How can I get my pacman used to being picked up?

[Ebenezer Frothingham]

I'd like to be able to pick up and Pacman and handle him/her- I thought they were too skittish for that, but i've seen a number of photos pf pacman owners holding their pacmans, or letting them walk on thier arm. I've never held my pacman-what is the best way to get him used to being handled and not feel threatened? Or...should I leave my pacman be?

[BG]

You can work on him slowly. Don't stress himout where he won't eat on ya.

[Sublime]

Frogs are not social, companion deprived animals. They don't benefit from being handled, some people say that after handling their frogs after awhile they develop their own individual personalities as a sense of liking for their owner. Young ones are generally don't do well handled, as they are usually skittish like you said or nervous of their new owner. As they become accustom to your care, your frog should settle in to being handled more frequently. As they get older, they will be a lot easier to handle for you than your young one as most of the time they will mellow out or get 'used' to you. Only advice I can give you for trying to handle your frog is don't make fast movements, bring one hand down slowly and the other scoop gently or pick up into that hand. Have them over something soft in case they jump off your hand so they don't injure their self. Nothin' much to it, just put him back if he gets stressed as George mentioned and leave him be.

[bshmerlie]

I am a firm believer that frogs are look but don't touch pets. I don't even like it when I hear that people remove their frog everyday and feed them in a separate container. All of these things add unneeded stress on the frog. From sheer stress alone frogs have been known to stop eating or from continued daily stress it weakens their immune system making them more susceptible to illness. Why risk it? My opinion...leave them be.

[Ebenezer Frothingham]

I am a firm believer that frogs are look but don't touch pets. I don't even like it when I hear that people remove their frog everyday and feed them in a separate container. All of these things add unneeded stress on the frog. From sheer stress alone frogs have been known to stop eating or from continued daily stress it weakens their immune system making them more susceptible to illness. Why risk it? My opinion...leave them be.

You make very good points. My frog looks comfy half buried in the substrait, and I suspect from his/her perspective, some giant creature picking him up would cause stress.

Some animals don't like to be touched-plus some have sensitive skin, and salts and oils (plus soap) on human skin might hurt them. I doubt my goldfish would enjoy being picked up either..

i think to play it safe I will NOT handle my Pacman

[John]

I agree completely with Cheri. Having said that, there are very rare examples of the frog not minding. I had a female Gray Tree Frog who would consistently jump on to me as soon as I opened to terrarium to feed her. She knew where the food came from and wasn't prepared to wait for it, really. Only example of this behavior that I've ever seen.

[Ebenezer Frothingham]

I wince when i see snake owners walking around, wearing their live snakes like a scarf. Reptiles and amphibians never struck me as cuddly creatures

[Sublime]

I am a firm believer that frogs are look but don't touch pets. I don't even like it when I hear that people remove their frog everyday and feed them in a separate container. All of these things add unneeded stress on the frog. From sheer stress alone frogs have been known to stop eating or from continued daily stress it weakens their immune system making them more susceptible to illness. Why risk it? My opinion...leave them be.

Well I see where you are coming from, but I barely handle my frogs at all. Only if he is in his water bowl will I take him out so I can change it, or when it is feeding time I set him into a separate bin to feed which is every 2 days. If owners are having a hard time getting a consistent feeding, then why not let them try out the separate bin. If I would of saw my frog stressed out and just stopped eating as soon as I placed him in there, I would of known that it wasn't going to work and would of just had to stick to feeding him in his tank. With my pixie, obviously you already know this, but they are ambush predators and my pixie literally won't even barely hop for his food anymore. He'll stay in one corner of the sterilite bin while I tong feed him night crawlers and shove crickets his way. That's very hard to do in a tank that has plants, etc. I just want him to grow big and strong with plenty of food where I feel he is content, he has no signs of being lethargic or ill. Maybe this is the case with other frogs, but I'm a strong believer in a separate feeding bin with these guys to be honest.

[BG]

I have four wtf living togetherand only one is getting fat. He eats all the food. Know I take all of them out and feed them in another container. They are fine not stressed at all. But that's wtf again. The pacman can get stressed out by deling with them too much. Again they are not puppies.

[Sublime]

Actually I wanted to restate my opinion a little differently... If the frogs are youngsters and need to be fed daily I wouldn't be taking him out and setting him in a separate bin. I would just be feeding him in his tank. So I agree with you that daily handling to feed in a separate container would stress them out... I don't know a lot about pacmans, but they seem to get more stressed out than pixies so if I owned one I would just feed him in his container. My pixie is fine with being put in a separate container, I will continue to do so... I guess my opinion is more directed for pixie owners, not pacmans.

[bshmerlie]

If owners are having a hard time getting a consistent feeding, then why not let them try out the separate bin.

I'm not meaning this to be a hard fast rule believe it or not. If you are having difficulty getting your frog to eat then I think someone should try anything and everything to get the frog to eat. But taking the frog out at every feeding will cause undue stress and over time will have a toll. I had two pacman frogs that were giving me trouble with feeding at various times. I tried removing them to feed them in a separate container and they would panic to the point of exhaustion. If, on the other hand, the frog sees this as a daily routine and doesn't seem upset by the transfer and its working for you then by all means continue. But to do this simply because you like to interact with your frog...I just don't think its beneficial to the frog. This is just my opinion. Although I do think we have strayed from the original question. How do you get your pacman to get used to being picked up? You don't...or rather you shouldn't.

[BG]

I second that . They like their space. They don't like to get picked up. They are bottom dwellers. They like the floor. They live on the floor, and under. especially baby pacman, they are not arboreal. They would probably feel that some bird picked them up to eat them. There life is on the ground. As you all know they do'n like to get poaked like on youtube(turturetube).

[Sublime]

I'm not meaning this to be a hard fast rule believe it or not. If you are having difficulty getting your frog to eat then I think someone should try anything and everything to get the frog to eat. But taking the frog out at every feeding will cause undue stress and over time will have a toll. I had two pacman frogs that were giving me trouble with feeding at various times. I tried removing them to feed them in a separate container and they would panic to the point of exhaustion. If, on the other hand, the frog sees this as a daily routine and doesn't seem upset by the transfer and its working for you then by all means continue. But to do this simply because you like to interact with your frog...I just don't think its beneficial to the frog. This is just my opinion. Although I do think we have strayed from the original question. How do you get your pacman to get used to being picked up? You don't...or rather you shouldn't.

Yeah, I see where you are coming from. My frog has got used to the routine and I never do it to interact with my frogs that could cause unwanted stress and panic for them. So I agree that if people are just puttin them in containers to hold them and what not that's not a good idea. I just think it's beneficial for me and him, it's so much easier on me to get enough food to be fed for this voracious eater . Then after putting him back in his tank, 10 minutes later he's already back in his water dish chilling. There are exceptions like people mentioned and mine just might be an exception. As far as pacmans go it's probably not advisable at all, I might of caused some confusion to some people (I'm talking about a pixie frog, not a pacman) which have been known to be a little less difficult becoming stressed out with enough care and proper husbandry. To the original question, I've re-thought my opinion and think that any responsible pet owner that decides to buy a frog should no that they should not be handled ideally to a minimum. So, with all that being said I respect your opinion a lot and think that you've earned all your reputation. Thanks for your advice.

I second that . They like their space. They don't like to get picked up. They are bottom dwellers. They like the floor. They live on the floor, and under. especially baby pacman, they are not arboreal. They would probably feel that some bird picked them up to eat them. There life is on the ground. As you all know they do'n like to get poaked like on youtube(turturetube).

Torturetube, that's a good one. Everything that happens on youtube for the most part completely contradicts with all the knowledge on this forum.


This took me forever to type all this, I'm away from my computer and typed all this on my phone.

[BG]

Some times i use my pone and the wrong word goes in.lol

Yeah, I see where you are coming from. My frog has got used to the routine and I never do it to interact with my frogs that could cause unwanted stress and panic for them. So I agree that if people are just puttin them in containers to hold them and what not that's not a good idea. I just think it's beneficial for me and him, it's so much easier on me to get enough food to be fed for this voracious eater . Then after putting him back in his tank, 10 minutes later he's already back in his water dish chilling. There are exceptions like people mentioned and mine just might be an exception. As far as pacmans go it's probably not advisable at all, I might of caused some confusion to some people (I'm talking about a pixie frog, not a pacman) which have been known to be a little less difficult becoming stressed out with enough care and proper husbandry. To the original question, I've re-thought my opinion and think that any responsible pet owner that decides to buy a frog should no that they should not be handled ideally to a minimum. So, with all that being said I respect your opinion a lot and think that you've earned all your reputation. Thanks for your advice.




Torturetube, that's a good one. Everything that happens on youtube for the most part completely contradicts with all the knowledge on this forum.


This took me forever to type all this, I'm away from my computer and typed all this on my phone.

[Sublime]

Some times i use my pone and the wrong word goes in.lol

Yeah, I don't use auto correct anymore because that got real annoying haha.

[bshmerlie]

Some times i use my pone and the wrong word goes in.lol

I second that....80% of what I do here is done on my phone. So when you see me editing my posts it's me saying, "AHHHH...how did that get there?" "I didn't type that".

[GrifTheGreat]

I'm not meaning this to be a hard fast rule believe it or not. If you are having difficulty getting your frog to eat then I think someone should try anything and everything to get the frog to eat. But taking the frog out at every feeding will cause undue stress and over time will have a toll. I had two pacman frogs that were giving me trouble with feeding at various times. I tried removing them to feed them in a separate container and they would panic to the point of exhaustion. If, on the other hand, the frog sees this as a daily routine and doesn't seem upset by the transfer and its working for you then by all means continue. But to do this simply because you like to interact with your frog...I just don't think its beneficial to the frog. This is just my opinion. Although I do think we have strayed from the original question. How do you get your pacman to get used to being picked up? You don't...or rather you shouldn't.

I had to handle Grif a lot after he got sick. I got him out of his tank and force fed him every night until he was well and ate on his own. I did this for 2 months. He doesn't. Mind being handled. I always wash my hand really well before I handle him. Between my fingers and past the wrists. If Grif doesn't want to be handled he will move when I. Put my hand in. Unless he's hungry then hell just sit there staring at me until I give him a night crawler or horn worm. If you are going to handle them be sure to wash your hands with hot water an a very mild cleanser so as to not harm the frog. This Is what I do.

[BG]

Just fixed the issue!!!!!

Yeah, I don't use auto correct anymore because that got real annoying haha.

[Heatheranne]

Yep, I agree. Unless your frog is used to a certain routine as for feeding or other needed purpose, as little handling as possible means less stress for them and a happier, healthier frog. They are domesticated animals and don't look for affection. But that doesn't mean that they might get a bit used to us either. My big RETF now sits right on her front branches and looks right out the tank when she's hungry, lol! It's super cute. So, some may learn to tolerate us. But, can you imagine a big scary thing 100+ X's our size reaching into our homes to pick us up, ha ha! They have an inherent instinct of fear to larger animals because they often are prey.

Oh yeah...George, my "pone" does that too, lol! And my typing with a thumb probably doesn't help either, ha ha!

[Heatheranne]

Oops, that was suppose to say they are NOT domesticated animals.