Message about the frog slingshot. Pac-mans or slingshots. Seasonal and daily lighting and irradiation mode
Horned frogs have a very specific appearance and aggressive nature. This genus of tailless amphibians includes 8 species. In terrariums, you can most often find a slingshot of the species Ceratophrys ornata (“decorated slingshot”).
These amphibians live in tropical forests throughout almost the entire territory of South America. Their habitat is wet lowlands, which are soft and loose soil and full of food - other amphibians, rodents and other small animals. They are most active in the evening and at night.
Frogs got their name for small pointed outgrowths above the eyes, which are very reminiscent of horns. These outgrowths are an elongated upper eyelid, which is covered with hard keratinized skin on top. The average size of a decorated slingshot is 12-15 centimeters. Some species can reach 20 centimeters. Females are slightly larger than males.
Horns 
Impressive dimensions They have a dense spherical body and a very large head with a huge mouth. Their large and sticky tongue has a deep cut at the back. From the motley coloring ripples in the eyes: these are unusual patterns in the form of blurry spots and stripes of all the colors of the rainbow. The predominant colors are green, red, brown and cream. A wide stripe runs from the muzzle across the back.
Dense spherical body 
bright coloring 
Wide stripe on the back Such a colorful camouflage is perfect for hunting in the rainforests. They burrow into the ground with their powerful hind legs. Only the head with a large mouth remains on the surface. They can sit motionless in anticipation of prey for a whole day. A mouse running past, a lightning-fast throw of a sticky tongue - and that's it, the hunt is over. The jaws of slingshots are so strong that there is no chance to escape from them. And the keratinized skin serves as an excellent protection against the teeth and claws of various rodents. A person should also be careful with her. You gape a little and a big bruise with small bruises on your finger is guaranteed.
The mouth is just huge. 
Excellent disguise 
Only the head remains on the surface They hunt other amphibians, rodents or birds. Sometimes they can swallow prey almost the same size as themselves.
Their natural breeding season is during the rainy season. Females lay about 300 eggs in the water. After 2 days, tadpoles appear from them. These are real small, but voracious predators who are not averse to having a bite to eat with their brothers and sisters.
eggs Slingshots, due to their unusual appearance and unpretentiousness in maintenance, are held in high esteem among lovers of terrarium animals.
The frogs, called Pacman, belong to the subfamily Ceratophryinae. They have big mouths, huge bellies, and due to their appearance (reminiscent of the video game character Pac-Man), they got such a nickname.
In fact, Pac-Mans are Horned Frogs, they are multi-colored and relatively easy to keep at home. These are probably the most popular types of frogs kept as pets. The name "horned frog" or "slingshot" refers to the fact that they have a fleshy "horn" above each eye.
Six known species of slingshot originate from South America. However, not all of them are suitable for life in captivity.
They have extremely wide bodies and short, strong legs. These legs are quite powerful, although they do not make Pac-Man good swimmers or jumpers compared to other frogs.
The mouth of horned frogs has a width almost equal to the width of the body. Pacman is a powerful and aggressive creature, often trying to catch and eat something of its own size! This means that in the wild it will try to eat small mammals, birds and even other frogs.
If an enemy appears or someone invades its territory, the horned frog inflates its body, which visually makes it even larger. She then advances with her mouth wide open, preparing to attack and making staccato sounds.
It should be noted that slingshots have very good eyesight. They perfectly hide, can become invisible in a variety of interiors, due to the ability to change color.
The mouth contains rather sharp teeth. Jaws can grab and squeeze prey like tongs! It really is a hardy amphibian!
The size of females in Horned Frogs is larger than males, which is typical for most species of frogs. It is difficult to determine the sex until they reach the age of 2-3 years.
If you decide to keep the Pacman as a pet, then all you need is a container measuring about 46 x 30 x 30 cm. These amphibians are best kept individually. The situation in the terrarium can be "Spartan". Usually it is shallow water and a piece of land made of stones so that it is convenient to climb it. Make sure that the water only covers the frog halfway without blocking the nostrils.
Maintain a constant temperature at around 25-28 degrees Celsius.
For frogs, a fairly deep substrate of gravel and fallen leaves is suitable for burying. Artificial shelters will not be superfluous - this will help your pet feel safe. Be sure to put a shallow dish for bathing and monitor the humidity.
The main condition for the successful maintenance of Pac-Mans is cleanliness. Cleaning is done every day or every other day. The water must be changed every day.
During cleaning, place the frog in another container. Be aware that these little amphibians have a sensitive bite!
Pacman has an amazing appetite and his feeding is the basis of his care. Young frogs can eat crickets, worms, and pinky-sized mice. They should be fed 2 or 3 times a week. For the normal development of frogs, it is advisable to give them vitamin and calcium supplements.
Adults should receive immobilized (to avoid injury) mice every 3 weeks.
The ornamented slingshot (Ceratophrys ornata) is one of several varieties native to tropical and montane rainforests. Several varieties of slingshots (Ceratophrys) can be found in more barren areas. The habitat is quite diverse: northern Argentina, Uruguay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Slingshots grow very quickly, two weeks after birth they reach the size of adults. At the age of five months, slingshots reach 15 cm.
Slingshots have a wide head, body and mouths. They have strong jaws and a fleshy pink tongue.
Slingshots are diurnal frogs, although some species may be more active in the evening. Like all frogs, slingshots sleep with their eyes open. Their skin is very sensitive, especially various oil and oil products that can be on human skin.
Slingshots barely distinguish what they eat, and if your fingers remind them of newborn rodents or birds, then they may begin to hunt them. When the slingshot grabs your finger, do not pull your hand back, the frog will realize that it has grabbed an inedible object and will spit it out.
Buy frogs with clean skin and bright colors. Familiarize yourself with the conditions in which slingshots are kept. Many pet stores keep frogs in aquariums filled with water and gravel. To see if the frog is healthy or not, run your hand in front of the frog's face. A healthy frog will immediately have a reflex - a quick movement of the submandibular sac, or you can hear the frog singing (it's like a cow mooing). An indifferent frog is a sick frog.
In the wild, slingshots spend most of their time in the soil, tropical forests, where the humidity and temperature are constantly high. In the temperate zone, it is difficult to maintain high humidity in the aquarium, so slingshots will spend most of the time in a saucer of water. You can put several smooth stones in the saucer so that the frog can get out of it on land and vice versa. Instead of stones, coarse gravel can be added.
The rest of the aquarium needs to be made easy to clean. The bottom can be lined with paper towels or "Astroturf" artificial turf, with pieces of sphagnum moss and live or artificial plants added on top. Moss and plants should be sprayed with water daily. The water in the saucer is changed every day. As it gets dirty, artificial plants and moss are washed.
In the wild, slingshots hide in fallen leaves; in captivity, we must provide them with places to hide. You can plant plants around the saucer of water so that they hang over the saucer, creating places for shelter.
Slingshots are tropical animals and need warmth. Place a heating pad under the aquarium. For daylight, use violet lamps in the morning. During the colder months, keep the temperature constant by using a red lamp (or other night lamps for reptiles and amphibians) for heating at night. The temperature in the tank should be around 27.2"C. The saucer of water should be placed in the warmest part of the tank, as this is where the slingshot will spend most of the day.
Feed young slingshots crickets (4-6 each day). If you feed crickets to slingshots, then there should be food for them in the terrarium (if the slingshot cannot immediately eat all the insects). Place oat bran mixed with reptile vitamins (powdered) into the terrarium on a small lid. Some crickets may hide in the substrate, causing it to become contaminated (when the crickets die).
As the slingshot grows, you can start feeding it to newborn mice. Adult slingshots eat medium-sized mice and young rats. Feed the rodents to the frogs with tweezers or tongs. Slingshots react very quickly to moving objects.
Throughout the year, your slingshot will periodically hibernate. During this period, the frogs do not eat or drink. They do not sit in a water saucer, but hide in foliage and substrate. Don't touch the frog when it's hibernating. Slingshots hibernate if the temperature is too high or too low for it. During hibernation, there should always be fresh water in the terrarium.
Amphibians and reptiles are very sensitive to various chemicals and medicines. Therefore, before placing a frog in a terrarium, wash it thoroughly to remove all chemical residues. Do not use disinfectants that are poisonous to amphibians and other animals.
The ornamented slingshot, also called the patterned slingshot or the decorated itannia, is a tailless amphibian from the whistler family native to South America. The color of these frogs can vary from yellow to dark green with olive or reddish spots. The most popular are albino slingshots, whose skin is colored yellow and orange.
Maintaining the conditions necessary for keeping a decorated slingshot is quite simple. Since these amphibians do not move much in natural conditions, they do not need a large area of housing, but, nevertheless, it should not be too small.
For them, a horizontal type terrarium for tropical animals with a volume of 40 liters for one slingshot is suitable. Each individual should have its own isolated living space, so among these representatives of tailless amphibians there are cases of cannibalism. In the terrarium, it is necessary to maintain an air temperature of 25 ° C during the day, and at night 22-24 ° C. For this, lamps, thermal cords and thermal mats are used. The temperature at the heating point should be 30-32°C.
bedding
Various materials can be used as bedding for a patterned slingshot: pebbles, sphagnum, peat, earth, fine gravel and others. The bedding material must always be clean and moderately damp. The soil should be washed regularly and a high level of humidity should be maintained in the terrarium by spraying.
Food
Slingshots are predators. While in natural conditions, they often consume animals of the same size as themselves. Slingshots feed on small birds, rodents and frogs, suddenly capturing the victim with a powerful mouth. In captivity, slingshots are fed with fish, quails, mice, frogs, chicken hearts. Juveniles can also be fed worms, cockroaches, crickets, and other insects. On average, adult slingshots are fed once a week, and young individuals twice.
For a slingshot to be healthy, you need to be responsible for its nutrition. It is important to know that not all types of fish are suitable for her food. Such types of fish as: perch, herring, crucian carp, capelin, pike, sardine and carp, it is better to exclude slingshots from the diet, as they contain thiaminase. Thiaminase is an enzyme that decomposes the B vitamins, leading to a lack of these vitamins in the body.
reproduction
Decorated slingshots reach sexual maturity at the age of six months. For breeding, a horizontal type aquaterrarium for tropical animals is used. During the breeding season, you need to create drought conditions, and then plant them in an aquaterrarium, where the females will spawn. In clutch from 200 to 350 eggs. Tadpoles appear after 2-3 days, they need to be fed with bloodworms or coretra. After about a month, the tadpoles will turn into young frogs.
Diseases
The diseases that slingshots are most often exposed to are ascites and rickets. Ascites or abdominal dropsy is manifested in the accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity as a result of dysfunction of the liver and kidneys. As a rule, the reason for the development of this disease is the non-compliance with the hygiene of the terrarium: decomposing feces penetrate the animal's body through the skin.
Rickets, a disease in which bone formation is impaired, occurs due to a lack of calcium and vitamin D, often this happens when feeding meat.
Representatives of the species are among the largest horned toads of the genus Ceratophrys, some individuals reach a length of 18 centimeters, while the head is about a third of the size of the animal. They have very strong jaws, with teeth on both the lower and upper jaws. To stimulate reproduction in changeable slingshots, it is necessary to imitate “winter”, for which animals are placed in a relatively dry terrarium with a low air temperature (26-28 C) for a month, then the slingshots are transplanted into a terrarium with a reservoir, spraying is used, simulating the tropical rainy season. If the preparation was successful, the female spawns about 300 eggs. Mice, rats, and frogs are offered as food for adult changeable slingshots. The habitat is limited to a small area in the east of Brazil. Due to the proportional size of the mouth, these toads are able to absorb rodents, birds, as well as amphibians and reptiles only slightly smaller than themselves. When moving, they do not jump, but walk.