Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I am an elementary school teacher, and have been thinking of doing a unit with my children on frogs.
I am an experienced reptile keeper, but have never kept amphibians.
I have been researching the care of both african clawed frogs, and leopard frogs (which I believe are also classified as toads, which is why I am posting here...). Leopard frogs seem to be the easier to care for of the two.
I was looking at the "planet frog" kit. It can be seen by using this link: h t t p : / / w w w 2 . t o w e r h o b b i e s . c o m / c g i - b i n / w t i 0 0 0 1 p ? & I = L X B Z E 1 & P = F R

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If anyone has any advice, please let me know!!!
I understand that for one reason or another, the use of this kind of "kit" may be frowned upon. Please consider, though, that this this kind of thing is going to interest, motivate, and stimulate the children.

All responses are appreciated!

You would be much better off buying a regular aquarium.I do believe that kit comes with a leopard frog which is not going to be able to live in that thing as an adult anyway.I recommend buying a 10 gallon tank=10$ and a screen top=5-10$ and just purchase a firebelly toad.They are very easy to take care of.They don't need any extra heating unless the room they are in is less than 65 degrees.

thanks for the advice.
I understand that they will not be able to live long in this thing...
Why do you recommend a fire belly toad over a leopard frog, out of curiosity?

My main reason for buying this is because of the tadpole.
The changing process is the educational part of this pet.
So... If i can get my hands on a tadpole, I would consider not doing the "planet frog".

I agree, those kits are no good. Just get a 10 gallon tank. If you can find a tadpole get one, but there not really selling them now, mostly during the summer. If you cant get one go with a firebelly toad.

Well they only need offered one prey item a day.More than one can be housed in a single tank,they need no extra heating unless room your keeping them in is less than 65 degrees.They are active and bright colored;something children will like.You can't handle them though as with all amphibians except when you need to clean their cages.They don't spook easily either like some frogs (pacman frog) which is perfectly for little kids who like tapping on glass lol.

Thanks for the info.

Now I know more about them.

I will take all this into consideration....

If I cannot go with the fire belly toad -- which I have no idea where to look for tadpoles (I've started with kingsnake classifieds, and don't know where to look next) -- then I may just go with the tadpole I know I can find (leopard frog) and keep the dinky setup for just a short time.

Are leopard frogs a bad bet?

Leopard frogs, spook easily. When i had a firebelly toad i'd tap on the glass and they would try to eat my fingers . Leopard frogs need nice warm about 20 gallon enclosure.

Leopard frogs do not need to be kept warm. They are a temperate zone species that does just fine in the low 60s (or cooler such as the 50s). The metabolic rate decreases.
Fire belly toads will also be fine down into the 50s. You just don't want temperatures to spike and drop with them.

Ranids like leopards need hide areas and shelters otherwise they can (and occasionally) do jump into the glass with the flight reaction attempting to escape possibly resulting in trauma and/or death.

Check www.thatpetplace.com for tadpoles. You would be best off calling and talking to the staff to see what is available.

While it is not as dramatic a change, would you consider a larval tiger salamander instead? These are commonly sold as water dogs and do transform into an adult salamander (which could be a classroom fixture for the next 10-20 years....).
Check out http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml for pics and information.

Ed

Wow,
Thank you for all the information. This is helpful.
I am glad I asked before jumping into anything.

A salamander is an idea, but part of something that goes hand in hand with frogs is the availability of children's literature pertaining to frogs (frog and toad, a frog in the bog, the icky sticky frog, etc etc).

If you do get a leopard frog tadpole, and it changes into a frog, keep the leopard frog at 77 degrees during the day and 60 at night , hope this is useful .

It's a big waste of money. Just go to the pet store, buy several tadpoles, and a ten gallon tank. Then set up a nice big terrarium for when the tads turn into frogs. This whole endeavor would run you less than $15 to start.

The containers they give you with that kit, are woefully inadequate. You can get much better tadpole acoomodations elsewhere. Even a large rubbermaid bin would worh, giving the tads a large area to swim.
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2.1 Ball pythons
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog
1.0 bearded dragon
1.0 Tiger salamander
1.1 breeding Clawed frogs
1.0 black kittycat
3.1 Oscar cichlids
0.1 Paint horse mare

I think the issue at this point is locating a tadpole. I don't know any place that sells em