Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I have a new addition to my herp collection, an american bullfrog. I am a park ranger and due to the nature of my job I was not allowed to re-release a non-native, invasive species back into the pond where it was found. I do not have much experience with keeping amphibians (I know their physiology extremely well though) and would like a great deal of advice if possible.

I've fed it crickets and realize it will eat just about anything smaller than it. Any high recommendations on foods you may prefer?

What is the life expectancy?

Can they live fine in distilled water? Or should I use tap with a de-chlor?

How can they be sexed?

Any other advice would be greatly appriciated. When animals live with me I want them to have the best care possible. Thank you

And i can answer a few questions. Crickets are a good staple diet, just be sure to gutload and vitamin dust the crickets. You can mix it up with pinky mice(if you want to) and almost anything else non-toxic it can fit in its mouth.
They can take up to four years to mature from tadpole, so I would guess that the life expectancy would be very long, around 10 years(correct me if im wrong). For my frogs, I use tap water with water conditioner for reptiles without problems. To sex your bullfrog, look at its ears. If it is a male, the eardrum, or tympanum, is larger than the eye. It its a female, the eardrum is the same size or smaller. And, of course, you will know its a male if you hear it croaking! We thought the one in our pond was a female at first. It was still small, and his eardrums hadn't grown yet. After about a year and half, he was definitely sexible as male. His name is Bartholomew(Bart for short.) About hibernating, I cant tell you much, and i hope someone else can help, or you can hope the frog has no desire to hibernate, which is fine.

Good luck!
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Paullywog

I have no idea what's going on. It's more fun that way.

definitely not distilled water. no minerals in the water actually dehydrates the animals. the other post is correct about the other option. I hope the tank is big (30long is good) since these frogs are good jumpers and will hurt their nose on the glass. also make sure the water is deep enough to swim in and there are some good hiding spaces along the shore line. also put a background on three sides of the tank so the frog won't spook. this will lessen the chances of the frog jumping into the glass. vary the diet as much as possible too. any wild caught bugs are good assuming no pesticide/weed killer/fertilizer in the area.

I had a male bullfrog for a few years (ended up donating him to an educational nature-preserve program.) I had him setup in a 55g tank and even that did not seem big enough for him! He would eat White Cloud minnows and nightcrawlers, and I also fed large-sized crickets when he got to be bigger.
Generally, they are pretty neat frogs to have, but just make sure it is not a case where the novelty will wear off. Also, make sure that tank has a tight-fitting screen lid, or you could have a dried up escapee frog in your house.
And the males CALL big time! My mother in law was over one time from Canada, and during the night she thought there was a grizzly bear or something outside, when it was just our bullfrog in the other room!
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4.1 Ball pythons
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog
1.1 breeding Clawed frogs
1.0 black kittycat
3.1 Oscar cichlids
Also have fancy goldfish, african cichlids, and rats. And 1 Paint horse mare

Personally I would let it go if I could, even if you're not allowed you could do it quietly at a different pond. But if you're worried about it and want to keep it....

You can feed it pretty much anything non toxic that moves, crickets, nightcrawlers, minnows, pinkies, mice.

Housing for an adult you're going to want a 50-100 gallon tank, they spook really easily and hop around like mad. You can also construct a cage that big or get a rubbermaind that big.

I would just use treated aged tap water for it as well.