Quirky Questions For The First-Time Owner.

[ICEMAN]

Hello All!

I am new to the forum and new to frogs all together! I have kept reptiles all my life but I finally ventured out and got my first amphibian yesterday, a baby strawberry albino pacman frog that I call Lunchbox. He/she is about 1 1/2 inches long now. I have it in a 10 gallon with jungle mix bedding, frog moss, and cork logs. Temperature so far has stayed at around 79-81 day and 75-77 at night. The store I got it from had it eating solely crickets, and I would like to switch it over to night crawlers, as I have found in research they seem to be more nutritious. Can anyone give me good methods to help train it to eat them? I don't want them to get buried in substrate halfway and end up getting an impacted frog. Next question would be should I feed it in a separate tank to avoid getting impacted? The crickets I have been feeding it manage to get covered in substrate for the few milliseconds they are in there (fantastic feeding response) The thing that concerns me that I didn't know about the jungle mix was that it had small pieces of bark in it already. And I definitely don't want those in my frog. Final seemingly silly question but in my opinion still important for me to know. How will I know when he/she poops? They have a habit of kinda sitting there, so will they just stay on it? Or will they move when they soil an area? Thanks for any info you can give me! Also how do I post pics?

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! First thing is to read this excellent article: Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding . A 10 gal. for a 1.5 in. baby is too big an enclosure. If your's is feeding well, maybe it's OK; but would recommend moving to a smaller container. You can get an ExoTerra medium breeding box and place that inside the tank until frog reaches around 3 in. Try to keep daytime temp around 80-85F with a 5 degree drop at night. Humidity should be checked and kept 70-80%.

Jungle mix bedding and moss do not belong in a Pacman home due to impaction risk. Try to get ExoTerra Plantation Soil or Zoo Med EcoEarth and mix with dechlorinated water until slightly damp (clumps in fist without dripping water). Recommend replace ASAP.

You can cut night crawlers (from pointy end) and feed to frog pieces that are about the frog length snout to vent (SVL). Crickets and other insects should be sized same as distance between frogs eyes. Remember to dust food with CA/D3 2X and vitamins 1X weekly on different days with skip day in between.

You do not need to feed in separate tank if you have the right shredded coco substrate. Some members do but that requires increased frog handling and could prove stressful. Frog will either poop on it's water bath or in a former depression. Mine does move to new location after pooping which gives me a chance to spot clean the area. Good luck !

[ICEMAN]

Thank you for the information! I am glad I could get that figured out. No dice on the cut worm technique yet but he's only been here a day so I will keep trying. That being said it sucks I have to redo the Whole setup again haha. It does look very good and natural but the frog's health and well-being comes first. The idea behind the moss and jungle mix was to keep humidity as my house stays very dry this time of year. A final question. He ate about 4 adult crickets last night, and four this morning. How much is too much food. I stopped at 4 per meal because it seems like a lot for such a small guy. He is actually probably closer to two inches upon further inspection.

[Mentat]

Pacmans do not overfeed. Would give it all food it will consume at night until satiated (loses interest). Can try rubbing earth worm pieces in frog lips to get it to strike worm. Use a ZooMed plastic tong or a rubber tipped metal one; not your fingers. I do not feed night active animals in morning because going to sleep on a full stomach can create chronic health problems in time.

To maintain humidity can use Saran Wrap or aluminum foil taped to top and block 50% of screen. If not enough can increase coverage but keep an inch away from hot light fixtures.

[ICEMAN]

Ok thank you for that bit of info, I will be sure to feed in the evenings then. Still no Luck on the night crawler but I'm sure it takes time. I will try again tonight. As far as the actual method of getting him to eat the worm, do I just pester him to the point of biting? I just have been kinda dangling it by him with tweezers, but when it touches him he kind of closes his eyes and retreats. I don't wanna stress him too much. Haha any ideas?

[Namio]

Carlos got you all covered with his excellent advice. To make your frog feeling more secure, I would purchase any terrarium background of your choice that is long enough to cover all three sides of the terrarium.

[GrifTheGreat]

Ok thank you for that bit of info, I will be sure to feed in the evenings then. Still no Luck on the night crawler but I'm sure it takes time. I will try again tonight. As far as the actual method of getting him to eat the worm, do I just pester him to the point of biting? I just have been kinda dangling it by him with tweezers, but when it touches him he kind of closes his eyes and retreats. I don't wanna stress him too much. Haha any ideas?

Welcome to the forum Iceman! When you get a chance, please post pictures of your frog and setup. (We LOVE pictures!)

Carlos has you started on the basics. Here are some links on tong feeding to get you started:
vhttp://www.frogforum.net/pacman-frog...-froglets.html
http://www.frogforum.net/pacman-frog...ing-102-a.html
Each frog is different though. Some take to tong feeding right away and some will take a lot more time and patience. The fact that s/he ate right away is a very good start. One tip that I find useful when they won't take food directly from the tongs is to hold the food in front of them with the tongs, then drop it. Once the make the association that tongs bring food, they are usually pretty quick to start taking from them. They are fairly lazy creatures by nature (particularly as they mature) so when they realize that they can have their food delivered right to their mouths they are all for it!