Hi,

Yesterday I came across a Northern leopard frog terrarium at a respectable nature education institution, but the setup seemed completely wrong to me. I want to approach the institution about this, but I thought I'd check with you guys for the details of what I'd like to recommend and if you have any suggestions.

I don't have any pictures, but this setup was essentially an aquarium with 2 rocks forming a tiny land area in the corner. They had two adult frogs in there and the land area was only a couple of times their combined size.

What I'd recommend:
  • More land area! Northern leopard frogs are mostly terrestrial for most of their active part of the year. I would suggest that approximately two thirds of the terrarium be land.
  • Replace the rocks with a substrate more reminiscent of soil and keep it moist. It's more natural and, if they don't want them to burrow completely into it they can have it be only an inch thick or so. It would also be necessary to allow the frogs to drink while on land. (Granted, as it is, parts of the rocks are probably always wet.)
  • Add vegetation to the land area (there wasn't any)
  • Provide at least one hiding place per frog (be that made with the vegetation or something else).


Note: the frogs seemed pretty relaxed with one another, but they seemed cramped. I'm guessing the few inches they were in were the only few inches where they could be comfortable because there was a bit of water on the rocks there. So the actual comfortable land area might actually be only a few square inches....

I'd love to get your thoughts on the above recommendations.