Puck's terrible twos

[Randy]

i use 2 red bulbs( both for night and makeup heat) and my daylight bulb is a mainly uvb light and to be honest with you unless the light is rated for a dimmer id get rid of the dimmer switch and go down in your wattage . I am an licensed electrician and dimmer switches do 2 things on a bulb that's not rated for one. It can cause a fire because of low amps and it can shorten the life of your bulbs. As far as the uth goes if you sized it right for the tank raising your tank off the ground will allow for convection of the heat( most come with small silicone coasters to raise your tank up off the ground anyways ) and a good thermostat will regulate the heat as well. My trade is heating cooling plumbing electrical and refrigeration . I'm pretty good with regulating heat lol.

[Lija]

Randy, all reptile specific heat lamps are dimmer safe, provided you use proper light domes and dimmers.
UTH are designed for heating under tank with a substrate on, but for pacman frogs you can't use as they intended to. When used attached on a side they don't heat up tank much, therefore you need to use them bigger then your tank volume, very rarely that you can use only UTH for pacman frogs and have proper temp range.
people are having success combining UTH on a side with infrared lamp or ceramic heater, it is a difficult, but not impossible to achieve.

The best is to use hydrotherm controller, plug everything in it and live worry free over humidity and temps.
there are different controllers, but in substantially higher price range.

[stopbuffering]

Thank you for the advice. I'll switch out the bulb for an infrared bulb. Should I put a regular household bulb (lo wattage set a little above the tank) on the timer to provide "daylight?" I'll also get a frogger for the humidity.

Should I switch him to a smaller tank or will he be ok in this one provided I fix the heat and humidity? That first week he was pretty active and he left little burrows in various places in the tank, so to me it seemed like he liked the space.

It's a little funny because I was given a few care sheets by a friend for my pacman and that's where I got my information for the temperature and humidity I have now. However, the people at petsmart (I had to pick up a few things there) told me what you said and I was honestly a little skeptical of their advice and just went with what my care sheets said. I was also getting a little confused because care sheets I looked up online all said different things or weren't very specific. I see that you guys have a care sheet and will print that out to use (it's a lot more detailed and makes much more sense than the ones I've seen).

Again, thank you very much. I'll get everything I need after work and will let you know how things go.

Also, I just looked up that hydrotherm thing and it looks amazing. I just threw that, the frogger, and an infrared light into my amazon cart and went for the one day shipping.

[Lija]

Yes, you can use regular household lamp for day cycle, yours is not albino, so any lamp would do, I prefer to use the lowest W energy saving lamps, I think they are 13w. They don't really need any light, just ambient light to know if it is a day or night.
You will get the best feeding response in about 30 min after day light is off and temp cool off, that is when they go hunt in a wild.

I wouldn't change the tank right away, he was eating for you in there before, switching to different tank may stress him even more.
That care sheet is pretty good. Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding

No worries, if there is anythyng you are confused about, you are very welcome to ask

edit - the best is to keep humidity in 70-80 range, I always suggest to aim for 75 to have a room for +/-.
With experience you just know if humidity is too low or too high without using hydrometer, but I very strongly suggest for you to use a proper one.

Yay for hydrotherm! You will love that thing!

[stopbuffering]

I usually try to feed him about 20-30 minutes after his light turned off, so I'll just keep doing that. I'll get everything set up tomorrow and hopefully in the next few days he'll start eating. I got him some nice looking nightcrawlers that I'm sure he'll love when he finally tries one. If he's still not eating I'll see what I can do about a smaller tank until he's a little more grown.

I'll shoot for 75% humidity and get the temps correct for daytime and nighttime.

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Lija has given you good advice, please do correct the temps and humidity. Gauges should be located couple of in. above the substrate. Please answer the questions below to ensure all other requirements are OK. Thank you !

“Trouble in the Frog Enclosure”

The following information will be very helpful if provided when requesting assistance with either your frog or enclosure. To help with your questions, please utilize the below list and post the information in the proper forum area to get advice from FF members that keep the same frog. This will allow for little confusion and a faster more informed response.

1. Size of enclosure
2. # of inhabitants - specifically other frogs and size differences
3. Humidity
4. Temperature
5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish
6. Materials used for substrate
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.
8. Main food source
9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often)
10. Lighting
11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure
12. When is the last time he/she ate
13. Have you found poop lately
14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine)
15. Describe frog's symptoms and/or recent physical changes; to include it's ventral/belly area.
16. How old is the frog
17. How long have you owned him/her
18. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred
19. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats
20. How often the frog is handled
21. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area
22. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc)

by Lynn(Flybyferns) and GrifTheGreat.

[stopbuffering]

1. Size of enclosure: 10 Gall
2. # of inhabitants: Just one, Puck
3. Humidity: 60-90; getting corrected tomorrow
4. Temperature: 75-78 daytime; 72-74 night. Getting corrected tomorrow
5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish: Dechlorinated water; with my new mister I'll use distilled, but continue with dechlorinated for soaking
6. Materials used for substrate: Coconut fiber
7. Enclosure set up i.e. plants (live or artificial), wood, bark and other materials: 2 Artificial plants - The bigger one over the water dish and the smaller over the half-log hide
- How were things prepared prior to being put into the viv. I set it up and did a day-long test run before getting the frog
8. Main food source: Crickets, but switched to nightcrawlers (he hasn't eaten one yet, but that's what I'm going to stick with for the most part)
9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often) He got Calcium with D3 twice; the first time I fed him since I was told he hadn't had it recently before purchasing him and then again right before he stopped eating (a week after the first feeding)
10. Lighting: Daytime reptile bulb; will be switched to an infrared bulb and a regular household light for "day"
11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure: The light and a small UTH on the side that was helping keep nighttime temps up
12. When is the last time he/she ate: A week ago
13. Have you found poop lately: No
14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine: Included above
15. Describe frog's symptoms and/or recent physical changes; to include it's ventral/belly area.: None.
16. How old is the frog: Young; the size of a silver dollar about
17. How long have you owned him/her: a little over two weeks
18. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred: Captive
19. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats: Originally every other day with crickets. From. When he starts eating again, I'll mainly stick with night crawlers and get crickets every now and again. I also have a powder food that I'd like to get him used to and will rotate that in as well.
20. How often the frog is handled: Never. I have a scoop and a small critter carrier if I need to move him out
21. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area: low
22. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc): Water is changed daily. Tank cleaned weeklyish (I cleaned it the first time a little over one week)