Please advise on the behalf of my Pacman frog

[BigBlue83]

Hello, my name is Trey. I am new here. I own two firebelly toads, two african dwarf frogs, and just yesterday got myself an albino pacman. I love this new pacman she is great! picked her up yesterday from a local reptile amphibian store. Shes not really a baby but shes still young. i brought her home yesterday in the small rubber tub they sold me her in. i also picked up some stuff for that i would need.
so this is my set up. I AM OPEN FOR SUGGESTIONS SO PLEASE FEEL FREE.
i have a glass ten gallon tank. I put a little less than a brick of eco earth. (id say about two inches of substrate some parts a little more. i LIGHTLY packed the first layer, than add more to that. If your looking at the tank on the back right hand side i put the shallow water dish with bottled water. On the back left corner is a nest of Moss that i got from the store (dont remember what its called but was highly recomended from the owner, the store specializes in custom vivariums) on that same back corner on the outside of the tank is an 8 whatt heating pad (its on the back wall, not bellow the tank)
I have a hydrometer to check for humidity. right now its reading about 70 that is on the inside of the tank but close to the top. I also have an electric battery operated thermometer. the thermometer is the brand marina. the base part that tells the temp is on the outside and the wire goes into the tank and stuck to the side of the tank with a suction cup. on the end of the wire is a metal pc that picks up the temp it is about 1/3 of the way to the bottom of the tank. right now the temp is reading 77.2 f.
after bringing my pacman home yesterday i set up the tank and put her in it she barried herself little by little in the moss eventually ending up under it. she was down low so her eyes could be out, however now shes so low you cant even see her.
I know that this is a new home new envirement for her its only been about 24hrs she been in this new home. I just want to make sure im doing the best i can to make her happy and comfy.
if anyone has any tips id be much appreciated. when i picked her up yesterday they said they fed her every other day, but how can i feed her if i cant even see her, most likely she cant even see me. I just want to make sure she's ok.
any thoughts any comments???
i will take pictures soon....

[BigBlue83]

so i couldnt get my temp. up it seemed a little low. I moved my frogs dwellings to the basement Its alot warmer down there. shes been down there for about two hrs and the tank now has a temp of 80.1 f. i moved the moss that was ontop of her (shes barried deep) even with that moss moved you still cant see her. not at all! i didnt move any of the substrate that is on her, should I? can she breathe? i know shes new to the home should i just let her be for another day?

[GrifTheGreat]

Hello BigBlue83,

Well if you are planning to feed her in the tank you have to get rid of the moss. These frogs are veratious eaters and if she eats any of the moss she could become impacted(severe constipation) which can cause death. Temps should be 80 to 85 during the day and 75 to 79 at night. These frogs are also nocturnal so they are only active at night. Babies and juviniles can be offered food daily? But every other day is fine. They do occasionally bury themselves completely so that's not bad. Also it takes them time to adjust to a new home. It takes some and hour and others a week. Substrate needs to be moist or heavily damp, not muddy.

You can unbury the top of her head so she can see and offer food. I can not stress enough that you need to get rid of the moss to feed her in her home. Be sure to cover 3 sides of the tank with some sort of background. This makes them feedl more secure. Purchase a lamp with a dimmer switch. Fluker's makes a good one. You need an infrared bulb for the heat lamp that is no less than 25 watts and no more than 50 watts.

Food items should be of appropriate size. Crickets should be no larger than the distance between the frogs eyes. You can also feed her chunks of night crawlers. Also cut in appropriates size. About 1 inch is fine for worms.

The heat lamp will burn off humidity. To help maintain humidity cover 3/4 or 1/3 with plastic wrap. Poke holes in the plastic wrap. Leave space in the center of the the screen top for the lamp to be placed. Do not set the lamp directly on the plastic wrap.

For a more accurate temp and humidity reading the gauges should be placed in the center of the back wall of the enclosure an inch and a half to 2 inches above the substrate.

Look in the care article section of the forum for basic info on Pacman care. There is a Pacman Care Sheet. I don't have the link to post here.

Any indepth questions just ask. There are plenty of experienced keepers here.

[BigBlue83]

first off i truly thank you for acknowledging my post. im new to this forum, however am member of another forum (for my truck) and responses here seem few and far in between.
as for the moss i will take care of that. i did read that a couple times. but one thing ive noticed is theres a wide variety of care sheets and info, and alot of the stuff conflict each other. thats why its good to have a forum.
as for the temp, i know where the temp is supposed to be, i just coulndt get it to there. thats why i moved her and her set up to the basement for now. as i said in the first post i have a heat pad thats on the back wall, it just doesnt seem to be doing the job.
i want to invest in a light however i have heard half and half some say to use them others say no because itll cook the froggy. so i just dont know what to do on that matter. honestly im not smart/knowledgeable on UVB or UVA or any of the lights so i dont know how to shop for them. any help would be much appreciated.
lastly thanks for that bit of info regarding placement of the gauges. i will move them closer to the substrate (farther from the top)

Thank You again,
Trey

[GrifTheGreat]

first off i truly thank you for acknowledging my post. im new to this forum, however am member of another forum (for my truck) and responses here seem few and far in between.
as for the moss i will take care of that. i did read that a couple times. but one thing ive noticed is theres a wide variety of care sheets and info, and alot of the stuff conflict each other. thats why its good to have a forum.
as for the temp, i know where the temp is supposed to be, i just coulndt get it to there. thats why i moved her and her set up to the basement for now. as i said in the first post i have a heat pad thats on the back wall, it just doesnt seem to be doing the job.
i want to invest in a light however i have heard half and half some say to use them others say no because itll cook the froggy. so i just dont know what to do on that matter. honestly im not smart/knowledgeable on UVB or UVA or any of the lights so i dont know how to shop for them. any help would be much appreciated.
lastly thanks for that bit of info regarding placement of the gauges. i will move them closer to the substrate (farther from the top)

Thank You again,
Trey

The lights won't cook the frog unless they are above the wattage range. 25 watts lowest and 50 watts highest. Stay within that range and all will be fine. The point of buying a lamp with a dimmer switch is so you can control the amount of light and heat coming from the bulb. They need a 12 hour day/night cycle so a well lit room during the day and a daytime bulb help with this. Zoo Med and Exo Terra are a couple good brands for bulbs and Fluker's makes a good dome lamp that has a dimmer switch. Infrared bulbs are what you need if you can't reach appropriate temps and they can be used day and night. You could also buy a Ceramic Heat Emitter which produces only heat and no light. You have to be careful with them though as they get pretty hot and its hard to find one that isn't 75 watts and up. If you can't find one of those in the proper wattage range you can hang the lamp over the enclosure so that its isn't creating an oven within the tank. 80 is fine though if you can maintain it. That's the average daytime temp for these frogs. You may not need a lamp if you can keep the temps up. Since you have an Albino you can't use basking bulbs because all theses will harm your frogs eyes. If you deside to go with a lamp(if needed for extra heat) buy infrared bulbs or ceramic heat emitter.

Be sure your frogs water dish is opposite the UTH so there is a temp gradient.

There is a lot of conflicting info on these frogs out there and I can assure you that finding this forum is probably your best bet to getting good care info on all your frogs. Plus everyone here is friendly and willing to help and answer any questions you might have.

[BigBlue83]

yes i have heat pad on the left and the water dish on the right. i just went down to check on her and she was in the same exact spot as before. identicle however i noticed that there was eco earth in her water dish. this is a good sings i hope. she was at the place i got her for about three months so the move was probly ruff on her to go from a small home with plants and water dishes to being put in a rubber tub and driven around in my truck than the hole new home. i have her in a ten gallon. she was in a small like 2 gallon thing before. Im going to feed her tomorrow. i have to get crickets, the ones i have now are small. hopefully shell come around. cant wait to get pics

[GrifTheGreat]

yes i have heat pad on the left and the water dish on the right. i just went down to check on her and she was in the same exact spot as before. identicle however i noticed that there was eco earth in her water dish. this is a good sings i hope. she was at the place i got her for about three months so the move was probly ruff on her to go from a small home with plants and water dishes to being put in a rubber tub and driven around in my truck than the hole new home. i have her in a ten gallon. she was in a small like 2 gallon thing before. Im going to feed her tomorrow. i have to get crickets, the ones i have now are small. hopefully shell come around. cant wait to get pics

She might have gotten thirsty and snuck in the water dish while you were away. Changing homes and environments causes stress and it takes them some time to get used to their new surroundings. Just keep an eye on her and keep us posted.

We love pics so we can't wait either.

[Heatheranne]

Hi Bigblue!

An easy way to cover your tank are the vinyl fishtank backgrounds.

Another way to make your baby happy is to add a nice cave or plant for him to hide under.

Both of my pacs burry too, but they have learned when it's dinner time and they now wait at the front of their homes for food, esp my big boy, Tank .

It takes them some time to learn to trust us. We are big scary predators to them until we prove otherwise .

If your baby continues to not want to eat you can gently scoot his fanny up out of the substrate then place the crickets. Try not to startle him.

He's a cutie, btw.

[BigBlue83]

the vinyl cover is a good idea. but im a perfectionist so i want something neat and nice looking. besides i like to work with my hands and put handy mods on things every other day ive been aking her from being 100% unburied and try to feed her crickets. she doesnt take them until later that night when shes by herself. when i used to undig her her she would flinch however now she just sitts with a questioning eye. i think slowly but surely shes learning im not going to hurt her. in fact today is the day to feed. so in about a half hr im going to go down and give it another shot

[Heatheranne]

The vinyl backgrounds are patterned. Some look like plants. Although, hand made would be great!

This is an old pic from when I first set up my baby Chomper's tank. Just an idea.

[Heatheranne]

This is my big boy Tank's home

[BigBlue83]

to heather: are those real plants? how do you keep them alive? i had one in my fire bellys tank but it onbly lasted about 2 months than turned black. I think she would appreciate some more plants

[Heatheranne]

Both of these tanks have all fake.

My retf viv has all live except one fake leaf ( bc my big retf loved it so much in her fake plated terrarium ).

This is an older picture. I have changed it around a bit to add heavier leaf plants and haven't taken new pictures yet.

[Heatheranne]

Oops, fake planted*

I am such a bad typist, lol!

[BigBlue83]

give everybody an update on my girl. about three days ago i unburied her head then went down stairs and tryed to feed her. she wouldnt take it from my hand. so as always i dropped the crickets in and tryed to watch. the most she did was move to look in the opposite direction. so i left her be. However good news is to come because for the past three days she hasnt covered herself up completely! now she just buries up to her head and doesnt hide completely! im excited. I think shes getting more comfortable. However when i tryed to feed her today, she wouldnt eat from my hand. she backed up from the cricket in my hand. so i dropped it in. she turned to face it but no go. wouldnt move. i dropped a couple more in. on one of them when i dropped it in she was facing away from me and the cricket fell from my hand and in front of her and she snached it before it even hit the ground!!! my first time being able to watch her eat!!! tomorrow im going to the pet store to pick up a 50 whatt light and dimmer switch then going to move her from the basement to the living room. im going to get some forceps and hope maybe she eat from those. since she so much opposes my fingers.

[GrifTheGreat]

give everybody an update on my girl. about three days ago i unburied her head then went down stairs and tryed to feed her. she wouldnt take it from my hand. so as always i dropped the crickets in and tryed to watch. the most she did was move to look in the opposite direction. so i left her be. However good news is to come because for the past three days she hasnt covered herself up completely! now she just buries up to her head and doesnt hide completely! im excited. I think shes getting more comfortable. However when i tryed to feed her today, she wouldnt eat from my hand. she backed up from the cricket in my hand. so i dropped it in. she turned to face it but no go. wouldnt move. i dropped a couple more in. on one of them when i dropped it in she was facing away from me and the cricket fell from my hand and in front of her and she snached it before it even hit the ground!!! my first time being able to watch her eat!!! tomorrow im going to the pet store to pick up a 50 whatt light and dimmer switch then going to move her from the basement to the living room. im going to get some forceps and hope maybe she eat from those. since she so much opposes my fingers.

That great Trey. Hopefully all is well now. It just takes time for them to get comfortable.

[BettaShawn]

Just keep monitoring the cage parameters (temp, humidity, etc) and see how she does within the next few weeks. Pacmans are cool frogs, and I hope you enjoy the experience.

[Heatheranne]

Congrats!

[BigBlue83]

We have light!!! ok maybe not... lol
so heres the situation: my pacman is in a ten gallon tank and i live in ct its kinda cold. i have an 8 whatt heating pad on the back side of the tank, hoever it doesnt heat enough. so i moved the pacman down stairs. i also put backing around three sides of the tank. by down stairs i mean basement its warm down there. well i want the pacman up stairs to enjoy. also the pacman needs 12 hrs light 12 hrs dark. i when and picked up a light a bulb and a dimmer switch, however they didnt have a dimmer switch. they had a temperature setter. you plug the light/ heat source into it and it moderates the temp for yopu. I picked up a red bulb, to me it was the best i seen at petco (which sucks around me by the way). i moved the pacman upstairs. she seems to bedoing well. the temp is staying right and thwe bulb turns on and off to acomodate 78-82 degrees in the tank. i know its working. she also has the light from the living room in the day as actaul light. so is this set up safe for my pacman???? she doesnt stay buried and ive seen her safely move away from the light. then back into it. i just dont want to dry her out burn her or hurt her eyes. so please give oppinions. i can return and get something different... thank you... here are the pics