Budgett's frog Care Sheet

Budgett's frog Care

Overview
Budgett's frogs are voracious eaters and are overall a great frog species to own. Not recommended for beginners because simple mistakes can lead to premature death. The most common species is Lepidobatrachus Laevis, while this sheet will also work for Lepidobatrachus Apser, the dwarf budgetts frog.

Tank Size
A 10 gallon tank will work well for a baby budgetts to an adult budgetts. Any less would be too little and any more would be wasted space.

Lighting
UVB lighting could be benificial to these frogs because it is difficult to dust their food. For heating, though, I find lights inefficient.

Setup
A completely aquatic setup is needed, and any land area will rarely be used, if at all. That is why I recommend having an underwater object that the frog can use to reach the surface without much effort and have his head partly out of the water. The water in your setup can be 3x the height of your frog, which is the amount that I have had the most success with. Anything smaller than the size of your frogs head could very well be swallowed and cause impaction and death of your frog. A filter is recommended to keep water from going stagnant and to cut down on the amount of water changes you will have to do. Make sure that any rocks that are put in there are not sharp or rough which could hurt them.

Heating
Keep temps around lower 80s in the day and they can fall to lower 70s at night. The best way to heat their tanks is by an aquarium heater.

Feeding
You can feed budgetts frogs a great amount of food items. Nightcrawlers, roaches, mice, mollies, guppies, crickets, and silkworms are all good food items for them. Don't feed feeder goldfish or rosie reds. Feed as much as they will eat, every day for babies, every couple of days for adults. They should stop when they are done. MBD is common so be sure to dust their food or give them a large variety of prey.

Maintenance
Every few days the frog will soil the water and it will need to be changed. This will be a routine that you will get used to.


Aestivation
Around August through October you will need to put your frog in aestivation. To do this follow these instructions. Feed your frog, and once they have pooped that out, lower the water and unplug your heater over a couple days. Then take them out and put them in a bucket of eco earth around a foot deep. Leave them be, and they will burrow in it. They will then encase themselves in their own skin. Leave them this way until January. Then dig them out. Pour dechlorinated water on them. They will start to come out of their skin encasing, once they are fully out, remove them and put them back in their tank. They might not eat, but offer it. I want to stress that not having any food inside them during this is crucial to their survival, so make sure that they have pooped out their last meal.

I hope this has helped anyone wishing to purchase a budgetts frog.