Outdoor Fixture for Pixie

[floridafrogs]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone's ever experimented with an outdoor cage/fixture for their pixie. I'll post some pictures if people are interested. I saw how much mine loved to be outside, and decided to build one for him. I live in Florida, and although its too hot here for frogs outside, in the shade it stays about 85 degrees. It is covered, with no direct sunlight being able to hit him. It is built from wood, lattice fence, and has a very strong mesh covering the lattice so he doesn't try to poke through. The dimensions are about 4ft w x 5ft l x 4 ft h. Theres about 5 inches of coconut fiber covering the ground, with a few small plants growing. Plants also cover two sides of the cage from the outside. There is a light fixture in there so I can check him out at night.I have a half log in there for him to go under, although he likes to be buried most of the time. I water his cage daily with the hose, and try to saturate wherever he is with spring water. It's really interesting watching his behavior outside, its quite different than in a smaller, inside fixture. He spends probably 80% of the time completely buried, 15% of the time with his head poking out, and 5% of the time repositioning himself and just exploring his new cage. He looks very healthy and relaxed. He's always been a very aggressive eater and hasn't lost that. I'm hoping hes getting some random things in his diet from being outside, like crickets and roaches. He's about 2 years old and over 8 inches long. I'm hoping this might allow him to increase his mass further. He seems to love when it rains out as well. Of course I bring him in when its too hot out and will keep him inside during the cooler months. I could let him estivate but would rather keep him safe and monitored inside. He has dug himself pretty deep in the ground already. I'm amazed by how powerful of a digger he really is. There is much less upkeep having an outside cage that can be cleaned with the hose, and he seems to like it much better than an aquarium, so I'm hoping I don't find any reasons to not keep this up. Let me know what you think.

[John]

Sounds very interesting - thanks for sharing. Do you have any photos?

[Ebony]

Sounds really cool floridafrogs. I built an outdoor enclosure for my Southern bell frogs (Litoria raniformis). They really do seem to like it. I would love to see your photo's. my photo's are in my album.

[Jace]

I would be very interested in seeing some photos as I have also been kicking around the idea of setting up a semi-permanent outdoor enclosure for my three pyxies during the summer months. Sounds like you have one lucky frog!!

[jaguilar15]

I would like to see pictures of this set up.

I think the sun would actually be good.. as long as you have water so where they can fully sumerged or swim. and the plants create a natural shade which is great. The substrate of coconut fiber is the best bet, because if the sun even hits them, they can always burrow as long as the substrate is damped. this is pretty interesting. I should have came up with this idea. lol

[Kevin1]

I've kept my frog out doors too. I used a plastic kiddy pool. I made kind of a wall around it with some window screen. It was only a few days. i too have been thinking of ideas for keeping my frogs(future frogs) outside for my other idea in the other thread. I too would love to see pics.