Semi Newbie from WI

[STEVSH]

Hi there,
Just bought a terrarium (one of those Exo Terra ones) to put together with my 7 yr old daughter. She is into science and they have African millipedes they are studying in their terrariums at school. However, she is a frog lover and really wants one. So I said we could build our own terrarium and maybe get a White's tree frog in the future. I had one when I was in my twenties for a short time. I worked for a film production company as lead animator and my boss went out and bought a WTF at the local pet store for me to do a 3D model of (for a commercial). So I kind of grew attached to the little guy and had an empty 55 gallon octagon aquarium at home, perfect for him. He last about 4 months before I brought him back to the store though because of the noisy crickets. I was in a one bedroom apartment and even though the pet store guy said they were "chirpless", they were loud as heck. I think he played this 23 yr old at the time.

Anyhow, thinking about getting one for her and keeping him down in my home office (far from my bedroom now). But I'm not sure about the ground/base to put in it. I have peat moss over a layer of charcoal and rock right now because i have live plants in there. But if I remember correctly, WTF can have messy, large poop and I would rather have something much easier to keep clean. Thinking about just a fake green bottom and keeping the plants in their pots. Good idea or no?

Also, when I get crickets, how do you "contain" them? Can you put them in a deep ceramic little dish and they'll stay in there? Will froggy get to them OK? Or do the crickets just leap around the whole terrarium? Even better, can I get by feeding him just mealworms and earthworms?

So many questions off the bat I know.

[deranged chipmunk]

first off, welcome to the forum! chirpless crickets huh? that's a new one. lol you can indeed just use carpet or better yet, unprinted paper towels for the base of the tank and keep the plants in their pots, if that is your desire. it will be perfectly safe for the frog. as far as crickets go, the glass bowl method, like you described works well. just use a sturdy bowl since an adult white's can become quite a load. lol the frog will figure out that that is where they get their food meal worms are not good for them in excess. they have chitin in their exoskeleton that frogs have difficulty digesting. earthworms are definitely more nutritious, but you have to tong feed those. they don't move around enough for white's to see them as food. or at least the ones i kept never did. an alternative to all those, and a much less quieter and less smelly option to crickets is dubia blaptica cockroaches. now, these aren't the nasty ones that have invaded our land, but a much cleaner and easily sustainable food source. they cannot climb glass (no escapes) and best of all, they don't smell bad, like crickets!! the tough part is getting over the fact that they are roaches lol