Have YOU licked a toad today? (Frogs)

Member Name: LittleEwok

Product:	Frogs
Date:	20/04/05 (6314 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: C review

Disadvantages: C review!

The first thing I say to people who tell me they want a pet reptile, is “Start with an amphibian”. Amphibians may not be nearly as impressive as telling someone you have a five foot monitor, but they are just as interesting, much easier to set up and easier to care for. There is a huge range of frogs and toads available on the market, from the Ornate Horned Frog (also called the Pac-Man frog because it NEVER stops eating), to the beautifully patterned Dendrobates (poison dart frogs). It is much easier to provide a suitable micro-environment for a frog or toad than a reptile, because they are so much smaller.


A bit about frogs and toads

Frogs and toads share the amphibian family with salamanders, newts and caecilians (which I think are a type of salamander). They are poikilothermic, or cold blooded, like reptiles (this doesn’t mean literally cold-blooded, it means they need heat from their surrounding environment, whereas mammals tend to have a constant temperature, if not placed in extremes). The biggest frog in the world is the Goliath frog from Cameroon. To see an amazing picture comparing this frog to a baby deer, follow this link… http://allaboutfrogs.org/weird/strange/big.html


Frog or toad?

All toads ARE frogs. However we distinguish between them. Frogs have slimmer bodies and longer legs than toads, and slimy skin where toads skin is dry and warty. To make things confusing some toads are referred to as frogs and vice versa, and some carry characteristics of both families. A group of frogs is called an army. For simplicity in this review I’ll use the blanket term “frog” to refer to both frogs and toads


How to keep frogs as pets in general

This is just a general guide, each species will have different requirements and you should check out these on the web or in a book before you buy a pet frog.


A home for a frog

An all-glass aquarium is suitable home for a pet frog, so long as you get a tight-fitting mesh screen top made specially for it, as opposed to a fish tank hood. The provides ventilation and prevents escapes. Another ideal, and cheap home for a frog are those plastic tanks (sometimes called faunariums or fauna tanks) with the colourful lid sometimes sold as fish tanks or homes for reptiles. While they aren’t suitable for anything but the smallest reptile species, or perhaps hatchling reptiles, the bigger ones make good homes for smaller and more sedentary types of frog, and come with a custom, fitted lid, which is always good. You could also fashion your own terrarium (home) for a frog…however, the easiest way to do this would be making it out of wood and glass, and unfortunately frogs need a very damp environment which isn’t much good for wood, unless it is coated with special varnish.

Fashioning a realistic habitat for a frog in a tank can be great fun. If you find out where your species is from, you can add rocks and plants from that area, for more aquatic species you could include a waterfall or a rock pool for swimming, the choice is yours. Its more fun to go all out and create a really realistic living space for a frog, as well as better for them. At least, you should have a few rocks in the tank, plus a hide for the frogs to go in when feeling shy.

Most pet frogs are from warm regions and need heating. Commercial heat mats are a good choice. Low-light reptile bulbs are good too, so long as they are caged off so the frog doesn’t get burned. Deep pools of water needs to be heated with an aquarium tank heater.

Some species of frog, such as clawed frogs, are wholly aquatic, and need to be kept in a filtered and heated aquarium. More on them later.


Substrate

Some people use dampened paper towels, however these don’t look very natural and dry out quite quickly. Aquarium gravel is another choice, but some kinds of frog will eat this, which wont do them much good! Other people use bark chips, which work quite well, potting soil (must be pesticide free) and may include some sphagnum moss (this is a good idea as most frogs require high humidity, and spraying the moss daily keeps the tank humid). I personally use potting soil for most of my frog species, with a mixture of sphagnum moss, and aquarium gravel for the aquatic species. I feel this looks most natural in a tank, its quite easy to replace and the frogs can burrow if they wish.


What frogs eat

Frogs are confirmed bug-eaters. If this grosses you out (as it does me), either get over it or choose another pet. Again, you need to check requirements for your particular species, but good places to start would be crickets, locusts, flightless house and fruit flies (these are specially cultured so they cant fly off and take over your house), king and regular mealworms, earthworms, cut worms and wax worms. Smaller species like poison dart frogs will feed on fruit flies, aphids and the like. If you cant find pet shops near you that supply these, there are plenty of places online that will. Larger species of frog will also take the pre-frozen pinkie mice and day-old chicks that snakes eat, smaller lizards and frogs if you can get hold of them, and all species of frog will relish the occasional treat of fish (if they have a bowl or a pool of water, putting the live fish in and letting them catch it is good fun for them). An occasional treat of a piece of cooked meat may also be relished.

Food for aquatic frogs might include tubifex, bloodworms, minnows and other small fish.


Handling frogs

In a word, don’t. Frogs are not handleable pets. They are small, delicate and most will not appreciate handling. They have very delicate skin that will be damaged by warm, dry hands, so if you have to handle them, wet your hands first. Some frogs also give out toxic skin secretions which will irritate your skin. Larger ones like Pixie and Pac-man frogs can deliver a substantial bite…usually more out of mistaking your hand for food than aggression, but still.


Some common first pet frogs

African clawed frogs- a totally aquatic species. A 20 gallon aquarium will do a pair. The water temperature should be around 72-81 F degrees, and a depth of 8 inches is a minimum for these frogs. Some people have the water so shallow that the frogs can sit on the bottom of the tank with their heads out of the water, but I think its better to have deep water and build a little “Island” from rock where they can sit if they need to. A water filter isn’t necessary but you should change the water every few weeks if you don’t have one. These frogs can be fed on strips of lean, raw meat, trout pellets or specialist amphibian food pellets, earthworms, brine shrimp, guppies, minnows, fresh and dried tubifex and bloodworms. A mixture of different types of food will result in a happy frog. Its best not to keep frogs with aquarium fish for various reasons, but you do choose to keep them choose tank-mates of a similar size and a gentle temperament. You may well find the frogs might bully the fish Floating plants will make the aquarium nicer, and put in a clay plant pot for hiding, but rooted plants will just get dug up.

Oriental fire-bellied toads- These pretty toads unfortunately sometimes lose the orange belly they are famed for in captivity, probably due to dietary differences. These do best in an aqua-terrarium…part water, part land…half and half or three quarters water is good. This can be achieved by having a plastic tub sunk into the substrate to allow froggie swimming time, or, more naturally, by building a gravel “bank” and submerging part of the tank, which looks much nicer. The temperature should be 72-77 degrees F. They are chlorine sensitive so adding something to dechlorinate the water is essential, or let the water sit for a day before adding it to the tank, the chlorine will evaporate. The same goes for all amphibians, and reptiles and fish for that matter. 20 gallon is a good size for one of these froggies, if you go bigger you can design cool landscapes for them, they are also quite active frogs, so it’s a good idea to give them space. They will eat crickets, earthworms, locusts, mealworms and any moth larvae (cut worms, silkworms and wax worms are all moth larvae). They have quite toxic skin so don’t touch.

Pixie frogs or African Bullfrogs- Males of this species get to 9 inches, so they need some space, but they are fat and lazy, so don’t move so much. They have quite a nasty bite, so handle them with care. They can have either a terrestrial tank with a very large water bowl (big enough for them to sit in), or half water, half land, which they might appreciate more. Temperature should be 77-82 degrees F. They need quite a big tank, maybe 30 gallons, although seeing as they don’t move much, 25 might be OK. A good substrate is potting soil with sphagnum moss added. A depth of five inches or more is good, they like to burrow. They will eat anything, including each other, so one to a talk is a must. They feed on larger insects and invertebrates, frozen pink mice and chicks (defrosted), plus, if you can get them, other smaller frogs and lizards, or possibly newts. They are impressive looking big frogs, they don’t do much apart from eat though, so not the most interesting of species to keep.

Horned frogs- in America these are usually Ornate horned frogs which are more colourful, over here you usually get Cranwell’s Horned frogs. They come in regular or albino, and are beautifully coloured in bright green with dark stripes. They are aggressive frogs that don’t do much apart from eat, but they are very pretty to look at. Females are larger and can grow to 14cm. The best description I can find for them is half mouth, half stomach. They will eat anything, including each other, hence the popular and rather cute name, Pac-man frog. A 15 gallon terrarium will do a single frog, you cant keep more than one of these to a tank. You could go smaller as they don’t move much, but I like to give them space. Again an aqua-terrarium or a big bowl of water is needed for this species, and a temperature of 77-83 degrees F. Potting soil and moss is the best substrate, at least five inches deep so the frog can burrow. These frogs will eat anything, including your fingers, so a minimum of handling is a good idea. Feed them on bugs, defrosted mice, day old chicks, smaller frogs and lizards if you can get them, and fish.


My favourite frog species- Dendrobates

The dendrobate frogs are the beautiful poison dart frogs. You have probably seen pictures or zoo animals…they come in an amazing array of colours, and are famed for being used to make poison darts for the Choco-Indians from Columbia to hunt with. Only three species are truly dangerous, the most poisonous is Phylobates terriblis…a single frog has enough venom to kill 8 people or 20’000 mice (not quite sure I want to know how that theory was tested). They tend to lose their poison in captivity for dietary reasons, in the wild they eat ants which are hard to provide in captivity, unless you like a colony of ants taking over your home. Poison dart frogs are the type most people want to keep, but they are not for beginners, I’d suggest a few years frog-keeping experience first as they are delicate and have specific care needs. They are amazingly pretty animals though, and there is lots of interesting info available about them on the ‘net.


Why frogs make good pets

Firstly, a tank for most species of frog is small and wont take up much room. This is great if you want something more interesting than a fish but don’t have room for a big cage. A frog tank will sit happily in a small corner of any room of your house. A home for a frog could quite easily be one of those cheap plastic tanks with the colourful lids you can get from pet shops.

Most frog species are quiet easy to care for in captivity. This makes them ideal first “exotic” pets, as most exotic pets are a much harder type of animal to care for. If you are interested in keeping reptiles, phibs are a good place to start. They don’t require much care once their tank is set-up, just regular cleaning and feeding. They are interesting low maintenance pets, IF you get their conditions right.

Thirdly, amphibians, especially the more mobile ones, are interesting to watch. Its quite an amazing experience to have a tropical rainforest pet in your own home. Setting up tanks for your species are great fun, you can spend ages researching what sort of plants you would find in that area and what the habitat is like, making it more interesting for you, and more natural for the frog.

They are ideal pets for children who keep bugging you to get them an unusual pet like a lizard. Lizards are NOT good pets for kids, with no exceptions, but as long as your child knows that you cant really handle frogs, they make great, interesting pets for kids. You can encourage your kids to do research on the frogs and watch the frogs behaviour in captivity, maybe even raise some tadpoles! They are great for getting kids interested in the environment and how to help care for it, also, I’ve found/.

As ugly as a lot of people find them, most frog species kept as pets have lovely colourings. Pac-man frogs, mantellas and poison dart frogs, are very beautiful in particular. Even if they are not active species of frogs, they can often be very pretty, especially tree-frogs, which are really just very cute.

A bonus most people never mention, but apparently there are some species of toad that make you high if you lick them. Not that I suggest you lick a toad, it would be rather gross and probably bordering on animal abuse...still an amusing factoid to know and tell.


On the other hand…

Frogs are not pets to handle. It harms their delicate skin and is probably bad for yours too.

Although conditions are easy to maintain, getting them set up correctly is a must. If the tank is too hot, cold, dry or humid, your poor froggie will suffer.

Most tanks have to be kept humid, which means unless there is adequate ventilation, there is great scope for parasites and disease, and smell if not cleaned regularly.

Most eat insects and this grosses people out. If you have a problem with this, get an aquatic species of frog and feed it on pellets, frozen foods, and minnows, although they will still appreciate the occasional live worm.

On the whole, I think if you interested in nature, the pet frog makes a great pet. They may not be pets you can cuddle, and a lot of them wont do much, but they are still interesting creatures to have and look at. They are a bit of an environmentalists pet I think, setting up their habitat is great fun for people like me. Maybe I need to get out more, but hey, I like them.

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