Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I think I'm finially ready to get myself my first Pac Man frog. I've already done quite a bit of research on them. Although I see conflicting information on them all over the place. Some books and websites say I need a thermastatically-controlled heating pad "under" the tank, some say to put it on the "side" of the tank and some sources say you don't need a heating pad at all- that they'll do just fine at normal room temperatures. So what do I do? Maybe I can get a vote count of who uses a heater and who doesn't. If it turns out I do need a heater- any suggestions on what kind of heater to get and where to put it?

Many Tanks!

Well, Id vote for a heater. My first pacman did fine at room tempreture all winter while the house was warm, but once sumemr came and we turned on the air conditioning, it really had a bad effect on him.
Becasue pacmen are burrowers, you problly would want to get a regular understank heter, and jsut stick it to the side of the tank, otherwise you run the risk of teh frog burrowing down to the bottom and accidentally cooking himself.
hope this helps,

-Zel

If the light doesnt bother you and your keeping it in your room you can use an incandescent light bulb placed on tanks screen. 40 to 60 watts depending on room temp.
They work great and wont dehydrate the frog just mist him few times a day keep damp.
Under tank heaters dont heat the air space they do work but I find bulbs (red incandescent) to work best.
Like someone just said they do suffer in cool temps.Keep a thermometer in area because to hot no good either so when temp gets warm you just shut bulb off .
Great fogs in great colors.

I vote for no heater. Just use a dome lamp to heat the enclosure.
I've kept many horned frogs this way and never had a problem with it.
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There are pro's and con's to whatever kind of heat you use. Overhead heating will reduce humidity faster, thus this needs to be monitored (it should anyways), esp. with higher wattages.
Undertank heaters are a bit contradictory, since burrowing animals don't burrow to warm up, but rather, to hide and/or to cool off. This method does seem to work well for many though, pacman frogs are quite adaptable as long as they do have there prefered temperature zone. I keep my pacman in a herp room that is a controlled 82F.

Whether you need to use supplemental heating depends on the temperature in the room. Horned frogs do just fine in a temperature range (inside the cage) between 70 and 82 F. At the cooler temps you will simply feed them less.
Its only when you get outside this temperature range that you have to look at cooling/heating of the enclosure.

Ed

I would recommend the incandescent light too. In nature frogs don't get heat from burrowing under the ground they burrow under the ground to get away from heat in some case. I would keep the bulb on during the day and then cut it off so that the temp will drop a little at night. Make sure the bulb is a low watt bulb too much wattage and you will have to mist the cage a bunch just to keep a constant humidity.

Mine has done fine without a heater, as long as you provide it with plenty of soil to burrow into.
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DAVE

All specimens marked with an asterisk indicate a species being bred. Single specimens are rare species that are kept for behavioral and natural history studies.

1.0 Western green toad
1.1 green treefrogs *
1.0 Florida blue garter snake
1.0 Mediterranean gecko
1.1 Oriental fire-bellied toads *
1.0 American bullfrog
0.1 Spanish ribbed newt
0.0.1 Eastern ribbon snake
1.1 red-cheeked mud turtles *
0.1 Dubia day gecko
1.0 Sonoran gopher snake
1.1 rough green snakes *
1.1 giant African black millipedes *
1.0 Okeetee corn snake
0.1 Albino African clawed frog
1.0 Kenyan sand boa
0.0.1 Argentine flame-bellied toadlet
0.0.1 African bullfrog
1.0 yellow * Everglades rat snake intergrade
1.1 Western hognose snakes *
1.2 fire salamanders*
1.1 scarlet kingsnakes*
0.0.1 Argentine horned frog
1.1 Southern ringneck snakes *
0.0.1 night snake
0.0.1 Florida brown snake
0.1 Pine woods snake
1.0 rough earth snake
2 (all of them are female!) Brahminy blind snakes *
0.1 Northern brown snake (GRAVID!)