Answers to trouble in the enclosure.

[Truffs1178]

I just thought I should answer the trouble in the enclosure questions because my bullfrogs appetite has really decreased recently. He won't eat crickets, locusts or nightcrawlers. Just pachnoda grubs and roaches but they're expensive and I have only just setup my colonies so I can't feed of them yet.


1. Size of enclosure? Picture at bottom. I'll be getting the widest exo terra available for him soon though.


2. # of inhabitants - specifically other frogs and size differences? One male bullfrog. 3 and a bit months old. 6-7 inches


3. Humidity? Currently 80 but varies from 70 to 90. I try to keep it at 80 though.


4. Temperature? Air temp is 28 degrees Celsius and under him in the substrate is 33 degreesCelsius because of the heat mat. The heat mat is small so it's only where he sits under the plant.


5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish? Dechlorinated


6. Materials used for substrate? Coco husk.


7. Enclosure set up i.e. plants (live or artificial), wood, bark and other materials. - How were things prepared prior to being put into the viv? Water bowl, fake plants and substrate expanded with dechlorinated water.


8. Main food source? Usually crickets, locusts, worms, pachnoda. Sometimes roaches waxworms and very rarely morio worms.


9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often?) Calcium every other day and multivitamin once a week.


10. Lighting? UVB bulb high up on outside of terrarium.


11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure? Heat bulb and a heat mat under the tank that he always sits on.


12. When is the last time he/she ate? Every day including today but only a few insects which is why I'm worried.


13. Have you found poop lately? Today.


14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine)


15. How old is the frog? 3 and a bit months.



16. How long have you owned him/her? 3 months.


17. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred? Captive bred.


18. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats? Usually every day or every other day. What I feed him is answered in the other food question.


19. How often the frog is handled? Only when necessary so not often.


20. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area? My bedroom.


21. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc) full clean once a month and water changes everyday.

I also want to know how to use dechlorinater properly. I have he exo terra aquatize. It says 2 drops or every liter. My mister is 5 liters so I put in 10 drops plus 1 for good measure. When the drops go in the dechlorinater just sinks down to the bottom. I try to mix it in but it seems to disappear before it could possibly spread to the rest of the water in the mister bottle. Is this actually ok and does this dehlorinater stuff actually work?

Should I make his substrate deeper?

Could he just be going through a phase?

[Mentat]

Hi Jack! Only thing of concern is the under substrate heat pad. Even if small, according to you it's located where frog "sits." Well think the frog "sits" there not because it's looking for heat; but because that's where the fern plant (which provides overhead security) is located. 33C (91.4F) is way too warm for a Pixie to be sitting on and if looking to cool of; it will just try to bury deeper according to it's instincts. My recommendation is to move or at least turn off that heater until you can move frog to new home and do not place any heat mats below the substrate in the next one. Good luck !

[danfrog]

Yeah he might be getting too hot. I would remove it completely. I use a syringe to measure my dechlorinator and use a gallon water jug filled up.

[Truffs1178]

Ok I will do something about the heat mat. The air temp is ok though so will he not need any heat mat just warm air? And does everything else seem ok? I don't think his health has suffered because he has the fastest growth rate of any pixie frog I've ever seen.

[Janice]

My tank is set up 1/3 water with a filter in tank, and 2/3 coco fiber, organic garden soil, spaghnum moss. I have a heat mat so that most of it is under the water side very little is on the other side. Then because my tank was a 20 gal tall, I didnt want him to have very deep substrate so I put large rocks in the bottom of the tank so he can only burrow down to pretty much cover himself but I can always tell where was. I dont know what is normal for them because I have only had mine not quite a year, but mine was burrowing and staying there for a week or so, so I left him one entire week, then I could see him thru the side of the glass but under the soil. so I removed the top a little and let some lttle mice run around for a bit. Then I dumped a container of night crawlers in the tank and he ate them... I got up one morning and the tank was a mess, but when I ran my fingers thru the soil there werent any night crawlers but one or two left. Now he has become a pig, he has gotten into the water now that it is warm from the heat mat and he hangs out betwee the side of the aquarium and the filter, he is so fat he can just wedge himself there, and you get a up close and personal view of his belly side..... Or what ever way he is turned. He is handsome.

[danfrog]

Yup the air temp will be just fine. The heat mats may not seem that warm. But over time substrate will keep getting warmer and warmer and may end up slow cooking your frog.

[GrifTheGreat]

Carlos is right.
Also cover the sideds and the front below the doors with some kind of background to give more security.

[mattfish]

get rid of the water bowl! they are a pain in the behind to keep clean. just keep the substate moist. and feed him in a different tank. you should watch my youtube video " african bullfrog "pixie" eats bird and clean his cage " you will see mine eat, and what he does after that. it was my first video and it went a little long but it may help you.
Let me know,
Matt

[NialR35]

get rid of the water bowl! they are a pain in the behind to keep clean. just keep the substate moist. and feed him in a different tank. you should watch my youtube video " african bullfrog "pixie" eats bird and clean his cage " you will see mine eat, and what he does after that. it was my first video and it went a little long but it may help you.
Let me know,
Matt

JUST NO. AGBF spend most of their time in the water therefore it's very contradictory and overall a bad habitat if a water bowl is not present. You can research more information about their natural habitat and they spend the majority of their time in the water. These are not pacman frogs.

Also the idea of removing him from his "home" to feed him in a different tank will create unnecessary stress for your frog and will sometimes reduce the appetite even further because the frog won't feel secure/safe plus all the handling moving it back and forth. The only people that should feed in a different container are the ones that keep moss in the tank and even then why would you have moss in the first place....

And about that video.... I hope your frog does not get sick from eating that wild caught bird nor from the bleach you used to clean his terrarium.

[mattfish]

dont be a hater!
First of all, he NEVER sat in his water bowl, so i got rid of it. It must not cause to much stress putting him in another cage because within seconds he nails anything i give him. Third, he never sits in his waist this way. His tank stays great for a very long time. how is that wrong?
I also use a very dilluted amount of bleach, with such high humidity mold can grow and i dont care what anyone says, the only thing that kills molds dead is bleach. the cage has to be sterilized. Like i said in the video, "if you can smell bleach in or on anything, thats not a good thing."

Mr. Pickles is very healthy and happy! so i must be doing something right.
Another thing, most of everything i have seen of these frogs in nature shows them in very shallow water or moist mud. thats what mine has.

[GrifTheGreat]

Ugh!!! Alright you two. Matt and Nials don't get all heated over different housing arrangements.

Yes they spend the majority of their time in water, BUT can live in moist Coconut Fiber without a water source. Is it ideal? No. It can be done though. A water source should be provided since it is their natural behavior to seek out water, but can be housed without one.

As for the separate container feeding. Well it may cause some stress to a flighty GABF but most are calm and an be pretty bold. Many people do this as a way to prevent substrate ingestion when they cannot tang feed their frog. Its not anything to worry about unless the frog freaks out. Most will not.

Now I will not recomend removing the water source since he does indeed use it frequently. You can try to feed in a separate container if you like just to try it out, but if he freaks out then don't do it anymore.

[Truffs1178]

Ugh!!! Alright you two. Matt and Nials don't get all heated over different housing arrangements.

Yes they spend the majority of their time in water, BUT can live in moist Coconut Fiber without a water source. Is it ideal? No. It can be done though. A water source should be provided since it is their natural behavior to seek out water, but can be housed without one.

As for the separate container feeding. Well it may cause some stress to a flighty GABF but most are calm and an be pretty bold. Many people do this as a way to prevent substrate ingestion when they cannot tang feed their frog. Its not anything to worry about unless the frog freaks out. Most will not.

Now I will not recomend removing the water source since he does indeed use it frequently. You can try to feed in a separate container if you like just to try it out, but if he freaks out then don't do it anymore.

Don't worry I'm not going to remove the water bowl. I don't want to put him in a separate feeding container because it would be unnecessary stress for him since he already tong feeds now.

[Truffs1178]

get rid of the water bowl! they are a pain in the behind to keep clean. just keep the substate moist. and feed him in a different tank. you should watch my youtube video " african bullfrog "pixie" eats bird and clean his cage " you will see mine eat, and what he does after that. it was my first video and it went a little long but it may help you.
Let me know,
Matt

WRONG!!! It's easy to clean. Each morning pick it up. Pour out old water, rinse and clean then put in new water. Not that hard. And Nial is right he spends all his time in there.

[danfrog]

I have been feeding my cranwelli in a seperate container the last month. Otherwise he would take huge mouthfulls of ecoearth, it doesnt stress him. Feedings are very quick for Mojo. Then I place him back in his enclosure.
As for mattfish. What were you feeding your frog when it had all those parisites?
I think it would be cool if a GABF would have a giant deep soak dish, but filled up with ecoearth, and the rest of the enclosure water.
As for bleach. There is a recommended cleaning product called wipeout bleach is no good. Oh, don't compair captive frogs with wild frogs. The wild is wild and is not optimal living conditions. I'm not an owner of GABF but Nial is doing everything right, and is a good frogger.

[mattfish]

Thank you everyone, my frog is doing fantastic with this routine and some of you should try it, if you are sick of cleaning water bowls everyday or trying to get fecal out of the frogs home or sick of the cage reaking after a short time, then try it. this is a site were intelligent frog owners get and give advise from one another to further the learning curve for newbys. lets face it, pet store workers are the real threat most of the time, most newbys dont stand a chance without this forum to have a healthy GABF. we are the good guys!!!
danfrog, i "thought" he had parasites so i took pics, and everyone said he did, but it turns out those were undigested cricket limbs. He was always fine.
Any good frogger will know if their frog doesnt like something. Mr. Pickles likes what he has and so i am going to leave it that way. He's the boss
Thank you for the lively conversation, but unless someone is harming their frog, lets lay off the nitpicking.

[danfrog]

Ah yes sry I do remember that now about cricket limbs. And I do agree frogs are the boss. And I do agree that petstore people are very bad for frogs.
I dont agree with removing the water dish. And I don't agree with wild caught food regardless of the precautions taken to remove parasites and diseases.
Now for my frogs. If needed to clean the water dish 100 times a day I would.
I do agree that every frog is different. But don't believe in taking unnecessary risks. The smallest thing can effect frogs health very quick.

[mattfish]

I am glad that works for you! your frog is in good hands!
I heard one guy at a store tell a buyer that GABFs dont like water and only need to be fed once a week when they are little. Now who is the bad guy? MY way obviously works and your way obviously works but that guys way is a death sentence. Am i right?
we both want whats best for our pets, we just have different ways of accomplishing them.

[NialR35]

Don't worry Grif, it's just a friendly debate!

Matt,

Don't take it the wrong way. I was just suggesting things that you should not do (i.e using bleach) because they are things I would not do myself and things that most froggers won't do either. Yet, you can do whatever you think its best or works for you and Mr. Pickles.

A frog will almost never sit in his own waste as they always move to a new spot after doing so. Mold should not appear unless humidity is constantly higher than 80-85% which is out of the ideal range of 75-80%.

Nevertheless I'm sure Mr. Pickles would love a big water bowl to relax but your call, he does look healthy anyway. I would really avoid bleach because frogs absorb everything through their skin, there are many other reptile safe products you can use unless your frog is already immune to the bleach

As far as the sparrow, man I don't think it's worth the risk. Sparrows are like small hawks and are birds of prey. I'm sure they mostly eat rodents and other small animals....and guess what those rodents carry in the wild? Captive bred frogs have not developed the same antibodies to combat these diseases but then again your call. You have a very nice frog but sometimes the little details do matter.

[mattfish]

"unless he is already immune to bleach" is that even possible? Frogs will get seriously ill if they absorb any bleach! they dont get immune to it.
IF someone wants to use bleach as a cleaning agent for their frog you must dillute it down to 1/100 parts. then rinse thoroughly. If you smell any bleach rinse again and again and again until you smell nothing. Bleach will destroy your frog!
Water bowls are optional. frogs do like to soak so every 2 to 3 days let them soak for a few hours. this way works!
you always take a risk in feeding frogs other critters (living or dead). worms, crickets, mice, snakes, sparrows all pose a potential risk to your frogs health. some more than others but they ALL pose a risk. so always inspect your frogs fecal for anything abnormal and call a trained vet if anything seems abnormal.
There is no "this is the way to do it" for animals care. Most everything a zoo knows comes from guys like us who try different things.
If you love your pet and want to try to better its life in a way that "might work" try it.

[NialR35]

Truffs,

I think he might just be going through a phase. Remember the bigger they get, the less frequent they eat( on a daily basis that is) especially him being 6-7".

Try feeding every other day now, and I think its the best time to upgrade the terrarium. For the meantime more substrate might help the frog feeling secure and comfy. I also agree with covering the 3 sides of the tank!