Does anyone have a Pacman???

[robnepper]

Hey all. I'm looking into getting a Pacman frog. Who has one? They seem to be a little more ferocious than I had assumed. Do tell of all of your experiences. I have most of the technical info already. Just looking for personal stories now.

[Red]

My friend had one that use to bite if you put your hand it the tank. But my friend could put his hand in the tank and be fine. Neat little guys i want one. Good luck

[cocoa_pleco]

Hey all. I'm looking into getting a Pacman frog. Who has one? They seem to be a little more ferocious than I had assumed. Do tell of all of your experiences. I have most of the technical info already. Just looking for personal stories now.

When one of the superpets closed down here, they had all livestock half off, i almost bought a pacman. They said that pacmans cant be handled, and arent the most peaceful things.

[robnepper]

yeah. I'm a little concerned that my enterprising two year old daughter will find a way to get her hand in the tank.

[Drip Loop]

They rarely move as well. Cool to look at but pretty boring at the same time.

[robnepper]

So I hear. Some of them are amazingly pretty though. The no moving thing means smaller housing though, and thats cool for me.

[Tolley]

SOrry i have no experience with them but about your daughter if she is old enough you just warn her that she could get bitten. Failing that you could buy a lock for the tank.

[cocoa_pleco]

I think it would be a good idea to get one of those exo-terra kits for one, i bought the smallest version for my firebelly toads. You can buy a number lock for them which like tolley pointed out would stop your daughter from getting bit

[sktadood13]

when you guys say bitten you mean this frog have teeth or just trys to bit?

[Allecto]

They have teeth.

Mine can be handled. However, even though I think he is more evenly tempered than most, and I have had years of practice at picking them up, I still really only handle him as required for cage cleaning. He will still bite, and he just doesn't enjoy being handled.


If you do get bitten, you always want to let the frog let go. If you pull it off, you could damage the teeth/jaws, and you're more likely to draw blood on your hand. Really, though, you should be much more afraid of your average kitten's bite than the bite of a good-sized pacman.


If you do need to pick them up, they usually aren't very quick or flexible. Distract them from the front, move in quickly and grab them securely from behind, but don't use too much pressure!


If you are really nervous, you could put something like a shallow deli cup in front of them, and use the lid to gently prod them in. This can be less succesful in older ones, who will just want to bury themselves deeper in the substrate and ignore you.


Good luck in deciding if this is the right pet for you!

[robnepper]

They have teeth.

Mine can be handled. However, even though I think he is more evenly tempered than most, and I have had years of practice at picking them up, I still really only handle him as required for cage cleaning. He will still bite, and he just doesn't enjoy being handled.


If you do get bitten, you always want to let the frog let go. If you pull it off, you could damage the teeth/jaws, and you're more likely to draw blood on your hand. Really, though, you should be much more afraid of your average kitten's bite than the bite of a good-sized pacman.


If you do need to pick them up, they usually aren't very quick or flexible. Distract them from the front, move in quickly and grab them securely from behind, but don't use too much pressure!


If you are really nervous, you could put something like a shallow deli cup in front of them, and use the lid to gently prod them in. This can be less succesful in older ones, who will just want to bury themselves deeper in the substrate and ignore you.


Good luck in deciding if this is the right pet for you!
Thanks for the info.

[Kula]

Just as a warning (because some people are disgusted by this), when they get bigger, they will need larger "food". So that could mean mice... I'm just one of those people who can't feed a mouse to another animal - probably because I have dwarf hamsters. Also, they will try to eat pretty much any size prey, so be careful how large their food/prey is, since they'll try to swallow something that's too big for their throat >_<

[Fishguy2727]

They are great pets. They are very unique, hardy, and undemanding.

I have had MANY and I have found the best setup to be one of those Kritter Keepers with the neon tops on them. I just use wet paper towels as a substrate. This is the cleanest thing for them and they can still burrow into it if they want to. Many pacman keepers like to use soil but I have found that one-they dry out too quickly and two-these tend to be left uncleaned for a week or more. With wet paper towels any discoloration is visible which means they get cleaned more often (this may seem bad because it means a little more work for you, but they need to be kept clean since anything in their environment can go through their skin). Leaving them in their own waste for a week (or from what I have heard from some pacman keepers, a month) is just letting them sit in their own waste, urine and feces.

Other than that just keep them warm and feed them.

Any amphibian should only be handled on an as-needed basis.

Some pacmans are a lot more aggressive than others. Some will never go for your fingers, but only for crickets, fish, rodents, etc. Others will go for anything that moves. Ornates are more beautiful in my opinion but tend to be more aggressive.

They have small teeth but the worst part is that in the front their jaws project out to function as very large teeth. These are usually the ones that break skin and draw blood when it happens. If bitten you can rub your fingernail along their snout. Do not damage it, but just irritate it. This sometimes convinces them to let go sooner. Other than just let them figure out that they cannot eat your fingers and they will give up. Make sure they are sitting down. If you let them dangle on the end of your finger this just means that they have to keep biting down or else they will fall. So put your hand, frog attached, into their cage and let them let go when they decide to.