how fast do they grow?

[alane]

I've started weighing my juvenile pacman frog McNugget. I try to wait for him to poop and pee first.

1-17 = 10.95g
1-27 = 12.60g

So McNugget is on track to double his weight in about 60 days or so.

He hates weighing. He hates lots of things and has conditioned me to treat him better. He loves his burrow.

In the first month of my slavery to this frog, he ate every day. Now he will pause eating for a few days now and then.

Every few days, i'll get a tablespoon (he still fits in a tablespoon but it's getting close to overflowing it), fish him out and plop him into a warm water bath. He'll sit there sometimes for an hour. The routine is to then let out an enormous pee. Then he sheds. Then poops. Then eventually hops around and tries to climb out of the bathtime box. He used to eat in this box, but now he will not. Then back into the environment we go. He buried himself so completely and without trace this time that I have no idea where he is other than in the terrarium.

If he pokes his eyes out, I put crickets in his cage at night. If they 'disappear' in the morning, I count them as eaten.

For weighing, I have a small 'coin' scale. Once toilet-time is over, I plop him into a scale first before letting him back into his cage. This is the only time I grab him with my hand, as I have to place him in the middle of the scale. Fortunately, he stays there, still, long enough for a reading. I hope there is gonna be a day when he's so big that no longer fits on this scale.

I guess the fact that I offer food so often assures that I never have a very very hungry frog.

[alane]

My frog has gone through a phase where his poos are darker and stickier than usual, it seems like it's harder for him to poo. I think he went though a phase where a lot of cocoa media was eaten. But it's moving, so no worries. I'm very glad I got rid of that awful 'moss'.

And we've developed this strange codependency. He really only seems to push it out when i'm watching. The routine is 'bathtime'. Pee, maybe shed. Soak. Then about an hour later, push. Seems to start his business when I come to check on him.

He has topped 13g and i've started feeding him large full grown crickets. He ate two last night. After the second, he went deep to sleep it off. *blurp*

[alane]

1-17 = 10.95g
1-27 = 12.60g
2-4 = 13.00g
2-12 = 16.20g


growing like a weed

I believe the large crickets are giving the frog a higher ratio of cricket-to-cocoa media consumption. Much healthier looking frog poo.

I've seen him inhale these large crickets. Like air. It takes but a small fraction of a second.
I look forward to the 'next step up' in food size. What would that be? A superworm? horned worm? hm.

I'm withholding food for a day or two to see if I can stimulate any interest in tong-fed food. So far, every tong try has been a "NO".

[alane]

1-17 = 10.95g
1-27 = 12.60g
2-4 = 13.00g
2-12 = 16.20g
2-19 = 19.30g

Almost doubled in weight in one month.

Also, he's big enough that he's learned he can jump out of his feeding box. And his cricket corral. You would not think that a little plump chicken mcnugget could jump that high.

When I got him, you could scoop him up with a tablespoon and he filled half of it. Now he's the size of a tablespoon, more if he inflates ridiculously.

I have no idea how big this frog will get. Somewhere between 2 1/2 and 7 inches. lol.

[monster]

If you want to give him something new you can try some Canadian night crawlers, better for them then crickets and most pacmans love them. Just cut them to size for him, by now you may be able to cut them in half and that will be good enough. All 3 of mine gobble them up like spaghetti, only thing is these are better fed with tongs so they don't get covered in dirt and they don't just bury right away on the frog. Superworms and hornworms are more for treats then a staple diet, the supers are high in chitlin which will impact your frog and the hornworms have a lot of water and are high in fat. They are like donuts for frogs. I actually had to give my big girl a hornworm this morning to get her out of her water dish because she kept trying to bite me, ( a full mouth means she cant bite me) and when she bit down on it you should have seen all the juice come squirting out.

[alane]

I do look forward to when Cranwelli McNugget is large enough to eat a hornworm.

I got the frog to eat a whole Pac Attack pellet last night. It started shedding, and one of the shedding behaviors is to open and close the mouth. I noticed this and placed a pellet in its mouth when it was open. Froggy immediately clamped down. No fuss, remarkable compared to my previous attempts.
Took a while to swallow a pellet that size, way bigger than any food he's had before. Still did the shedding motions, but the pellet went on down. *GAHULP*
Frog had a pellet shaped stomach afterwards. lol.
I figure it'll take three days to sleep that one off.

Woohoo!