Best Time of Year to Acquire a Young Pacman

[crestie57]

After researching care requirements, I have decided on getting a pacman frog. I am still deciding between C. cranwelli and C. ornata, but leaning towards a cranwelli. I have crested geckos but this will be my first amphibian. My plan is to gather all the necessary supplies and get the terrarium set up over the next couple of months. I need to wait until the terrarium is up and running for a least a couple of weeks before getting a frog so that I can be certain that the temperature and humidity are just right (I anticipate that I will have to do a bit of tweaking to keep the humidity at acceptable levels given my low humidity climate).

When I start looking for a pacman frog, I do want to get a baby or juvenile rather than an adult. Reading through the forums, it seems that these frogs are difficult to breed and that availability might be seasonal. Is there a best time of year to be looking for a baby pacman frog or are they consistently available year-round? Thanks.

[Lija]

Hi and welcome to the frog forum!

Your plan to set up everything and only then get a frog is awesome! They are not seasonal and are available all year long and in all colours of a rainbow the best is to get well established baby just like you have planned!

Check the care sheet Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding

And course you are very welcome to ask questions!

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF Jennifer! If acquiring a baby; myself would get either a 10G aquarium with screen top or ExoTerra Small Low (18 in. cube) and a ExoTerra Medium plastic Breeding Box. You set-up the larger enclosure so it holds temp (82F day with couple degree drop at night) and humidity parameters (70-80%). That usually means covering screens with aluminum foil with a cutout hole for light fixture. A good heat source is a Fluker or similar dome top with built in dimmer and a 60W Ceramic Heat Emitter. Cover sides and back with paper and it's done.

Then you set-up the smaller plastic enclosure with shredded coco (Eco Earth or Plantation Soil) mixed with dechlorinated tap (Seachem Prime or ExoTerra Aquatize) until it clumps in fist without dripping water out, around same depth as frog's height. Add a small silk plant and a water dish filled with dechlorinated tap to frog's chin level. Clean and refill the water dish daily. Spot clean enclosure as required and replace substrate once a month.

Froglet goes into smaller Breeding box and the whole thing goes inside the larger enclosure. Once you frog reaches 3-3.5 in. snout to vent length you can transfer it to larger enclosure set up same way as the small one. Maybe can add more plants and a cork slab for frog to hide under. Reason for all this is that baby Pacmans get stressed in large enclosures and it's challenging to maintain parameters in a smaller plastic one.

Insects should be same size or smaller than distance between frog's eyes. Crickets gut loaded with carrots, lettuce, and cherios cereal for 24-48 hours prior to feeding frog. Best food are not dyed night crawlers (Walmart or local bait shop). You can cut the with scissors from pointy end into mouth sized bits for babies, body length for 1.5 to 3 in. frogs, and full size after that. This is a good time to teach your froglet to eat from tongs (plastic or stainless with plastic tips). Need to use supplements, more on that in here: http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...schedules.html. Good luck !