Hello, I’m looking for help understanding what might have happened to our pair of Leopard frogs. We raised them from tadpoles (the take home prize of a 1st grade science project) and they appeared to be thriving for about 6 months. We had two in a mixed land/water tank, about 25 gallons, with filtered water and live plants. We used a mix of reptile bark and orchid mix for the land area.
They were eating well, mostly a diet of crickets and mealworms, but suddenly one then the other disappeared. This coincided with the arrival of winter about 6 weeks ago. However, from what I’ve read, the temperatures inside our house are nowhere near temperatures that would trigger different behavior. We keep the house at 58-60 even when we are not there, and most of the time it cycles between 60-68 during the workday.
I suppose its possible that the frogs crawled off to a hidden corner and perished, but I’m pretty sure we would have seen that happen.
Possible they have burrowed into the substrate and hidden away for some reason?
Thanks for any help!
Have you gone through the substrate to see if they burrowed underneath? If they appear to be sleeping, best not to touch them. They may be hibernating.
I havent done that yet...was hoping to learn more about the likelihood of that being what happened before I dig through all the substrate and uproot everything. I just didn’t think hibernation at 60+ degrees was a possibility. If I do have to do that, how deep do they typically burrow?
Thanks for the reply.
Actually, aquatic frogs such as the leopard frog usually spend hibernation at the bottom of a lake/pond, so if your leopard frogs WERE hibernating, you would see them at the bottom of the water, not buried in the substrate. Now that I've done further research, your frogs will probably not be hibernating at over 60+ degrees. You should safely be able to go through the substrate without disturbing any hibernating frogs. Leopard frogs don't typically have a certain burrowing level, so just go through all the substrate (with gloves, you don't want to harm the frogs skin)
Not many people own leopard frogs, so there isn't much information on them I could find. Sorry about my earlier post, I don't have much experience with leopard frogs.
Leopard Frogs can go dormant if they feel there is a scarce amount of food and the humidity is low. They can go dormant on land actually and in the wild have been found hibernating on land in articles I've read. These frogs are more involved on land then you would assume. You can dig them up just to make sure they are dormant or if they are dead. You can increase humidity and maybe feed them more and that should help them with keeping active. They love to bask so in the winter if you have a UVB light they may benefit from it. You can buy a UVB light at a pet store if you don't have one. A 13watt works fine. They sell humidity gages too. Hope you find them!
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