Heating for pacman frogs?

[FantaTizer]

Hi everyone,

I have three pacman frogs as per below:



I have one heatmat currently as when I bought my pacman I was told I wouldnt need regular heat. All of them are healthy but I am concerned that they perhaps need heat on a stat (especially as I live in the UK and it is far from warm!!)

Can anyone suggest a good way to heat all of them through one stat perhaps?

Thanks, Hannah



from Hannah

[monster]

Hello, if it gets really cold the heat matts on the side may not be enough to raise the air temp. You can go out and buy red bulbs or the night time purple bulbs and those will work. Or you could even use one of those repti glo 5.0 rainforest bulbs. For your albino you can use the red bulb and I think you can use the night time ones but none of the others.. I use to use one of the night time ones with my albino and my guy was fine, I stopped using it because I noticed he didn't like the little light it produced at night when dimmed down. You don't really want to go over the 50 watt rating and you may be able to get away with a 40 watt bulb. For the stat it wouldn't work to hook all of them up to one because there is only one probe. You may have to buy individual rheostats or buy some dimmers from home depot for about 8 bucks and control them that way. And I know you probably know this and have heard it before but that moss isn't the best thing to have them on. And one more thing, your albino seems very pink around the mouth and under the chin, is it actually like that or is it just lighting in the pic.

[FantaTizer]

Hello, if it gets really cold the heat matts on the side may not be enough to raise the air temp. You can go out and buy red bulbs or the night time purple bulbs and those will work. Or you could even use one of those repti glo 5.0 rainforest bulbs. For your albino you can use the red bulb and I think you can use the night time ones but none of the others.. I use to use one of the night time ones with my albino and my guy was fine, I stopped using it because I noticed he didn't like the little light it produced at night when dimmed down. You don't really want to go over the 50 watt rating and you may be able to get away with a 40 watt bulb. For the stat it wouldn't work to hook all of them up to one because there is only one probe. You may have to buy individual rheostats or buy some dimmers from home depot for about 8 bucks and control them that way. And I know you probably know this and have heard it before but that moss isn't the best thing to have them on. And one more thing, your albino seems very pink around the mouth and under the chin, is it actually like that or is it just lighting in the pic.

Thanks for the advice I appreciate he isn't pink around the mouth at all its just the photo. what substrate would you recommend keeping them on?

from Hannah

[monster]

You want to use coconut fibre/Eco Earth. They are the same thing just Zoomed calls theirs Eco Earth were as other companies may advertise it as just coco fibre. There is a bag of loose fibre and there are solid bricks that you expand yourself with water that are made by zoomed. IMO you get the most for your money with the bricks.

[jasonm96]

pretty much what cory said but cory 5.0 might be high uv for an animal that is burrowing during the day and doesn't bask? a 2.0 or natural light will be enough for lighting and for heating etiher a heat mat on the side on a thermostat, preferably on a pulse thermostat such as the microclimate b2me or a red bulb like said on a dimming b1me thermostat. i'd pay attention to the humidity when using heat lamps as the may dry out the air humidity fast so misting or fogger systems may be useful and reptile waterfalls. horned frogs absolutely need a heating source in the uk, daytime temps should range between the high 70's to low 80s and night time temps should drop no lower than low 70s. try not to put the heat source on the bottom, i have used without issues but because they burrow to adjust there temps, whether to cold or too hot, it may confuse them

[monster]

FRom what I understand the repti glo 5.0 rainforest isn't the same as the reptisun 5.0 if that's what you are thinking. And it doesn't produce as much bright light and of course this is what the plants are for in the tank, so he can get out of the light. But I will admit I could be wrong, and i didn't know they had a 2.0 so if you can get your hands on that it would probably be better then the 5.0 due to uvb. Uvb would be good for them but to much as jasonm96 stated might not be the best for them due to burrowing and them being nocturnal. I would go with red bulbs or the purple ones. And remember none of these bright lights or uv bulbs for your albino. Don't put the matt on the bottom, as said these guys burrow during day hours to cool off and get out of the direct sunlight. With the matt on the bottom he cant achieve this and he just keeps burrowing till yes he will just be sitting on the matt still hot wondering what is going on, and he will more then likely be very uncomfortable but he will tolerate it because there is no escapeing it. You are takeing away something that is natural instinct for them. In the wild the ground gets colder as you go down not warmer. And I really don't find it fair to take this away from them because just like almost any living thing the heat starts to get you and you should be able to escape it if your not built to withstand it.

[jasonm96]

ididn't know that there was much of a difference between the 5.0 bulbs but are suited for diurnal animal or ones that may be exposed to reflected uvb (such as treefrogs) but horned frogs are nocturnal and burrow down so must have a lower uvb requirement. 2.0 as far as i know isn't useful in the intake of d3 but will help plants, as the same as bulbs labeled natural light but provide uva and a day and night cycle. personally, i use led lights for the lighting for horned frogs and haven't had any issues. cory is totally right, it may be warmer or cooler when they burrow down but having the heat source above the substrate will be most natural and allow for proper thermal regulation

[monster]

I have never used those reptiglo and reptisun bulbs so you could be right that there isn't much difference. I was just going buy what buddy at the reptile store was explaining to me and for all I know he could have been feeding me a line a bull just to sell the product. He just pretty much said the rainforest one will look darker then reptisun, almost like a shaded light. He is good with this most the time but as I said he could have noticed I wasn't sure and was just trying to sell the product.

[jasonm96]

The 5.0 are more warmer colour than the 2.0, the 2.0 or natural light are bright, usually used to boost colour along with UVB lamps. 5.0 I would use on fire bellies or tree frogs. I don't think horned frogs need UVB as they are nocturnal and on the forest floor