It’s that time of the year where the air starts to feel cool and dry. In Texas, this means we’re experiencing temperatures bouncing between the 50s and 80s (℉) and beautiful fall weather finally. It’s nice for us humans but this fluctuating temperature can be a bit confusing for pet frogs and toads, especially if you’re in a place where temps drop overnight and stay cold for the rest of the season. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone talk about the effect this time of the year has on our frogs and the ways to prepare them for the even colder days ahead. In my ~5 years of keeping and working with frogs, I have learned quite a bit about dealing with the cold and ways to help frogs easily transition into the freezing days of winter.
Wild vs. Domestic:
In order to understand why it’s so important to prepare your frogs for winter, we have to talk about how the cold actually affects both wild and pet frogs. Frogs are cold-blooded creatures, meaning the outside environment directly determines the temperature of their body.
In the wild, when the temperatures begin to drop frogs and toads will prepare themselves for hibernation so they can bear the cold. Depending on the species, this could mean digging deep into mud or floating near the bottom of a pond, burrowing down into the dirt making a little den to sleep, or completely freezing solid in a log and waiting out the winter till spring! For pet frogs this time can look very different from their wild cousins, pet frogs do not experience first-hand encounters with the cold that wild frogs do. With that being said, our domesticated frogs do still go through a similar less intense process that an outside frog will.
How are our pet frogs affected?
You might already be seeing reactions to the weather change in your own frogs. It can be quite alarming at first if you’ve never spent a winter with them. Have you noticed that your froggy friends seem to be slowing down, sleeping a lot more, less active, less talkative, or refusing to eat? Any one of these circumstances is completely normal for this time of the year so don’t panic! Some inside frogs can go into hibernation mode, and some species will even go through a full hibernation phase.
If you’ve ever had a bearded dragon or similar lizards, you’ve probably had to deal with brumation, a hibernation-like state that most reptiles go through any time between the winter and spring. Beardies don’t always experience brumation every single year though, and this stage can last anywhere from a week to multiple months. Each lizard is different and just because they went through brumation last year, doesn’t mean they’ll go through it this year. Brumation is not only for reptiles though! Domesticated amphibians tend to go through brumation rather than hibernation, brumation is defined as a “slowing down” phase. Sluggishness and inactivity are very normal during this time. Frogs even seem to change as they notice the sun is setting earlier, their internal clock is very in tune with the world around them! But just because this stage is normal, doesn’t mean frogs should experience very cold temps.
Why keeping frogs warm is important:
So we know why and how these chilly months affect our frogs, but again, just because it can happen doesn’t mean it must. Domesticated frogs are not used to freezing temperatures especially when most people turn the heat on in their homes at this time. Our pet frogs are not meant to experience super cold weather, their bodies have not had any means to adjust even if they did. Sudden drops into freezing temperatures can cause them to go into thermal shock, just like when you put a fish into cold water without acclimating them to the temperature first. Thermal shock is extremely stressful and as we know, too much stress can lead to death. Thankfully, there are some things you can do to keep your frogs warm and happy during winter!
Keeping them warm
You should already have a heat lamp on your tank if you have dumpies, depending on their wattage these lamps can deal a good amount of warmth into your tank. During the winter though, it may be harder for the lamp to combat the lower temperatures in your home. If you’re noticing that your tank is getting way too cold (anything under 70℉ at the bottom is too cold), you may want to add another device to help keep the tank nice and toasty.
Heat mats are one way of keeping the bottom of your tank warm, they do require some amount of work to make sure you are using them properly and safely. Heat mats alone can get way too hot and cause burns or fires, so it’s important that you use a temperature controlling device like a thermostat with your heat mat. You also should never put a heat mat inside your tank or on the side if it is a tree frog tank or your frogs often climb the sides. The safest way I’ve found is to put the heat mat under the tank on a non-flammable material like metal (your thermostat should make it safe enough to place on wood or plastic but never cloth). Set your thermostat at a safe 75-80℉, or however much allows for a nice warm bottom without being too hot. For safety, never turn your heat mat up over 85℉. The mat will have a glass barrier between it and your frogs but make sure you always have a substrate or item on the bottom that separates the bottom glass and your frog’s feet. I like to use a nice tight-knit dishcloth or towel on the bottom of my tanks, they are super cozy on frog’s tummies when warmed. You MUST use a thermostat with your heat mat and either have it on a timer or temperature control setting. Using a mat without one has been known to result in fires, burned animals, and burning directly through whatever you’ve set it on if it’s not metal.
If a heat mat seems a little scary or you’re just not a fan of them, you can also get a ceramic heat emitter bulb and use that at the top of your tank. I typically don’t recommend these alone because they go up top with your light when the coldest part of your tank will be the bottom. You can however use them at night instead of your lamp since they do not produce light. You must also use a thermostat with a heat emitter as they can cook your animals if left to run on full blast. As always, do not place a heat emitter inside of your tank. Keep it on the outside, slightly lifted off the mesh of the tank as frogs tend to try and climb upsidedown on the mesh and can be burnt.
heat mat heat emitter thermostat
Never use any form of a heating rock, these are extremely dangerous. You should never put any heating device inside your tank, always keep them on the outside to avoid burning your animal and starting a fire.
Another freeze happens as it did in Texas, how can I keep my frogs from freezing to death without electricity?
I plan on doing a whole video on how to prepare your frogs for various natural disasters and emergencies but since we are talking about winter, I figured I would go over some things you can do when stuck in a winter storm and have no power or running water. Last year’s freeze was very intense, thankfully our rescue had electricity for the majority of the time but we couldn’t turn on the heat because we had to conserve our power for those who needed it most. This meant our house was constantly freezing and even when we had power, we couldn’t leave heat lamps or mats running all day and night. Here are some of the things we did to keep the frogs as warm as we could:
1. We keep spare tanks and bins for emergencies like this. Since we have some very big tanks, we placed all of the frogs in smaller ones (all species separated of course). With at least one hide and a water bowl.
2. We gathered all the tanks into the warmest room in our home. For us, it was our bedroom as we live in a small apartment but for you, it’ll probably be the most interior room with no windows or doors to the outside. Even better if you set up a tent in the warmest room and place everyone inside so your body heat can raise the temperature.
3. We brought all the blankets we had in the home into our room and covered the frog tanks with them to keep cool air out and hopefully keep them nice and cozy.
4. We brought all of our water and supplies into the room so we wouldn’t need to leave or open the door letting whatever heat we’ve managed to conserve out.
5. When we had electricity we used one small heat lamp and gave every tank a turn with it to add a bit more heat and trap it by putting the blankets back over them when their turn was up.
Another issue we had was water, some frogs had to sit in dirty water for a bit just because our pipes were frozen and we were not prepared with bottled water beforehand. This year I am making sure to stock up bottled water. If you can boil water and don’t have any bottled water, set some aside to cool down and add dechlorinated water to your frog’s water bowl every day if possible. Dumping out the old water as well. Don’t worry if your frogs seem inactive or won’t eat during this time. They are conserving their energy to try and keep warm. These are all of the things I am planning on doing when the freeze inevitably happens again this year, if you’ve got any tips I’d love to hear some of your ideas!
The moral of the story is that keeping your frogs warm is important but don’t panic when they start acting unlike themselves this winter. I get questions about this a lot, and while It’s common sense for me, I often forget how little the internet talks about this. If you’ve been worried about your frogs in the past month and their behavior is matching what I’ve talked about, I hope you feel a bit of relief. The first year of keeping frogs can be a bit nerve-racking, even more so when you can’t find anything online about common
occurrences that we old-timers know like the back of our hands. Keep your chin up, you’re doing an awesome job!
As always, If you’re having trouble or wanna ask any additional questions you can message me here, @tays.exotic.critters! Stay warm!!