MOTW - Jul 29 - Aug 4 2012 - Bolisnide

[Bolisnide]

Thank you for going ahead with Monday! Definitely not a boring read!

I woke up this morning at 618....my shift starts at 6! So I was running around like crazy and didn't have time to wait for my computer to boot up to most the Monday header

Ha! Sure, sorry I wasn't sure of the procedure!
I hate it when I wake up late and have to rush out the door; hope your morning went well

[Jenste]

Tuesday, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!

[Bolisnide]

Tuesday, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!

Well, I never really was into amphibians until 2 years ago when my son and husband came home with a tadpole they found in a lava rockpool down at Acoma Pueblo. There are a lot of hardened lava formations thereand in the little crevices (after a big rain) there were hundreds of theseenormous tadpoles! My husband thought it would be a fun way to educate our sonon metamorphosis and nature....
Well, needless to say, I became the primary caregiver to this little guy, and in about one month the tadpole had legs. I went to our local petstore for some advice on how to care for this little toad (it was a NM spadefoot), and was given extremely bad advice
I had this little guy in a 10 gallon aquarium with aquarium gravel! As we all know, that was a big no-no! but I was only following the advice of the petstore... The toad did fine for about 12 months, he was eating and pooing, so I thought all was fine. Then one day my son and I came home to a dead toad, and the culprit was the gravel . I'm sure he died of impaction, poor thing. We were all devastated.
My son was now hooked and wanted another frog. I had no idea where to obtainone, then one day we were in the same said pet store and he had white's treefrogs! Well, the man at the petstore once again gave us really bad advice! I asked if the 10 gallon enclosure was sufficient (he said yes, of course), asked for a run down on care (he said care was very simple)... That day we came home with one white's (love at first sight for both my son and I).
The frog didn't seem well, so I went online looking for answers and solutions and found frog forum! Kurt (the treefrog guru) was the one who really helped out. Based on his great advice, I immediately bought an 18x18x24 enclosure, set it up with lots of pothos, snake plants, vines, etc. The frog finally came around! Then 2 weeks later we bought another white's from the same pet store. Sadly, this one died 2 weeks later.... We still don't know why. We still have our remaining white's, and he is doing really well, thanks to frogforum!
Recently, about 2 ½ weeks ago, I was in PetCo and they had red-eyed tree frogs! I was in heaven! I have never seen these in NM! I bought 2 and a 12x12x18 enclosure... Kind of jumped the gun, but I couldn't resist! Long story short, one of them died about 3 days later, and the remaining one is now finally doing quite well. I just bought another 18x18x24 that I will begin setting up to move our red-eye into....
So, that's the story of my new found hobby, and I have learned so much on thisforum. So a big thanks to everyone who helped us out! I know my frogs thank you!!
Lessons I've learned: do your own research!!!! Don't trust the pet peddlers only in it for a buck! Because if you don't do your own research, the animals suffer.
Mistakes I've made: not doing my homework, not setting up vivs first, and then getting the animal .
This forum is so important to the hobby, I'm sure frogs are saved everyday thanks to everyone here!