Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I provided 5" of substrate in my pixie's 3 adjoining rubbermaid tubs, and haven't seen him in 2 weeks! I watered it all yesterday to simulate a rainstorm, hoping he'd emerge, but no luck. Should I just let him be? Considering that he's otherwise known as an African Burrowing Frog? Someone on another forum said their pixie died that way----from being buried underground without food for so long----so I took most of the substrate out, although he is STILL buried so I still can't find him; does anyone's pixie do this?

I have my pixie the same way. He is burried and I never see it except for cleaning or checking to see if all is well. I do put a hopper in occasionally and it's gone soon there after.

it is normal for pixies and other species of amphibians to burrow into thier substrate for long periods of time, espically after large meals. i have had tiger sals "hibernate" for more than three months at a time before without any issue. if you are worried about your frogs health you can gently dig him out, it may annoy him, but won't cause any harm

Cool, thanks you guys----it's just that another forum had a reply that said his frog actually died of starvation from burrowing (!), and that scares me a little. How deep is you all's substrate for your pixies?

This is the quote from the other site where I asked the question about burrowing:

If it were my frog, I wouldn't allow it to burrow so deeply. The first Pixie frog I had died while burrowed down real deep. They also grow to their full potential faster if they are not burrowed down most of the time.

3-7" of soil, depending on where they are in the tank. i use a mix of t-rex's forest bed and black jungle's coco fibre and dendro bedding. the more often the frog eats the quicker it will grow, but it is not always healthy for the frog. burrowing is a natural part of the pixies lifestlye and should be encouraged. i have two pixies in a 40 gal greeder, both are males and one is 4" and the other 3 1/2". they have been together for over a year without any problems.

Wow, that is cool---and they don't even try to eat each other? Woah!! I too have a tiger salamander who burrows for months at a time--I've never worried about him either and he always comes back up to the surface eventually, usually ravenous and sometimes kind of skinny, but he seems to like that ratio of under to above ground life. And what is strange, when I dug Patrick the pixie up the other day, he wasn't so hungry like usual---maybe he was doing his own hibernation/rest cycle of some sort?

i have never had a problem with them getting along, though the larger one won't let the smaller one in the water bowl with him, so i had to give them each a water bowl. he never tried to bite the smaller one, but would swim under him and push him out of the bowl when he tried to get in.
i have 9 tiger sals and a yellow spotted together and most of the time i only see three to four sals out at a time, the others are buried, and sometimes stay buried for three months or more at a time, espically my two barred tigers, they are almost never out.

Ok---that is very comforting, I will not worry now! Thank you!

Mine stayed burrowed, without eating, all last winter.

And it emerged fat and fine in the Spring?