Help with young leopord frog, please!

[Mattiez]

I was at the pet store yesterday getting a few crickets for Frodo, my firebelly, when I noticed a gorgeous tiny frog sitting by himself in a tiny plastic container on the counter. As soon as the girl came back I asked what he was doing there. She said some people just dropped him off there because they didn't want him anymore (she said they thought he'd get too big). When I asked her what they were going to do with him she had no answer for me and asked me if I wanted him.

Well, I love frogs too much to let some innocent baby like that get thrown away (or God knows what else they would have done with him), so I immediately volunteered to take him. They had no idea what he was, but she said the people told her they had him as a tadpole and he just got his legs. They had been feeding him "frog and tadpole pellets", which she gave me as well as small "critter keeper" tank. She filled it with about a 3/4" inch of water and put a flat rock in that provides a dry spot for him.
I added another flat rock so he has more of a dry area should he want it. He alternates between sitting in the water and hopping up on a rock.

He appears to be a fully formed frog, despite having "just sprouted his legs" and he has no evidence of a tail. He's still quite tiny however. About an inch and a half at most.

Based on his markings and my googling, he appears to be what I first suspected he was, a leopard frog (southern).

I need some help with an enclousure. Obviously he can't stay in a critter keeper. I'm thinking about getting a 10 gallon as soon as possible. Since he's so young and apparently just recently was a pollywog, what type of set up should he have? Would something like what I give my firebelly be okay (ground covered with 'jungle bark' and moistened moss with a few water bowls and plants)? Or should he be in a more aquatic environment until he gets bigger?

Also, he's still so small I have no idea what to feed him. Even the little crickets look like they could barely fit in his mouth. I dropped some pellets into his water before I left for work this morning, so when I get home I'll see if he ate any.

Any help/info/input would be appreciated!

If it'd be helpful I could take pictures of him and post them when I get home from work tonight.

Thanks for your time!

[John]

Hi Mattiez. Thanks for signing up.

Frogs feed almost entirely based on movement - they won't eat the pellets because they don't see them as food. Those pellets are meant for fully aquatic frogs and for tadpoles so they don't work for a truly amphibious frog like yours. Foods for froglets (baby frogs like yours) include pinhead crickets, fruit flies, spring tails and any other insect food small enough to eat but obviously they have to be alive. The easiest is probably fruit flies.

Since you live in the US, you can get fruit flies from several places - if you need to feed the frog right away I would find some locally. Some Petcos sell proper fruit fly cultures in jars that you can feed from right away. Other Petcos have just small starter cultures that have maybe 30 flies, sold in vials. I don't think Petsmart sells fruit flies but it's worth having a look.

I've ordered fruit fly culturing media from these people: ED's Fly Meat Home and I have no complaints about the products, though they are not cheap.

As for how to keep him, leopards are the big jumpers of the frog world. Bigger frogs have a tendency to crash into the walls of their terrariums and hurt themselves, so the bigger the better. If he can't jump clear across it then it's big enough for him at that size, but obviously as he gets bigger he'll need a bigger terrarium.

Keeping him like the fire belly should be fine but make sure the water is not very deep - most frogs will drown very easily right after metamorphosis (turning into a frog).

I hope this helps! Good luck.

[Mattiez]

Thank you John! That was very helpful. Right now he's in a brand new 10 gallon tank. It's lined with cocohusk fiber. Do you think that's okay? Someone on another forum just said that it may be bad since it's foreign to leopard frogs. He also has two small water dishes, very shallow, impossible to drown in. I don't think he knows they're there yet, but I assume he'll find them when he wants it? He's also got some artificial ivy that he's currently sitting under, as well as some flat stones. I'm about to tape some forest print outs to some of the walls of the tank, is that a good idea?

I didn't have time today, but tomorrow i'll get the food. I know of at least one petco in my Chicago area that has the 30 vials of fruitflies like you said, so hopefully he'll be comfortable enough to eat tomorrow.

Thank you again for your help!

[Kurt]

Make sure the vials are alive. It has been my experience that most Petco's don't remove dead cultures from their shelves. I saw one Petco actually mark them down.

Coconut husk/ground shell is fine. I am of European heritage, I have eaten coconuts, love pina coladas. Coconuts are not native to Europe and neither a lot of other things I eat. So that whole argument that someting may be bad since it's foreign to leopard frogs, doesn't hold too much water to me.

The forest printouts should be fine as long as they are taped to the out side of the tank. Be careul not to get them wet if you printed them with your computer, the ink will run and it will look like C**p.

[Mattiez]

Thanks for the info, Kurt! I'll be sure you make sure they're moving. I'm happy you think the coco stuff is fine. When I get the vial, do I just try to shake some in? Or perhaps I should put some fruit in for them to congregate around?

[John]

Those vials usually don't have much in them so get one to feed and one to use to start a culture (at least). Let the flies go in the tank and make sure they can't escape for a couple of hours so the frog can eat them - fruit flies can crawl straight up glass and out through vented lids.

Coconut fibre is used with tons of frogs by lots of people with no ill effects.

[John]

love pina coladas

Well if you like pina colladas, do you like getting caught in the rain?

[Kurt]

Well if you like pina colladas, do you like getting caught in the rain?

Yes, because that's a good time to look for frogs!

[Kurt]

I do dust my fruit flies with vitamin/calcium powers. I do this by taking a funnel and placing it in a vial that already has the powder in it. It also helps if the powder is covering all the inside surfaces of this vial, this usually keeps them from climbing out right away. To add the fruit flies I shake the jar or vial of flies into the funnel with one hand and I shake the funnel/receiving vial with the other hand. After dusting, I give the flies to my frogs.
To culture flies you will need media mix, jar or vials, and something like excelsior for them to climb on. These items can all be purchased at Black Jungle, along with the flies themselves. Mix the media with boiled distilled water according to directions on the package, put the mixture in your jar(s) or vial (s), let cool then sprinkle baker's yeast on the media. Add some excelsior to the jars and then add the flies. Depending on what speices of fruit fly you use, it will take from ten to sixteen days before you begin to see results. Drosophila melanogaster, the smaller of the two commonly sold flies take less time to show results than does D. hydei. However, hydei is a larger fly than melanogaster.
To keep the flies in the enclosure with the frogs I use an enclosre that will allow me to place a paper towel in between the top and the rest of the cage. Critter Keepers are great for this, at least the ones that don't have vents on the sides are. The paper towel allows for ventilation, and even allows for the passing of water.
Any questions?

[Mattiez]

I got him the culture of flies at petco. It was extremely alive. When I got home from work he was still just sitting in the same corner he was in this morning. Is that semi normal for a little froglett? I've been misted him every a couple today that too much? Should I do it before I go to bed?

Anyway, i put a tiny piece of melon in his new tank and shook a bunch of fruitflies on it. He was looking at them, but I didn't see him actualy make a move for them. He's just still sitting elevated up on one of the fake ivy leaves now..

Does this sound normal?

[John]

Is all of his tail fully absorbed?

[Kurt]

I got him the culture of flies at petco. It was extremely alive. When I got home from work he was still just sitting in the same corner he was in this morning. Is that semi normal for a little froglett?

If he didn't have errands to run, then, yeah, thats somewhat normal.

I've been misted him every a couple times today that too much? Should I do it before I go to bed?

A little. No, not tneeded at this point, mist tomorrow night before going to bed.

[Mattiez]

Is all of his tail fully absorbed?

I think so, here's a pic from his old container.

[John]

How long have you had him? He might be just nervous or unwilling to feed during the day - these are nocturnal animals.

[Mattiez]

I got him wednesday, thursday night I got him the 10 gallon and transferred him in.

[John]

Give him a few days - he might need to get used to his new live behind bars.

[Mattiez]

I'm starting to worry a little less, I think he's just really really shy. Sometimes I catch him sitting in one of his pools, and once I cought him sitting right next to the piece of watermelon looking at the flies. This is only when I sneak in. I think he's just extremely hesitant to move/be in the open when he senses I'm there. I read somebody else had a full grown leopard frog who was just as shy, so It's not surprising a froglet would be too... And his little tummy is still nicely robust, so I'm feeling more confident that he sneaks his flies in when I'm out or at work...

[John]

You are probably right. I've always found that Rana/Lithobates don't make good captives because they are nervous and their big jumps make them prown to head injuries.

[Mattiez]

You think it would be beneficial to move him to a room where he'd be left alone virually all day, except for me feeding/changing his water?

[John]

You think it would be beneficial to move him to a room where he'd be left alone virually all day, except for me feeding/changing his water?

Well he'll never get used to people if he's hidden, but he will be stressed less on an ongoing basis. Hard choice to make.