I really hope that I can get some ideas on how to do this properly. It has come time that I think my Phrynomantis bifasciatus (banded rubber frogs) are about ready for breeding. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we are going into Winter in the next few weeks and I am planning to put them through a short hibernation of about 3 - 5 weeks, then bring them out of hibernation and hope for the best. I have been struggling to get them to a nice size for breeding but now the female has hit 4+cm and think its time... although I wanted them to get to 6+cm before trying this.

So here is my plan: I currently keep a group of 0.0.4, of the group I am 100% sure the one is a female because she is the largest by quite a bit. They are all currently housed in a natural viv with the soil from their natural habitat, leaf litter, small water bowl and logs. Now what I am planning on doing is taking some dry sphagnum moss in a Tupperware/Rubbermaid and moving the frogs into that for the hibernation. Then I will take the tub and keep it in a store room in my house which gets down to 10 C in Winter.

Then as it starts warming up here I was going to take the tub and put it into the shower and leave the water to run for about 30 minutes - due to the fact that they come from a region where there are heavy storms to break in the beginning of the rainy season. Once they are out and active I will move them into a tank that will be about 2/3 full of water with various water plants and stones. Also a floating land section so they can get on to dry land and not become exhausted. I was going to leave them in there for 48 hours and hope for the breeding to be successful.

Should they feed before they mate? Is my technique going to work? Am I missing anything? After never breeding frogs (purposely) will the hibernation process work and NOT kill them?

Please any input would be greatly appreciated in any way.