Pet Frogs: An Exotic Choice

By Leslie Brown

Like all exotic pets, it is important to get a frog that is captive bred locally and not found in the wild. Amphibians, such as frogs, are the most widely threatened group of animals on earth. Having a pet frog can be contributing to the decline of wild frog populations.

Most frogs need a suitable habitat in both the terrestrial and aquatic environments, and they have permeable skin that can easily absorb toxic chemicals. These traits make frogs especially susceptible to environmental disturbances.

On the other hand, frogs can make delightful pets. With proper care, they can live a long life (up to 15 years or sometimes longer), and the smaller pet frogs can be quite active and fun to watch. Frogs have become popular pets because of their exotic looks and intriguing habits.

Before you bring home a pet frog, it is important that you do some research to set up a “frog environment.” This means setting up the appropriate type of tank. It can be aquatic, terrestrial, arboreal, or semi-aquatic (half land and half water).

Frogs have relatively few needs. They don’t require any particular type of light, temperature, or humidity. However, they are very sensitive to contaminants and waste in their environment.

If you’re going to get a pet frog, you’re going to have to feed it a variety of insects. Therefore, you need to be comfortable handling crickets and other types of insects, such as wax worms, fly larvae, and earthworms—or, depending on the size of your frog, even mice.

Frogs come in a variety of sizes—from small to large. A frog that you get in a pet store might start out as a small pet, but can grow to be a large bullfrog.

The Dwarf frog is small, active, and is a good choice for a beginner because it is the easiest to keep in captivity. This frog is completely aquatic. As long as you maintain their aquarium and provide these frogs with crickets to eat, they will be happy pets.

A “tree” frog is quiet and easy to keep, but it tends to be fairly inactive, and some might say it is boring. This type of frog likes to perform for its owner and loves to be held. However, the White's Tree Frog is inclined to get very fat and can become a less active pet. Also, this frog needs a more humid environment, so you must mist its tank a couple of times every day.

Most terrestrial frogs are pretty easy to care for, but they can get large and are quite sedentary. Other types of frogs are not recommended as a good choice for beginners.

Expensive frogs are generally rare and exotic animals, and have very delicate lifestyles that must be maintained by experts. Very small infant frogs should also be avoided because of the care they require and their tendency to grow into drastically different adult frogs.

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