Pacman Questions (soon to be new owner)

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF Bedore! I'm glad you asked all these questions before getting your frog. If you head to the forums care articles section will find articles on choosing and caring for various frogs and one on frogs health. If thinking about a Pacman; this one is mandatory: Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding !

OK, since your room is quite cold (60F... wow I would shiver and freeze, must be the frog and fish on me ) and most your questions are about habitat lets go over that. You will need to provide 80-85F for your little guy during the day and that can drop 5 degrees at night. Heat mats (if used) must be attached to sides, never the bottom. Those are pretty inefficient and are usually used in combo with lights (myself prefer using Flex Heat Tape with temp. controller but that is a bit more challenging electrically wise). Mats are available in various sizes and you will need to experiment starting with biggest unit you can affix to side. And that brings to the subject of lights!

Yep, Pacmans need no light, and if an albino, lights can actually hurt their eyes. But the heat emitted from an incandescent bulb can bring the temp. up in your set-up. There are red and black (moonlights I use) reptile/amphibian bulbs that work fine with frogs and can be kept up on 24 hours with no problems. Also, if using light dome you can get a ceramic type heat emitter the produces only heat.

Lamp fixture choice depends on your enclosure type. If going with an Exo-Terra or ZooMed type enclosure their own brand made light fixtures work fine. Think the ZooMed top handles higher wattage bulbs and would go with that. If using an aquarium with mesh top; my first choice would be a dome with a ceramic heat emitter. If want light bulbs, either a black or red of appropriate watts would work. You would need to fine tune those watts to maintain proper tank temperature. Because of your room cold temps, would start with the highest watt bulbs you can use and if too hot; trade them for smaller ones at Pet Shop until you get the right temp. That will work as long as room temp is stable or just drops 5 degrees at night. If room temps will change then I recommend using a higher wattage bulb with a controller. Those come in manual (less expensive) and auto versions. If using a higher wattage bulb you will probably not need the inefficient heat mat. And you will need an enclosure thermometer and hygrometer for measuring temps and humidity too.

OK, so now that we got heat, lets talk humidity! Lamps will dry your set-up so need to add humidity. You will use a couple inches of Plantation Soil, Eco-Earth or similar shredded coco substrate and get it damp so that it clumps when squished in hand but not drip. Then the evaporation from water dish and your sprayings will maintain that. Level should be around 80% but can drop to 70& with no problems. If having problem maintaining that, consider sealing some of the top areas to reduce ventilation. That can be done by covering top sections with saran wrap taped to top edges (start with 50% and go from there). Do keep the saran wrap away from heat sources by at least 1/2 to 1 in. Also, there are auto sprayers in market that can even be connected to humidity controllers; but I have not used them so can't discuss.

Well, this should get you started, have fun reading and good luck setting up your Pacman's habitat !