pyxie question

[Starforce2]

I am thinking of trying again with the pyxie frog. I've had 2, one got sick and started acting weird and refused food, the other got toasted when the cat knocked a heat bulb out of position and it drilled through the plastic water dish and smoked the cage. This time I plan on going custom, as commercial cages just aren't suited to pyxies in minnesota. Screen tops result in a frog that dried up in a corner no matter how big a bowl of water you keep in there because the humidity is 10% because it's -10 outside. So, I plan to use a plastic tote with a large enough hole covered with screen to accommodate a heat lamp, and it shouldn't take much as heat traps in a plastic tote fairly well. So long as I keep that hole as small as possible for the lamp I shouldn't have a humidity problem. So I basically have 2 issues. I need to know much big of a bulb I should use and what type of substrate. Most pyxies I see are kept on a combo of sphagnum and either eco earth of organic potting soil or seed starter which I know to be OK only if it contains no man made additives. I've heard the sphagnum as anti-bacterial properties and is good for frogs (dunno if this is true) and that I should put cork lumps in the water bowl because it leaches this brown substance into the water that is also good? I forget what it's called, comes from using real leaves in the bottom of the cage too but I wont be doing that. (if not I am going to try and go with a large enough water bowl to run a charcoal filter system as I don't want to change water every day because then I need to treat water which is a pain) I am planning to have a lg bucket of tap water sitting for a couple days to get rid of the chlorine. So the second issue is the substrate and if keeping the frog in soil topped with the moss (to help keep the soil moist) like the local pyxie vendor does actually presents an ingestion issue for hand sized frogs which will be eating crickets, super worms and night crawlers. The local store had a store pet kept on soils, gravel and mosses however this frog was big enough to eat gerbils and possibly even small rats so ingestion would have been unlikely for the gravel and mosses would be too small compared to the frog to be a threat. But obviously the smaller the animal the bigger the issue. The frog I start with will likely be about the size of an american softball or baseball. Hearing from someone who's had smaller pyxies on moss would be helpful here.

I guess a 3rd question is what the real temp? It took a 50 halogen bulb 2 inches from the side of a 10 gal topped with a plexiglass top with small air holes to create 88+ degrees and high humidity which would be what you'd get if you lived in a swamp in the middle of Africa. I am guessing based on what the weather would be like in central Africa from what I've seen on nature shows..I know it's hot as heck. I've been told high 70's and low 80's by some and high 80's/low 90's by others (frog "experts"), the second of which seems to be right based on the fact that I know central africa gets really hot. Of course that bulb, when blasted directly into a plastic water dish also creates a hole about an inch deep and a half inch wide...and a whole lot of noxious smoke. I had tried top mounting it but the frog just dried up in it's cocoon due to low ambient humidity, even though it could go in water deep enough to swim and submerge all it wanted. Before I try again I want to build a custom cage that works, because the other one wont. Certainly if I ever need to side mount a bulb like that again I am using a steel water dish..lol This also highlights a very frustrating issue with this hobby. no so called frog care expert giving me the same answer on environmental statistics. I was told the first frog, which got sick, may have gotten sick due to being at room temp, low 70's, and should have been in the high 80's and low 90's while others seem to have them in the high 70's and low 80's with a basking area and still others that say the only frog that should be basking is a wax monkey. I've seen care sheets vary too, on temp. There's a few frogs I'd like to get my hands on (I'll start another thread on those) that I can find jack diddly on..so hopefully I'll be able to get some answers from here.

[GrifTheGreat]

Read this http://www.frogforum.net/african-bul...caresheet.html

I can honestly say that your first Pyxi most likely became ill due to temps being far too low. You cant keep a Pyxi at room temp. They must have 80° to near 90° temps and humidity from 75% to 90%.

Keep the frog in a room where your cat CAN'T get in.

[bullfrog1986]

For advice does site is very good its helped me loads very temps and humidity.. or tho getting both of them spot on isn't always easy unless you have a fogger or something.

[SCF]

Don't use sphagnum moss in the substrate. I don't know if you saw the thread one or two up from this one about it being eaten resulting in prolapse.

[Starforce2]

Ok. Well, if I can get a frog that eats aggressively I can feed it outside it's cage in a clean plastic container or aquarium which would mean no food in the cage for it to eat and thus eat moss with it. The first frog I had did this. Though I had little to no moss he or she would eat no matter where and if a superworm or night crawler started digging out of harms way and I went in to flip it back into the frogs reach I would get my finger slapped with it's tongue all the time. The second frog was a total coward and would back up from a worm so feeding it was a game of pissing off the frog till it attacked the worm and ate it. It was very time consuming and annoying and how it managed to double in size over a year with such poor eating habits is beyond me. This time around I am going to ask to see it eat before I buy. My second one would ignore crickets and only willingly eat superworms which isn't healthy to have all the time. It was even afraid of small mice. thankfully my pacman doesn't have this problem and was more than happy to eat it instead. The problem is this also meant if I disturbed the frog to drain the excess water out of the cage so the super worms wouldn't die instantly or take it to another container I couldn't get it to eat anything so night crawlers were about the only thing I could use. Most vids I've seen of people feeding pyxies they have no problems with moving them to an empty bin to feed so I dunno why mine was such a mental case. Bad luck I guess.

When heating a pyxies cage up do I need to use a light or is it better to use a non-light emitting heater, such as a low wattage ceramic? I can easily wrap a caged ceramic heater in screen to keep the frog from jumping into it since they certainly can jump fairly high when young.

[demon amphibians]

Ok. Well, if I can get a frog that eats aggressively I can feed it outside it's cage in a clean plastic container or aquarium which would mean no food in the cage for it to eat and thus eat moss with it. The first frog I had did this. Though I had little to no moss he or she would eat no matter where and if a superworm or night crawler started digging out of harms way and I went in to flip it back into the frogs reach I would get my finger slapped with it's tongue all the time. The second frog was a total coward and would back up from a worm so feeding it was a game of pissing off the frog till it attacked the worm and ate it. It was very time consuming and annoying and how it managed to double in size over a year with such poor eating habits is beyond me. This time around I am going to ask to see it eat before I buy. My second one would ignore crickets and only willingly eat superworms which isn't healthy to have all the time. It was even afraid of small mice. thankfully my pacman doesn't have this problem and was more than happy to eat it instead. The problem is this also meant if I disturbed the frog to drain the excess water out of the cage so the super worms wouldn't die instantly or take it to another container I couldn't get it to eat anything so night crawlers were about the only thing I could use. Most vids I've seen of people feeding pyxies they have no problems with moving them to an empty bin to feed so I dunno why mine was such a mental case. Bad luck I guess.

When heating a pyxies cage up do I need to use a light or is it better to use a non-light emitting heater, such as a low wattage ceramic? I can easily wrap a caged ceramic heater in screen to keep the frog from jumping into it since they certainly can jump fairly high when young.

what you said about removing your frog from its tank and feeding it in a separate area were it can't ingest substrate is a very good move. I do that with my male pixie as well and he has gotten so accustom to it that when i bring him out of his cage he knows its time to eat. It makes it easier for him to corner his prey and he actually eats more now then when i was feeding him in is tank. I will only put him in his feeding bin for 15 minutes or until he eats what he wants and losses interest.

I wish i could feed my other frogs with this method but they like to be left alone when they eat. I can even hand feed my American bull frog But when i take it out of its tank it wants nothing to do with eating.
I also noticed that the closer the temp is to 90 the more they seem to want to eat. If the temp is closer to 80 he wants nothing to do with food even if it has been days since i feed him. I use a ceramic black light which gives adequate heat and the light doesn't seem to bother him i use box tape to cover about 2/3s of the top of his tank to keep in humidity. I do allow some ventilation. I prefer a heat light apposed to a heat mat at the bottom because when they dig down into the substrate the mat keeps the substrate dry and they will dehydrate. When the heat comes from the top your substrate might dry out on top but keeps somewhat moist the deeper they go. None the less you still want to mist the substrate regularly regardless of what you use.

with these guys it is really trial and error. Just by reading this thread i think you will do just fine on the second go. There is good info is this thread.

[Starforce2]

Yea, I wanted to do that with my second pyxie but no-go, he just wanted to escape. I am curious to the size of the tank and the ceramic emitter. Want to get an idea of what I need to use to attain that temp. A plastic tote should hold heat well but I need to be quite careful after a certain size heater as it can destroy the cage roof with it's powerfull heat. Undertank is obviously a no-go on a plastic cage anyways and I wont even be attempting it, and I don't use any type of heat rocks. The plastic tote I have is 18x23x15 inches roughly. Also, how much of your cage is 90 or nearly so? Do you try to heat the whole thing or should there just be a warm spot like with most reptiles?

[Eel Noob]

I live in MN as well and has never had to use heat lamps. I have used heatmats on the side of the tank before but now that I have all my frogs and fishes in their own room I just run a room heater.

BTW these frogs are not from the swamps of Africa so IMO you don't have to worry about humidity, at least I don't. If you look at the videos and pictures of where these frogs are from, these places are usually dry places with just a small puddle here and there and they all dry up very quick.

[Deac77]

Mine doesn't use headlamps no need I promise I'm In a drier climate than you haha but I use heat mats and a 20gal long tank with a water section it's a tank for fish so most of it is closed except about 2-3 inches along the back I only mist about 2 times a week and mine is happy and healthy I have 2 heat mats one in the side and one on the back and it maintains temps right

[Eel Noob]

Mine doesn't use headlamps no need I promise I'm In a drier climate than you haha but I use heat mats and a 20gal long tank with a water section it's a tank for fish so most of it is closed except about 2-3 inches along the back I only mist about 2 times a week and mine is happy and healthy I have 2 heat mats one in the side and one on the back and it maintains temps right

Sweet setup! What type of canister filter are you using?

[Deac77]

Zoomed 501 for turtles up to 40 gal haha it's usually clear but he had just hoped in for a dip here

[Starforce2]

what type of heat mats are you using and how hot do they get? I had planned to use a plastic tote, so I don't think I can use a heat mat, unless I find a tote made of tougher plastic. The main reason is weight of the empty cage being as light and easy to clean as possible.

How much did that filter cost? Also, did you do anything on the inside of the cage to prevent your frog from digging all the way down to the heat mat or is it not hot enough to harm the frog in the first place?

[Deac77]

what type of heat mats are you using and how hot do they get? I had planned to use a plastic tote, so I don't think I can use a heat mat, unless I find a tote made of tougher plastic. The main reason is weight of the empty cage being as light and easy to clean as possible.

How much did that filter cost? Also, did you do anything on the inside of the cage to prevent your frog from digging all the way down to the heat mat or is it not hot enough to harm the frog in the first place?

They are zoomed heat mats one for a 30-40gal one for a 10-30 they are in the side and back not bottom so he can dig all he wants (however I have a drainage layer that prevents him from hitting the bottom)


I use live plants and have a few cleaner insects so i don't have to change it clean the soil all that often

The filter was 75$ and worth every penny lol

[Starforce2]

What type of zoo med heat mats did you get? Thev've got at least 2 or 3 heating levels. Desert and tropical for sure..I might be bringing home a pyxie today so the quicker you can get back to me the better.

[Mentat]

What type of zoo med heat mats did you get? Thev've got at least 2 or 3 heating levels. Desert and tropical for sure..I might be bringing home a pyxie today so the quicker you can get back to me the better.

This thread is a bit old. It would be better if you start your own thread in the African Bullfrog section and describe your enclosure and also the room temperature it is in.

Recommend you get your enclosure ready and stable in terms of temperature and humidity before getting your frog home. There are lot's of frogs with health issues due to improper heating at forum these days.

[GrifTheGreat]

This thread is a bit old. It would be better if you start your own thread in the African Bullfrog section and describe your enclosure and also the room temperature it is in.

Recommend you get your enclosure ready and stable in terms of temperature and humidity before getting your frog home. There are lot's of frogs with health issues due to improper heating at forum these days.

Lol! Carlos the member that revived this thread is the original OP.

[Starforce2]

well it was originally my post that he answered so I was going to ask him another question about the heat mats. I'll try sending a PM as well.

[Mentat]

Lol! Carlos the member that revived this thread is the original OP.

Duh ... never mind OP !