# Info On Pacman Frogs?



## Rhapsody (Feb 13, 2010)

I have been thinking of getting a Pacman Frog for some time now, and I am curious if anyone knows of some good sites or books that would have useful information for me. I know a few things from what little research I have conducted through the internet, but I would like to learn as much as I can before I get one so I am 100% sure I can take care of one. At the moment, the only thing I am worrying about is the fact that where I live, the temperature gets very cold and I don't know if there is any kind of tank heater or anything that I could use for the Pacman or not? I'm lucky if I can get my own room at 60 degrees F in the winter-time (I have a space heater, but it is an electricity hog so I only use it at night). Summertime isn't bad, winter seasons is my only worry with them. Any information anyone is willing to share is appreciated! <3


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## pwilson5 (Feb 13, 2010)

about the tank heater, i have a small tank heater on my 2.5 gal tank for my versi, and with the heater alone it keeps the tank around 65 degrees... and then with the radiator style heater on low (1-2) it bumps it up to 70 degrees


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## Rhapsody (Feb 13, 2010)

Ah, thank you for the info on the heater! <3


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## pwilson5 (Feb 13, 2010)

no problem... with the heater on in the room it gets hot enough that it sweats my g/f and i out... didnt think id be sleeping without covers in winter...lol


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## <3exoticpets (Feb 13, 2010)

I have had my pacman a few months, but have done a lot of research and am learning by trial and error.  Housed improperly, it can be a "pet tank" as they do like to burrow (which I am thinking is also highly likely in cooler weather).  The setup I have now involves hydroballs under a mesh netting (to keep up humidity), with cocobark substrate about 3" deep.  A dish with large pebbles in one area and a smaller "water bowl".  In the larger dish I drop in feeder fish and the smaller dish it uses as a potty.  There is also plants in there to provide a hiding place.  I have it on a varied diet including crickets, fish and pinkie mice (frozen).  I do not keep lighting on the tank.  The average temp is about 68- 70.  I am by no means an expert, but have been recreating in an attempt to get it right!  The humidity has to be high, but mold can be a problem without proper maintenance and cleaning.  I will say I think the he is much more content in his habitat since he burrows and comes out regularly, also spending some time hanging out in the water.


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## Rhapsody (Feb 13, 2010)

Your pacman is so cute! <3 Thanks for your input! *takes notes*


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## <3exoticpets (Feb 13, 2010)

Thank you   Others I know that own them have told me they can be picky eaters (which really surprised me) and from experience, mine will not eat just crickets.


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## Rhapsody (Feb 13, 2010)

Due to owning a rose hair tarantula, I already have access to a good flow of crickets, but I also live near a pet store that carries feeder mice, freeze-dried worms, blood worms, etc. So hopefully, I can get all their food needs from there. I have been told not to feed them anything too big, as they will choke on their prey if they are unable to swallow it and they can't spit it back out because their teeth are supposed to lock the food into their mouth.


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## <3exoticpets (Feb 13, 2010)

A prey item that is smaller than your frog should be no problem.  I have found that a variety of food keeps him out for longer time periods


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## mike12348 (Feb 13, 2010)

Pacman frogs are really simple to care for. If you don't mind this is a link to a frog forum that got me started in this hobby. Has some great info if you look around. 

http://talkto.thefrog.org/index.php


There is also a great caresheet found on http://www.frogfreaks.com/index.php?topic=357.0 but you need to register to see it.


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## RoachGirlRen (Feb 14, 2010)

I'll throw mine into the ring as well; this is the pacman frog care sheet I wrote for a website I moderate. They're easy to care for, but there is a lot of misinformation out there, and improper care tends to carry pretty serious consequences. They're a very fun species to own IMO; I guess I must think so since I have... at least twelve of 'em?


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## <3exoticpets (Feb 14, 2010)

RoachGirlRen said:


> I'll throw mine into the ring as well; this is the pacman frog care sheet I wrote for a website I moderate. They're easy to care for, but there is a lot of misinformation out there, and improper care tends to carry pretty serious consequences. They're a very fun species to own IMO; I guess I must think so since I have... at least twelve of 'em?


I tried the link for your care sheet, but it doesn't work.
[#10342] We could not determine which forum this topic is in.


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## RoachGirlRen (Feb 14, 2010)

Oh, bugger. I guess that part of the forum isn't open to guests; I thought it was. Google Documents Version - sorry about that! 

ETA: And if you already looked, check again; I found an error in the supplimentation section that I fixed on the forum but not on this version (oops). It's been corrected.


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## Rhapsody (Feb 15, 2010)

Oh, thank you very much for the care sheet link!!!!!! <3 This will be very useful!


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## Tim Benzedrine (Feb 15, 2010)

Psst! Ren! There is still an error! Replace the "I" in supplimentation" with an "e".

I'm just teasing, that's one of the better care sheets for horned frogs that I've read. Bonus points for emphasizing that breeding them is not the get-rich-quick, fun-filled hobby that some people imagine.


I'm in a bit of a bind with my frog. He stopped eating in late September and went into estivation. Well, I didn't get too concerned, I've seen it suggested that allowing estivation to occur might actually prolong the life of the frogs, which seems reasonable to me.
The problem is, he came out of his torpor last week and I have nothing to offer him besides crickets, which he has refused so far. His preferred food is nightcrawlers and they are difficult to get here locally. It was bad judgment on my part, I started increasing the humidity and temps, forgetting that crickets would not interest him. In hindsight, I should have left things as they were.

Nightcrawlers are really my only option, I did find the number for a baitshop and intend to call and ask if they stock 'crawlers off-season. But until the roads clear up, even going there isn't really an option. Another alternative is to offer him a couple f/t pinkies to tide him over, but my success rate with those has been limited and I still need to wait until I'm able to get out to buy them. Mealworms/Superworms are also obtainable, but I've never been a big fan of using them, particularly as a staple. I'll suppose I could get some as a last resort.

But assuming that I'm going to have to wait until 'crawlers are available at my usual source(Wal-Mart), I don't believe my chances of getting them are good until March at the earliest.  I'm going to offer a couple crickets tonight. Even those are approaching the end of their life-cycles, though.
This ain't good.

Note: I took a break from typing this out and decided to give crickets another shot. He took one, but refused a second one. Still, that's encouraging. I'll try again tomorrow. I wish I had thought to dust the cricket, but to be honest I really believed my attempt was going to be in vain, so dusting didn't occur to me until after the fact.


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## ZergFront (Feb 15, 2010)

This guy has a bunch of pacmans. Even shows you how to force feed a frog if it's refused food a lot(guess one of his was WC).

http://www.youtube.com/user/frogfeeder


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## RoachGirlRen (Feb 16, 2010)

Tim, Haha yeah, this is an older version of the sheet. I also found a  "why on earth is that word even there?" error when I re-read it. I need to do a re-write one day and add photos as I made it when my care knowledge was still pretty limited (though tragically it's still more accurate and detailed than our local herp society's).

As far as your frog's reluctance to eat goes... do you mean to say that as an invert keeper, you lack a solid roach supply?? This is a great feeder for pacs and is typically well accepted. I'm guessing if you had them you'd have offered them, but generally a sufficiently hungry frog WILL eat sooner or later, so I wouldn't be overly worried unless you're seeing loss of mass. I'd keep with offering crickets if they're all you have, though hopefully you can get nightcrawlers soon. My WalMart has been carrying them off season, don't know about yours. Are you letting them roam freely or are you tong feeding? Generally rubbing the prey item by the frog's lip will encourage it to feed.


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## Tim Benzedrine (Feb 16, 2010)

Heh. I've talked a lot of critters into the household over the years, but the powers-that-be have taken a firm stance when it comes to roaches. The bias against the German cockroach spreads to all species, "a roach is a roach" is pretty much the verdict here. Crickets are acceptable (I tried to point out that they are kissin' cousins to roaches), nightcrawlers in the fridge are reluctantly tolerated, and frozen pinkies in the freezer have been adjusted to, but the line has been drawn at roaches.  I guess I should be honest and say that while I'd keep some on hand, even I would be a little uneasy about potential escapes and infestations.
If I could get roaches on a need-to-feed basis, I'd get away with it, but no colonies. But they are not stocked at the local shop.

Well, the frog looks fine from a visual aspect, which means that the top half of him looks healthy. Full bodied and bright-eyed. Soon I'm going to take him out for a soak and to change out the substrate, so I can give him a thorough examination and see if the rest of his mass is proportional to what I can see from above. I'll also check his underside for any signs of a problem.

I only tong-feed him, I don't like crickets on the loose in his cage (or any cage, for that matter), plus I like to keep substrate ingestion to a minimum. Oh, and it allows me to keep precise track of what he has eaten and when. I started keeping records a month after getting him and I can go back and tally up nearly everything he has eaten since I got him nearly three years ago. And to make a long post even more tedious and dull, I'll prove it! From April 2007 to today, he has consumed: 444 crickets, 253 and 1/2 nightcrawlers, 3 mealworms, and 3 f/t pinkies. At the prices I pay, that amounts to 70.81 in food bills since I got the frog, or roughly a mere 23.60 a year. But that's just for one frog!

Jeez, suddenly I feel like Rain-Man

As far as accuracy goes on all that, I'd give that a +/- of no more than 5 items. I'm pretty anal about it. I also note whether the items were dusted, the time food was offered the temps at time of feedings and the times. I also keep track of when I change out the entire substrate and of the more frequent spot-cleanings

As soon as this darned weather breaks, I'm going to call Wal-Mart and see if they have gotten any crawlers in stock yet. I sort of dropped the ball this year. Last year I bought several dozen and housed them in tupper-ware style containers. This year I left them in their retail containers and suffered a higher mortality rate. They perished when he started to slow down on his eating. I figured that when they died, I'd just pick up more, but then when I checked on getting more, all Wally-World had left were a few containers of tiny sickly "panfish and trout" worms, which I tried but he refused. They eventually died after he went into estivation, but no great loss.
I have had success with the rub or bump lips feeding method in the past- otherwise known as "I'll just make this pest go away. GULP" method-but it seems like if they really don't want to eat, even that is futile.

K, I'll shut up now.


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## dtknow (Feb 16, 2010)

What temps are appropraite for these guys? I've heard they need it warm. But coming from Southern SA that doesn't make too much sense.


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## <3exoticpets (Feb 16, 2010)

dtknow said:


> What temps are appropraite for these guys? I've heard they need it warm. But coming from Southern SA that doesn't make too much sense.


See post #13 RoachGirlRen has a great care sheet.


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## Tim Benzedrine (Feb 19, 2010)

*Crisis averted?*

My brother in-law got word that I was having a feeding crisis and dropped off a couple of dozen crickets and also some superworms. Now, I'm a little bit leery of meal and superworms due to their hard chitonous shells, but I'm going to at least try a few and see how that goes If he will accept them at all, that is. I figure it beats starving and hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to get my hands on some nightcrawlers. Maybe I'll catch some of the superworms moulting, eliminating the chitin concern. 
The crickets are the back-up plan, but they are far too small to even bother offering. They'll need a couple weeks growth at least. I needed some for the T anyway, so they'll still be used iven if the pac isn't interested.

Hey Ren, are you still following this? If so, have you had any experience with your pacs and superworms?


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## Tim Benzedrine (Feb 21, 2010)

I just had to bring this video back to this thread. It provides an excellent example of why you should not use wood chunks, pebbles, or other small particulates as substrate.
The video is of a pac being fed a worm. Pretty standard feeding behaviour, but watch what happens at about 15 seconds into the video.


[YOUTUBE]GXGugUCDOaA&feature=player_embedded#[/YOUTUBE]

 The person feeding the frog managed to retrieve the chunk of wood with a bit of effort, but that frog could have been in real trouble if it had managed to swallow it. 
(The handling in the end doesn't win any prizes from me either.)
The moral of the story is no wood-chunks, pebbles or similar items for substrate. Moss is a bad idea as well. As a rule of thumb, anything that is indigestible should be avoided as much as possible. Small amounts of coco-fibre usually will pass thru, but there have even been cases of it clogging up the frog's plumbing. It's considered the best and safest substrate currently out there, but you should still keep an eye on your frog's consumption. Tong feeding can help minimize substrate ingestion.

 And one of the most important things to remember is this: Just because a product shows a picture of your pet on the packaging, that does NOT mean it is suitable for your pet!


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## lester (Feb 21, 2010)

try feeding mice


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## Tim Benzedrine (Feb 22, 2010)

Well, that's an option, but one that should be used in moderation.

I took mine out for a visual inspection and substrate cleaning today. He looks to be in great health. He lost little to no body mass, his underside is clean and free of sores or wounds, all limbs are functioning strongly and his eyes are clear and alert. And while he soaked as I did maintenance, he had a decent bowel movement.

Worrisome as it may have been, he probably benefited from his dormancy period as it is a natural process. I'm guessing that what prompted him to enter it was the transitory period was this past fall when it was beginning to cool down here in the house, but was not cool enough to start turning on the heat. This caused the temperatures in his cage to drop to the low 70's for awhile. Of course the humidity the humidity dropped in turn, so it was a recipe for estivation, probably.

That's a nicely marked and coloured cranwelli, by the way.


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