

    I was looking around for pac-man health concerns and wanted to add to another instead of making a new one. I searched but it wasn't clear where to find a new one to me.

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