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Need Horned Frog Help

Nanci

Nanci

Alien Lover
So I've inherited an adult male horned frog, on zero notice. I have some questions, though! It looks like he wasn't being kept quite right, both in terms of diet and habitat. I'm attempting to correct that.

He is in a 12 x 12 x 18 (high) Exoterra, because that's what I had. He has a couple inches of coco fiber, which I would like to make deeper, when I get more. He has a frog-sized shallow water bowl, which he just fits in.

He doesn't have heat, but I have ordered him a UTH, because my winter room temp is 60-70, and I don't want him to brumate.

I do not have light on him. (He's albino.)

He's been on the one mouse/week diet, but I understand a diet of mice will cut his lifespan in half, and possibly cause blindness due to fat deposits in his eyes. So I can get insects for him, but how do I feed those? I'm not comfortable just dropping crickets/supers in because they can burrow and hide, and return later to eat the frog. Can I feed him in a feeding container, like I used to do with my large toads? He's not skittish about handling, or bitey. I understand handling should be kept to a minimum.

And it's apparently necessary to dust the insects, and/or gut-load them? With vitamins, or calcium, or both??

So back to temperature. He doesn't need a gradient, right? I just want to use the UTH to bring him up to 75-80F or so.

I think that's all my questions...Thanks!
 
Good luck. Sounds like fun, but I'd be stressed too.
I don't know anything about frogs, except what I've picked up casually on the Dendro board (frog people keep the best vivs).
 
Congrats !!
My fav frog to keep!
As with any frog they are sensitive to their environment for sure !
Pacmans can be very active at night so a larger floor would be nice. A 10 gallon would do well for an adult male. I keep just a water bowl in the tank that's large enough to soak but not drown. No décor unless you want to add fake vines/leaves above where he will be sitting over the UTH. It will give him a sense of security from above.
No UV light required.
I use UTH's and prefer a heat gradient. Usually one size smaller UTH than you would use for snake setup. Got to be careful because the frog is going to borrow down to the glass over the UTH and possibly burn or overheat themselves. A divider like a Tupperware lid helps prevent that. Put a layer of coco fiber over the UTH then the lid then add a couple of inches on top of that. You might not need to regulate the UTH by adjusting the layer under the lid. I'd aim for around 80ish on top of the lid. Sometimes I'll put the UTH on a timer in the summer when the house temps are 70's at night.
Oh yeah, make holes in the lid to let the heat up through and urine to drain.
I feed calcium dusted crickets in a separate container until I can get them to eat pacman diet. Adults are usually pretty easy to get to eat it. Add just enough water to the powder to form a dough ball about 1/2 the width of their mouth. Some will take it from tongs while others I would roll towards them so it hits them in the mouth and they eventually attack and eat it. Also done in a separate container. The only thing I will feed in their tank is FT mice from tongs and I keep it to a minimum maybe once a month.
I haven't tried dubias sinse I started breeding them but will soon.
Good luck ! :)
 
The UTH I'm getting is an ultratherm. I'm thinking I will attach it to a tile, not to the viv. Of course it will be on a thermostat. There won't be any trouble keeping him warm enough in the summer- my house can struggle to stay near 80 on the warmest days, although he's on the cool side of the house. And I'm super into energy conservation, so my temperature settings are conservative.

He has fake vines dangling down the sides, and a cork background, and one large fake plant with a base, buried.

Pacman diet, huh? I wonder what's in it. There are Reptilinks, too, but those are made from whole mammals/birds...

Thanks for your help!
 
So I see there are two brands- Zoo Med and Hikari (which is a fish food company I really like).

Hikari:

Krill Meal, Fish Meal, Cassava Starch, Soybean Meal, DL-Methionine, Lecithin, Brewers Dried Yeast, Astaxanthin, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), Inositol, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Niacin, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Ferrous Sulfate, Magnesium Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Cobalt Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Selenium Yeast.

Zoo Med:

Fish Meal, Dried Potato Products, Wheat Gluten, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Phosphate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (stabilized source of Vitamin C), Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Inositol, Magnesium Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Potassium Iodate.

(As a raw dog feeder, I'm somewhat disturbed by the ingredients used to bind the proteins.)
 
If they made Reptilinks out of cricket, roach and assorted worms that would be ideal.
A Reptilink as a monthly treat I would guess would be ok. (I'm debating the benefit though)
Never heard of the Hikari brand. I went to their site and took a peak. I LIKE !
They're perfect for a small frog but it would take forever to feed a large pacman.
Zoo Med can be made to the size of the frog and a large ball is easy to swallow because of its softness.
 
Not sure what the expense of it is but I know for many lizards and frogs people will actually just order crickets that will last them just long enough to get through the week. If I still was in contact with some people I used to know I would give you the names of some of there cricket companies. I'm sure some of these guys can tell you a bit more than I can on it. If you want to raise your own bugs for them I would look up a cricket care sheat on Google I'm sure somebody out there will be extremely helpful
 
I hate insects so much. I can buy a variety locally, because we have a good reptile shop, I just don't like dealing with them. I've fed crickets before, to a bearded dragon, before switching to supers and silkworms. They are easy to keep in a 66 quart- you don't need a lid, and that greatly reduces the smell.
 
Yeah I agree. Crickets smell and are a pain to keep and raise. I've switched all my cricket eaters to other food except for the Whites Tree Frogs. I did have them on Dubai's for awhile but because of the substrate their on I switched back to crickets. Since starting a colony of Dubai roaches which has no smell and super easy to feed and breed I only buy crickets once a week now and feed all at once to the frog Viv. The local Petlife has a albino possible male adult pacman that I told I would buy if he didn't sell at Christmas. He's been on crickets only all his life. I will switch him to Dubai's then to Zoo-med pacman food. Any new babies I will try the Hikari brand then switch to Zoo-med when they get larger. It would be nice if Hikari would make an adult size soft stick. I don't know enough about Cassava starch to know that it is a better ingredient over dried potato products.
 
The thing I didn't like about crickets in regards to the bearded dragon was that they carried parasites.
 
I don't think there has been any documented case of horsehair worms penetrating an animals stomach or intestinal walls. I believe they are digested along with the cricket.
Just like any parasite it has to be introduced into the breeding colony. Breeders like Flukers, etc. have good safeguards that keep their colonies parasite free now.
Is there other parasites of concern with crickets ?
 
Coccidia is almost naturally occurring in BD's. The cricket only reintroduces it back to the host.

Got a pic of your new froggy ? :)
 
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