MOTW - Lilypad - Monday

[LilyPad]

Hello Everyone!!

I guess I'm starting off with myself this week thanks for all the votes, they were much appreciated!!

My name is Amy. I am 26 years old and the mother of two fantastic daughters, ages 5 and 7. They are a handful, but a great one! I was a stay at home mom with them until my youngest daughter was 2 before I headed back to work. It's hard to believe that this fall they are going to be in kindergarten and 2nd grade! I don't know what I will do with my time!

In the mornings I work at a greenhouse, I take care of the plants, watering, deadheading, fertilizing, etc as well as taking care of customers. In the afternoon, I work as a receptionist/call center associate. I love the garden center job, it is so relaxing and fantastic, the fresh smell of dirt is such a good smell!! I don't like the call center job much, it can be very stressful, and any of you who have worked in an office before knows how the office drama can go!! I am grateful to have a job in this economy though.

I grew up in a household full of pets. We had dogs, cats, hermit crabs, freshwater fish, saltwater fish, an iguana, chameleons, guinea pigs, hamsters, and anoles. My parents taught me how to be as respectful and passionate about pet care as if they were our family members.

I have loved frogs as long as I can remember. As some of you have seen on my book review thread, my favorite book was "Tuesday" which so happens to be about flying bullfrogs. I have every single frog/toad beanie baby, my parents bought me a mayan frog planter from Mexico once, I have a frog fountain etc etc etc I never OWNED a frog or toad though because I was intimidated by the care they required.

My first frog was Paddy, a gift to me from a friend. I had mentioned to him that I always wanted one, and he forced me to dive in by handing me a little gray tree frog in a box! I was so in love with her, that less than two weeks later, I got three more gray tree frogs. I find them much easier to care for than some of the pets we had growing up

SO FAR, that's all I have. I do think that my next adventure will be darts, they are so cute and I'd love something that is active during the day time, it will be some time before I get them though, I am still getting used to the tree frogs and do not intend to rush into it. My daughters want a chameleon and some red eyed tree frogs, but both of those are pretty shy and the noise those girls make would stress them out like crazy!

[LilyPad]

Also, if you'd like to sign up for MOTW, the thread is located here http://www.frogforum.net/general-dis...k-sign-up.html

I will start a new poll (excluding myself obviously) on Wednesday to see who next week's MOTW will be!!

[artes]

Firebelly toads are active in the day time. You could get those as a much cheaper option while you save up for dart frogs.

[LilyPad]

My 5 year old would really like some firebellies, she saw them at petsmart and fell in love (she also fell in love with a parrot and a bearded dragon) I don't want a ton of vivs though (I say that now LOL) So I really want to wait until I get what I really want. One of the local pet stores here carries a lot of exotic species has some really beautiful darts too, so when I'm ready (probably not for several months - year or so) I know I can get them there.

[artes]

I need to move there. I would love to actually be able to shop in person for some exotic frogs, even if its just to window shop. I especially want to window shop (and real shop) some bumble bee walking toads.

The good news is, if you only do like, 3 firebellies, they'll be perfectly happy to live in a 10 gallon tank! /dangles the lure of temptation

Btw, I also have a bearded dragon. She is AWESOME. Even though she insists on being handfed... and by handfed, I mean I have to physically open her mouth, insert food, and close her mouth around it. -_-

[LilyPad]

That does "dangle the lure of temptation" as I will have 2 empty 10 gallon tanks when the tree frogs move to their new viv!!

We are very lucky to have an exotic pet store so near, that's the benefit of living next to a big city! There are times we go to the store just to walk around, like you said, window shop.

I like bearded dragons too, maybe eventually!!

[artes]

Some people silicone a glass divider into the tank to make half water and half land. I used eco earth in most of my tank and baking dishes for pools. Its a tad unorthodox, but my firebellies happen to love climbing and hopping around on dirt more than they like swimming. So they have three ficus trees, a pot turned on its side for a cave, and two-three baking dishes (sometimes I remove the third as its in a bad location for leaf droppings). My original set up involved a filter and sloping gravel, but mine were kinda "meh" about it. I have five in a 20 gallon long, but when I just had three they spent the first year of their life in a 10 gallon and were perfectly happy with the size - just in their case, not the set up. Some people say you can put up to five toads in a 10 gallon, but I personally would cap at 3.