Habitat Set Up Advice

[KT Rex]

I do want to point out that I tried to find Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding

and the link was broken?? Is there an updated one?

[DanDrobates]

First off kudos to you for making an informed decision and for showing a genuine commitment to your frogs care and well being. Adults often purchase frogs for kids on impulse and it’s reasuring to see that you and your daughter have put some thought into it.

Now as far as the nitty gritty goes:

I see you’ve lost faith in Petco. Good! They generally offer bad advise to new keepers and end up hosing you with expensive products that are essentially garbage and of no benefit to your animal. And yes there is a tremendous amount of conflicting information available on this site and in general.

My advise to you is this. Keep it simple. Fretting over ambient humidity is a no win scenario. Particularly given that the hygrometer you have in your pic is Petco junk. Quality hygrometers are expensive and essentially unnecessary to the average keeper. As long as you provide a moist substrate with a bowl to soak in you are in the clear. If you are having issues with the substrate drying out cover part of the screen with a piece of glass as it will hold the moisture in and you’ll have less evaporation into the room. This is a simple way to maintain humidity in the enclosure. Cutting a piece of glass is actually easy but if you’re uncomfortable with the idea try a local hardware store. You may have to play around with it but generally covering 80 percent of the screen will allow ventilation but maintain moisture.

As far as thermometers go get a temp gun. They are cheep and easy to use. This way you can get readings anywhere in the enclosure. You want to provide a gradient for the animal. Warmer on one end and cooler on the other aiming for mid 70s to low 80s. Ceratophrys (Pac-Man frogs) species will burrow to cool down so don’t use uth pads underneath. Using them on the side as you are is pointless as it won’t radiate the heat evenly. Ceramic heat bulbs are good as they won’t interrupt the day night cycle. However they get hot. So, here’s what you do. Go to amazon and pick up a herp stat ez1 thermostat. It’s about 90 bucks but it’s amazing. It uses a probe that will need to be positioned in the enclosure. It uses pulse technology to regulate the output of the heat source and it’s essentially fool proof. You can use uvb if you like but since this is not a basking species it may not show any benefit. Zoomed bulbs are the best and I’d go with a5.0 as the 10.0 is too intense. Change the bulb every 6 months. Otherwise a regular household bulb will provide ambient light.

As as far as feeders go this subject is always a bone of contention here. Using crickets as a staple is fine but a variety of prey is preferred. Dubia roaches are a great addition and so are silkworms. I’ve had poor experiences with earthworms but some people swear by them. They are the only invert prey that actually contains a useable amount of calcium. If your frog prefers crickets then so be it . The flukers orange cubes are overpriced ****. I gutload with carrots, dandelions and oats and I dust with repashy supercal ever other feeding. avoid lettuce and potato. Gutload for two days before feeding.

Otherwise if your frog is eating, defecating and looks to be in good general health don’t worry. Read as much as you can from reputable sources such as amphibian ark or frog log and talk to other keepers. Remember there are no rules per se. As long as your animal thrives that’s the only thing that matters. Good luck.

[Lija]

Ohhhh dont get me started on pet store peoples

You got some good advice already, i suggest a few things a bit different
humidity - there is no way you could keep it where it needs to be in that kind of tank. So yes, you could do the glass, or you could cover the whole mesh with foil, then cut out the hole a bit bigger then your lamp to out it in.
Uth does nothing for pacman frogs tanksunless they are big enough to cover the whole wall, uvb is not needed too, at least yours is not albino ..... and these things are expensive, if you can return it. In practice do use uvb for pacman frogs that are not albino only as part of mtb treatment protocol
best as Dan said ceramic heaters.
so return what you can and get:
- a fogger ( zoomed one is pretty decent if you use distiled water for it)
- dome lamp and ceramic heater (60w should be suffient for your tank)
- zoomed hydrotherm ( humidity and temp controller) plug the dome lamp and fogger into it
- forget about any problems you had with temp and humidity, that thing will keep your climate spot on with night drop in temps.
all of the above you can get off amazon

substrate is ok, you dont need to stir anything, just change once in a month

water - bottled spring or conditioned tap water ( any fish tank conditioners will do, i like prime)

cover 3 sides on your enclosure to keep frog stress levels down, i think you had covered one side, dont really see in the pic and i suggest to get another hanging plant ( prefferably silk) that would hand and fall down on a ground - they love hides like that.

.... i am probably missing something..... please ask away, im here not that often, but other members hopefully respond, ill try to swing by too.
ill check what is happening to the link you mentioned

edit - and yes both your hydrometer and thermometer you can toss.... both are garbage

[Lija]

http://www.frogforum.net/content.php...-Care-Breeding

the care sheet you were asking about

[KT Rex]

http://www.frogforum.net/content.php...-Care-Breeding

the care sheet you were asking about

Thank you all! So very helpful! I can't really return anything so I will probably just turn off the UVB or look for a low light, I am guessing that too bright of light is a little stressful.

I am looking for some more hides, is bark okay? I will take the advice and look for some hanging plants as well.

I will start looking into your other suggestions as well. I was able to get him (it) to tong feed, so I we were able to get a few roaches in. I will keep on workig on the diet!