Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just purchased one of these guys , Ihave had white tree frogs and other tree frogs , anyone out there have suggestions on the best way to house these , there is not alot on info out there on them , I was told to put it in very shallow water with a slate rock easy to climb on , what I have read so far is they are terrestrial frogs and A third water and two thirds land is good , I don't want to assemble a very complicated setup that is difficult to maintain unless this is the only way to make things work well , most times this sort of setup can cause more problems than bennifits .

I keep mine on water with some rocks in the cage and he does awesome. WHat I have noticed is these frogs like most are constantly shedding, by keeping mine on water I can clean out all the shed skin very easily!
Kristen

Im pretty sure im about to get a Budgetts frog and was hopeing you could answear a few questions for me

-how big was it when you got it and how big is it now

-how long have you had it

- Do you know what sex it is

-is it CB it WC

For those interested, Bartlett in his Horned Frog and African Bullfrog care manual briefly outlines the care of budgett's frogs which I have followed and had success with. The one KEY point the other poster failed to mention is the shed cycle. If the budgett's are not allowed to cycle, then it is detrimental to their health. They need to be brumated every few months to allow the frog to form its mucous cocoon and then shed it. A bed a beast half water/half land tank is best. Temperatures and the rest of the care should be like a horned frog. Females can reach 5 inches or so with males reaching closer to 2.5 or 3 in larger specimens. Mine was adult at 2. They are great frogs and can grow quickly, though mine had a slower growth rate than both my horned frogs or african bullfrog.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

when you refer to brumate what is this exactly , a sort of time they dig in and are out of water to develope this mucus covering or old skin which they eat when the resurface ? I have read and seen a little about this but I;m not quite certain how it is done , would the bed o beast be fine if it was in a separete container added to the tank of water and rocks or is a devider needed ?

A divider is helpful because it gives the frog easy access to both areas. Brumation is basically where you cool temps down a few degrees and let the substrate become a little drier. You allow the frogs to have a week or two with no feeding to empty their guts. They should form a cocoon and burrow down. After a while (up to you), they can be woken up by misting the tank heavily and wetting down the substrate. The frog should resurface and shed a few days later.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

Ive read that some people have had success with out burmating there budgetts. But fot the most part it seems like most of the process is up to the frog.

I would think it would be up to the frog depending on the climate conditions from where they exist in the wild , I am familar with aquatic turtles and monitor lizards mainly and this frog is a new realm for me , not that I have'nt kept amphibians before , I have had tree frogs and salamanders and such . It always seemed to be the case when I went with a natural environmental approach is when all the problems began , even though I kept thinks clean I used some things that now seem harmful such as moss and plants and substrate , it was overall difficult to maintain a setup that did not end up producing something toxic that did them in , this is not for certain but my thoughts . It seems that brumating is similar to hibernation that other herps go through and this is maily so they will stay with a breeding cycle , if the frog sheds skin in small amounts as mine seems to do would this not be good enough ? my fear is that if I go with bed a beast and water then I will end up with spots of waste that may go unseen and since frogs do absorb toxins through the skin I may be asking for trouble , this is only my opinion , if I had all the answers I would be replying rather than asking , there seems to be plenty of info on other sorts of so called pacman frogs but for the budgett there seems to be very little , they mention dry savannahs in agrentina is where these frogs live making it sound as though they may in fact go through long dry spells and perhapes this is the reason for their brumating , I haven'nt been able to find any source of good info on the actual climate conditions of this part of the world .