- Joined
- Apr 4, 2004
- Messages
- 1,503
This is not the first thread I've posted of this nature. But it is gonna be longest, so skip it if you don't like lengthy posts and look at the picture if you prefer.
This time i was stopped by a lady who asked me "Do you want a Pixie frog"?
The thing is that this always seems to happen on the spur of the moment, when a quick decision needs to be made.
I have to ask myself "Is this an animal I've ever been interested in having?" Do I have the gear at home for at least a quick temporary habitat? Do I have ROOM for another habitat?" "Do I at least a rudimentary knowledge of at least the sort of animal it is, with a minimum of having to polish up on the specifics?" " "What about the feeding regimen?" "What would be the negatives of taking this frog on?" and other questions of that nature.
So, my brain shifted into high-gear, processing those questions.
"Yes,I have thought that a Pixie frog would be an interesting addition."
"Do I have the gear at home for at least a temporary habitat? Hmm. I have a enclosure that at 15 gallons, is really the minimum for an adult. And I gotta keep in mind that "temporary" could mean a couple months. Possibly several, Pretty much everything else is at hand, or very easy for me to obtain."
"Do I have room? Um, it is getting a bit tight, but really, who needs things like furniture? I'll find room."
" Do I have the required knowledge? Okay, I've kept pacman frogs, I can just do some quick preliminary research, Different species, but if I am not mistaken similar care, and I'll make adjustments to any differences that may arise after getting it settled in and I can really hit the internet."
"Feeding regimen? Eh, just variety, and use a little moderation. Just because they will eat constantly, does not mean they have to, regularly is good enough, and use accepted food staples outlined for their care. Obesity can be an issue for frogs like this one. Supplements, I have on hand for the rest of my herps."
"Any negatives? Well, one needs to be careful to maintain an amphibian's enclosure, even more so than many other cold-blooded animals. These guys have to be as messy as a pac-man, but on a much larger scale. Spot-cleaning will be pretty frequent, every other day maximum, preferably every day. That goes double for the water bowl. Deep cleaning is a chore for all but the simplest of creatures. But overall...eh, you can swing that. Just remember that they can bite. Hard. And painfully".
So, after those rapid fire self-evaluations, I replied " Yeah, I could take it." The lady said she'd bring it to me an a couple days. She told me it was an adult she got it as small frog about three years ago.
She delivered, along with A LED lightbar, two containers of bioactve earth containing spring-tails and isopods, three heat mats of assorted size for if and when I need to add supplemental heat, three coco-fibre bricks and a 17 inch inch pair of forceps.And quite a large pixie frog.
She would not take a cent for any of it. I'd imagine that a three-year old Pixie the size of a softball -and I may be underestimating a little- alone would be fairly expensive, since I think babies run 30-40 bucks.
So home it came with me, where I did a rush-job enclosure set-up. Which I've already began to tweak a bit. Mainly in the form of getting a bigger bowl, the one I originally bought, while a large corner-style one was too cramped looking. The new one is more spacious, but I'd like more depth, and I'm likely to replace it with some sort of plastic one in the future, a sterlite of some sort, though i really prefer more naturalistic decorative items for enclosures when available. But the current replacement will suffice, I'll eventually get a larger tank anyway.
This was not an "impulse buy" but I DID have to decide then and there. I was placed in a similar situation with my first leopard gecko (still doing fine, my first Asian forest scorpion and a baby one at that, It is still with me, plus another adult and three babies, and my crested gecko. In that case, it did end in tragedy, and escape with no recovery. THAT was all on me. But I have since gotten another, having learned from my mistake.
Anyway, the point is, sometimes having to make a quick decision is not always bad. Mind you, it is still bad if one lacks any experience at all with keeping any of the more exotic pets that many of us here keep of some sort. Will I have bad luck? Possibly. The challenge is to try and eliminate all possible causes as best one can. I've had losses through the years, but my success rate has been higher than my losses. So far.
. I can handle constructive criticism/advice, as long as it is offered while keeping in mind that I'll be making improvements and tweaks as I go along. If not for the displacement of water, the bowl would not be all that bad. No good for swimming of course, even if it were deeper, but it's at least deep enough for some soaking. As you can easily see in the photo I'm attaching, the frog displaced much of the water after getting in and out a time or two. I've resigned to the fact that it will ALWAYS look dirty, because the frog will constantly drag soil into it and i do not have the chops to design an terrestrial/aquatic system. At least not now. But I'll need to change it every day due to the waste the frog will produce.
One immediate concern across the board is that I never am gone overnight. It has been five years since I did anything like that. And wouldn't you know it, I get something that I will really hate to leave for more than 24 hours, and BAM! I get invited to go on a rattlesnake herping trip with a former AB member that will take me away for two days and part of a third. I'm not overly concerned, the water bowl may empty during that time, but the cage will not lose its humidity. I'll feed him well, before departing, and the weather here will not drop anywhere near risky temperatures so I won't need to worry about heating. If for some reason it would get too dry, he'd probably just burrow down and enter estivation. Which I consider undesirable, but it IS after all how they deal with that problem in the wild, I guess. But it would take weeks for the substrate to dry out.
I really worry about what will happen if I would for example, become hospitalized. I live alone and I have no friends who would want (or have the ability, really) to take care of things, -particularly in the case of the frog and my snake. Family members would be even less inclined to do so. Six years ago when all I had were my tarantulas and my snake and went to Canada to visit the friend mentioned above,,I packed up the tarantulas and the snake and took them to a friend's house in another state, since they lived near the airport where I was leaving from
Anyway, and again sorry for the length of the above...here is the newest tenant at the Possum Hole.
This time i was stopped by a lady who asked me "Do you want a Pixie frog"?
The thing is that this always seems to happen on the spur of the moment, when a quick decision needs to be made.
I have to ask myself "Is this an animal I've ever been interested in having?" Do I have the gear at home for at least a quick temporary habitat? Do I have ROOM for another habitat?" "Do I at least a rudimentary knowledge of at least the sort of animal it is, with a minimum of having to polish up on the specifics?" " "What about the feeding regimen?" "What would be the negatives of taking this frog on?" and other questions of that nature.
So, my brain shifted into high-gear, processing those questions.
"Yes,I have thought that a Pixie frog would be an interesting addition."
"Do I have the gear at home for at least a temporary habitat? Hmm. I have a enclosure that at 15 gallons, is really the minimum for an adult. And I gotta keep in mind that "temporary" could mean a couple months. Possibly several, Pretty much everything else is at hand, or very easy for me to obtain."
"Do I have room? Um, it is getting a bit tight, but really, who needs things like furniture? I'll find room."
" Do I have the required knowledge? Okay, I've kept pacman frogs, I can just do some quick preliminary research, Different species, but if I am not mistaken similar care, and I'll make adjustments to any differences that may arise after getting it settled in and I can really hit the internet."
"Feeding regimen? Eh, just variety, and use a little moderation. Just because they will eat constantly, does not mean they have to, regularly is good enough, and use accepted food staples outlined for their care. Obesity can be an issue for frogs like this one. Supplements, I have on hand for the rest of my herps."
"Any negatives? Well, one needs to be careful to maintain an amphibian's enclosure, even more so than many other cold-blooded animals. These guys have to be as messy as a pac-man, but on a much larger scale. Spot-cleaning will be pretty frequent, every other day maximum, preferably every day. That goes double for the water bowl. Deep cleaning is a chore for all but the simplest of creatures. But overall...eh, you can swing that. Just remember that they can bite. Hard. And painfully".
So, after those rapid fire self-evaluations, I replied " Yeah, I could take it." The lady said she'd bring it to me an a couple days. She told me it was an adult she got it as small frog about three years ago.
She delivered, along with A LED lightbar, two containers of bioactve earth containing spring-tails and isopods, three heat mats of assorted size for if and when I need to add supplemental heat, three coco-fibre bricks and a 17 inch inch pair of forceps.And quite a large pixie frog.
She would not take a cent for any of it. I'd imagine that a three-year old Pixie the size of a softball -and I may be underestimating a little- alone would be fairly expensive, since I think babies run 30-40 bucks.
So home it came with me, where I did a rush-job enclosure set-up. Which I've already began to tweak a bit. Mainly in the form of getting a bigger bowl, the one I originally bought, while a large corner-style one was too cramped looking. The new one is more spacious, but I'd like more depth, and I'm likely to replace it with some sort of plastic one in the future, a sterlite of some sort, though i really prefer more naturalistic decorative items for enclosures when available. But the current replacement will suffice, I'll eventually get a larger tank anyway.
This was not an "impulse buy" but I DID have to decide then and there. I was placed in a similar situation with my first leopard gecko (still doing fine, my first Asian forest scorpion and a baby one at that, It is still with me, plus another adult and three babies, and my crested gecko. In that case, it did end in tragedy, and escape with no recovery. THAT was all on me. But I have since gotten another, having learned from my mistake.
Anyway, the point is, sometimes having to make a quick decision is not always bad. Mind you, it is still bad if one lacks any experience at all with keeping any of the more exotic pets that many of us here keep of some sort. Will I have bad luck? Possibly. The challenge is to try and eliminate all possible causes as best one can. I've had losses through the years, but my success rate has been higher than my losses. So far.
. I can handle constructive criticism/advice, as long as it is offered while keeping in mind that I'll be making improvements and tweaks as I go along. If not for the displacement of water, the bowl would not be all that bad. No good for swimming of course, even if it were deeper, but it's at least deep enough for some soaking. As you can easily see in the photo I'm attaching, the frog displaced much of the water after getting in and out a time or two. I've resigned to the fact that it will ALWAYS look dirty, because the frog will constantly drag soil into it and i do not have the chops to design an terrestrial/aquatic system. At least not now. But I'll need to change it every day due to the waste the frog will produce.
One immediate concern across the board is that I never am gone overnight. It has been five years since I did anything like that. And wouldn't you know it, I get something that I will really hate to leave for more than 24 hours, and BAM! I get invited to go on a rattlesnake herping trip with a former AB member that will take me away for two days and part of a third. I'm not overly concerned, the water bowl may empty during that time, but the cage will not lose its humidity. I'll feed him well, before departing, and the weather here will not drop anywhere near risky temperatures so I won't need to worry about heating. If for some reason it would get too dry, he'd probably just burrow down and enter estivation. Which I consider undesirable, but it IS after all how they deal with that problem in the wild, I guess. But it would take weeks for the substrate to dry out.
I really worry about what will happen if I would for example, become hospitalized. I live alone and I have no friends who would want (or have the ability, really) to take care of things, -particularly in the case of the frog and my snake. Family members would be even less inclined to do so. Six years ago when all I had were my tarantulas and my snake and went to Canada to visit the friend mentioned above,,I packed up the tarantulas and the snake and took them to a friend's house in another state, since they lived near the airport where I was leaving from
Anyway, and again sorry for the length of the above...here is the newest tenant at the Possum Hole.
that is a beast
