pacman frog trouble please help

[Cory pacman]

Hi I got a baby albino pacman in may its had some problems going poop , every two weeks if it hasnt gone poop ill put it in warm water with tiny bit of honey mixed in(today.I just used warm water and it worked.just the same) but today I noticed for the second time that the poop had like a pale colored skin around it. . the first time I seen this was two weeks after I gave the frog its first small pinky . . .also ive.noticed that on the sides at the bottom.of the frog is looking a pale colour does anybody know whats causing this or
should I be alarmed by this?
For some reason I cant upload pics

I use brick substrate and I don't.use moss and a heat mat on the bottom of the tank last time I used a probe the temp.was around 82 so.I don't think thats the problem
Crickets have been its staple diet but I am in the.process of ordering earthworms and dubias

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[monster]

It sounds if he isn't warm enough and is having a hardtime digesting food. I would take the matt of the bottom and get some over head heating, they want to bury to cool off not to get warm. And if the substrate is 82 over the matt it will be abit cooler away from it, and when he comes up at night all the warmth is in the substrate and not in the air. The digestion is just as important at night as it is in the day, and white stuff on the stool is probably stuff hes having a hard time to digest. Yes I know some books say to put it on the bottom but if you were to ask some of these experienced keepers they would say its more of a last resort if you cant achieve the temps from above for some reason because its just so unnatural for them.. I don't think there is anything really wrong with him hes just having a hard time to digest properly. I would get the overhead heating and see how it goes and if still no better and would take a stool sample to your herp vet.

[Cory pacman]

Thanks for the quick reply its appreciated , i have been thinking that having the mat on the bottom was a bad idea but my enclosure has a couple mm of space on the bottom so the mat isnt directly touching the glass thats why i put it there and not on the side incase the glass cracked from the heat. . what could i get for over head heating? and im in ireland id very much doubt any vet here would have a clue about frogs ha when i started worrying about temps few months back a worker at petco told me if the temps werent correct the frog would stop eating and because lucille eats like a horse i assumed everything was okay

[monster]

Ya putting it on the side doesn't work the greatest, I use them on the side but it took a lot of playing around to figure it out. I have said now for along time that once my matts are no more good and need replaceing that I'm going overhead heating. Yes you are right that if its to cold they will stop eating but these guys are eating machines and the temp needs to be really low imo to make them not eat. And being warm enough to eat doesn't always mean that they are warm enough to digest. For the overhead heat you could use a red bulb or a ceramic heat emitter hooked up to dimmer or a thermostat. Place it to one side of the tank so the opposite end is a couple degrees cooler this way he can thermos regulate his body temps if need be.

[Cory pacman]

might be a few weeks till i get overhead heating for now im just gonna try cover up around 3/4 of the top of the enclosure with aluminum foil to try keep some heat in, i had only got half covered before and ill see if misting with warm water makes any difference i noticed today that the water ive been using is cold . .

thanks for the sound advice

[jasonm96]

What works well is to use a heat bulb during the day, which will provide viewing light and heat in a natural way, and then use a thermostat controlled heat mat on the bottom at night if temps drop below the 70s F, which would micmick heat retained from during the day and offer a place to warm up if too cool. This is how I keep my bullfrog and so far so well. I'm not keen on red bulbs, as now it's thought that the animals can see the light and in my experience I would say this is true because for every animal I've used with would freeze and be more active when it was switched off. Ceramics are good for large tanks, but drying and also very hot so moving the fixtures for access into the tank can be risky, so unless you have one with front access or a way of suspending the heater, it's a pain. I would not cover more than half of the screen top or ventilation will be poor and could cause infections since pacmans produce a lot of waste.

[Cory pacman]

Thanks for the heads up ill fix the cover now , what type of heat bulb do you use and would a thermostat be necessary with my heat mat seeing as its not getting the right temperature for me now I would guess the temperature its raising the enclosure to would be a good night time temp

[jasonm96]

I use the zoomed daylight bulbs and with 12" tanks normally the 40w does the job. Check the temperature underneath the substrate for the mat with a digital thermometer. Mats produce mostly contact heat so don't want the air much and so it's easy to get a wrong temp reading from them, especially with analogue thermometers. Depending on make, an unstatted heat mat can reach temps as high as 100F so double check temps, it's most likely warm enough. I do prefer to use them at night as during the day the frog would burrow to cool down

[monster]

Your frog is albino so i wouldnt recommend useing the day light blue bulb, it may be to bright for him. I use a 5 watt led from walmart with my albino and before that i just used the room light because it lit up the whole tank. I started useing the led just for my viewing pretty much. If your going to use a matt on the bottom i wouldnt use it during the day as suggested and just maybe say at night when hes above ground. They burrow to get cool not warm, and any heat the ground retains when the sun goes down doesn't last that long and the sun doesnt actually heat up underneath the top layer of soil or dirt that much. There is actually a very big difference in temp from the top to just an inch or so down. Im not saying dont use it if need be its just not the best option. I went out side about 20 mins ago to conduct a little experiment and here is the pics. Right now were i live it is 32C and feels like almost 40 with the humidity, so thats 89.6F and 104F with the humidity. So i went outside with my infrared thermometer and checked what the temp of the ground was right out in the sun and then dug a hole directly under were i took the first reading and took it again, you would be amazed the difference. I also only dug about an inch and a half were as a pacman would burrow further down then that more then likely. And this was right out the in the dead of heat like mentioned and they would rather be in a shaded area if possible which wouldnt be alot but would be a couple degrees difference.

[monster]

Heres the first one, I couldn't get it in the first shot.

[Cory pacman]

I used a digital thermometer with a probe to get a reading under the substrate it got to around 85 just before the glass bottom. . My pacman will only fully bury itself after I move it so I can clean the tank or if I have to give a bath to help the frog poop usually the next day its heads above the substrate again looking for food , it never really changes where its burrowed until I have to give it a bath again , when I first got it I was using 2 inchs of substrate but I was afraid it wasnt enough because of the heat mat underneath so I start using between 3 and 4 inches would using less help ?

[monster]

Your frog doesn't completely burrow more then likely because its to warm underneath him so he chooses to sit at the top. If its 85 just before the glass the glass is going to be even hotter then that which is making him not want to touch it. For the burrowing after you give him a bath he does this because they don't like being picked up very much so he buries to make himself feel secure. Its not a matter of using less fibre because if its to hot in the substrate he is not going to want to completely burrow. I have 3 of these guys and during the day I never see them they are all underground, sometimes you can here them rubbing on the glass to try and get further down. At night the lights go out the temp drops a few degrees and they are usually out with in an hour ready to eat. Next morning lights go back on the temps go up and they disappear again. This is whats natural for them, all though they live somewhere its so hot they aren't the biggest fans of extreme heat. Again I know its recommended in books but IMO this would be the last option for heating if you couldn't get your temps a different way, so I'm not saying don't do it if this is your only option.

[Cory pacman]

I just got off the phone with a petshop near me they have 60 watt ceramic lights or he said the red light he has in stock would give me the right temps so ill pick one of those up tomorrow with a digital thermometer and see how it goes . . thanks for the help

[monster]

The 60 may be too hot, if you can you can buy a dimmer at Walmart for like 80 bucks and control the heat that way or if you have it you can by thermostat. And don't get me wrong your frog isn't going to pass or anything being kept this way so you could even order a 40 watt CHE and just keep it this way till it comes in. And if you choose to keep it this way for awhile its best to have the probe right against the glass under the substrate, this way you get the reading from the glass.

[Cory pacman]

It was just the ceramic that was 60 watt im not sure what the red light is ill.look into a dimmer or a thermostat just so Im sure , ive.been thinkin about buying a new larger terrarium put a divider in the middle and getting a bull frog do they require the same temps as pacmans?

[monster]

Are we talking a normal bullfrog or a African bullfrog? I personally don't own one but If its the ABF I think there somewhat similar, but not 100% percent sure. You could start a new thread asking in the ABF section or I imagine someone who owns both or has had each at different times could answer. Sorry I couldn't help with that question, I love all different colours and species of Horned frogs so I have stuck with these guys.

[jasonm96]

Bullfrogs temps need to stay in the higher ranges of pacmans. Also bask, more active and greedy, wouldn't recommended keeping them together if that's what you mean.

[monster]

Ya if your divider ever came down and you had huge male ABF if he got to the other side there is good chance you may lose your pacman frog.

[Cory pacman]

Yeah it would be an african bull frog im going to wait a while get some more experience if I do go with a divider I would make sure it could never come down and id try make it so they couldn't see each other

[hisk]

I would just buy a Tupperware tub for the bullfrog and thus avoid the issue. Cause you really only need the divider to fail once and you may not get a second chance.