Being a giddy school girl!

[Tori Savage]

I have finally gotten my hands on something I have wanted for quite some time now... Took me quite a bit to finally get it, as talking my hubby into it!!! I also told him that before long, he will have to build me a room just for my frogs! I can say I am a few animals short of a zoo. I will include pics when my phone decides to let me/my comp decides to save them, which ever comes first... But I now have a .................................................. ............ Pacman! YAY!!!!!!! GO ME!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!

Now the woman at the pet store where I bought it said this... It eats every other day. It is also eating crickets, meal worms, wax worms, and earth worms. Now this lil froggy is little! It's about the size of a half dollar im guessing. Maybe??? They also told me as long as the substrate is moist, it needs misting twice a day...

I know they need a substrate to burrow in, which as well as my other frogs substrate, they all currently have Exo Terra (I think?) Forrest Moss. Now, I've noticed that there's a few problems with this substrate... It has attracted those little pesky flies that I can't get rid of for nothing!!! It isn't the common house fly or whatever. It is little bitty flies that only water attracts them. It also has a water dish, not too deep, which it can get in and out of perfectly fine. I have a Night Glow (I think its called), 50w I think. There is also a UV bulb, which I looked at the little booklet that was by the light stand, said that it was ok for my AGTF. I had originally gotten both of those for my AGTF tank, but I had no lighting what so ever for my newest little buddy. The Pacman is also in a tank that is 20 in long by 18 in wide by 18 in tall I believe is the measurements... It's tank during the day is around 80 degrees, 70 at night. I mist it when the humidity is below 60%. It also comes out of it's burrow when I mist, day or night! Tries to follow the spray too. Tried to offer crickets, but missed them by like a mile and got a mouth full of moss. I got the moss out, pulled the back legs off of the cricket, and put them both in a critter keeper. The frog showed no interest in eating. Tried offering meal worms, same thing, no interest in eating. I tried again the next night, still no interest in either. I do treat the water I mist all my frogs with. Every other feeding, its dusted crickets with vitamins, every other feeding is meal worms.

Now that you all know the background and what not, any and all advice is welcomed!!! Any questions, I'll try my best to answer!

I have my Pacman, 2 American Green Tree Frogs, 4 Grey Tree Frogs (3 adults, 1 froglet), 3 White Lip Tree Frogs, and 1 froglet that can either be an AGTF, or White Lip. Too little to tell, but it is lime green! LOL!

[Tori Savage]

And as soon as I can get the pics onto my computer, I will gladly post pics!!!

Beings that my pacman is still pretty small, do I need to put it in something smaller until it gets bigger?

[IvoryReptiles]

Please do not feed the frog mealworms.....they are very difficult for them to digest the exoskeleton of these worms and could possibly get an impaction. Try proper sized bits of Night Crawlers/ Earthworms. Our frogs & froglets LOVE them. Also, coco fiber/coir (Bed-a-Beast or Eco Earth) are a much better substrate for these guys. If they ingest the moss, it can also cause an impaction. They are Nocturnal and do not need any UVB source, it may actually stress them out. Your temps could be at least 5 degrees warmer for both day & nights. You could try feeding the frog in a feeding container that has no substrate in it at all if you decide to keep the moss.

We have noticed that our smaller frogs & froglets get stressed out if the enclosure is too large. We breed them, so our froglets spend the first few inches of growth in 6 oz. deli cups on damp paper towels or coco fiber for the Winter. We do not use any lights and since we keep the amphibian room nice & toasty, they need no additional source of heat. You can use a UTH on the side of the enclosure for added heat. As for foods, ours eat crickets & earthworms and also the food we get from Japan....it is a powder that when mixed with water becomes a dough. It is nutritionally a complete diet and we use it as a supplemental food. They also will eat roaches (Dubia are the most common) and horn-worms on occasion.

Good luck to you & the frog.....keep us posted on it's progress!

[Tori Savage]

Here is my little frog!!! I'll try to get better pics soon. My comp and phone deiced to be complete rejects the past 3 days...

[Tori Savage]

Please be patient as I have a few more questions...


Feeding:
When feeding the frog, would it really help to feed it whatever food with tongs? I've seen lots of people posting pics of feeding their pacmans with tongs. And do I need to do this every feeding?I know it's food needs to be dusted. I had read some wheres many different times to dust... Each feeding,every other feeding, dust 1:1 (1 cricket/worm with calcium with d3, and dust the other with vitamins).I also seen once a week. I think I had even seen you post something about liquid calcium in the water...Can you add some input on that please?



Substrate:
Will it be okay in the moss for a few more days, like until the weekend (Friday at the latest)?
It seems to be doing ok for the time being. Also, I had seen at the pet store where I got it from, in the tank, there was a layer of small pebbles, then some kind of substrate, and it had a little bit of water, hardly enough to cover the pebbles. The pebbles looked like the glass pebbles that you can put in a fish tank.Could I do a small layer of that, then the coco fiber? Also, how often does the substrate need to be cleaned/changed? The moss I have in there now, it's misted up to 3 times a day, or whenever the top layer looks slightly dry, or when the humidity goes down.


Temperatures:
With the light I have on it now, it stays above 80 degrees, but no higher than 85. It pretty much fluctuates. Depending on where the sun is at, shining through my windows, or if the air conditioner cuts on, or what not. But during the day, I don't let it get any warmer than 85, no lower than 80. At night, it drops down to 70 to 75. Once again, depending on the coolness outside, the air conditioner and so on. I don't let it drop past 70, or go higher than 75. Is the temps fluctuating too much at any time? And beings its so little, what do the temps need to be around?

Humidity:
I've seen it drop as low as 60% and I'd mist periodically until it reached around 70%. Is it too most/wet/humid which ever ya want to call it?




Also, on a side note, I have to travel out of town this weekend. Which, in all honesty, I'm dreading. It isn't the traveling I hate.
It's being in a vehicle for 3 hours, with 4 kids ranging from 7 years old to a little over 1 year old. They drive me crazy!
But anyways, beings I will be gone all weekend, would it be wise to bring it with me, considering it's so little, or leave it at home, in a less crazy and stress free environment? Would it also be easier on the frog and myself to be put in a critter keeper beings it is so little?



I think that may be it unless if ya have a bit more to share! Thanks!!!

[DonLisk]

Congrats on the new Pacman and look forward to more pics in the future of him :-)

[GrifTheGreat]

Teaching your frog to eat from forcepts or tongs helps to prevent them fom ingesting substrate. The moss is bad but it should be ok for now. As soon as possible get it on some Eco Earth coco fiber or bed a beast. Plantation soil is good too.

Temps for babies should be just a bit lower. No higher than 82 no lower than 80 during the day. At night 75 to 79. Try to stay around 78 at night though. Buy a lamp with a dimmer switch so you can accurately control the amount of heat and light coming from the bulb.

Humidity must be 70 to 80%.

If you leave and someone isn't there to maintain humidity and keep the temps within the correct range it could be bad for your frog.