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Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

Horrible Frog Escape? or not....
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Horrible Frog Escape? or not....
#1
So....Matt (Melas), Alex (Occidentalis) and I are attending the prestigious Pet n' Reptile show in cosmopolitan Reading Pennsyltucky for about 5 hours.

I know, I know....how did we only spend a mere 5 hours at a reptile show you are undoubtably asking? Well, after seeing the 25 lb flemmish welsh meat / fluff / pet rabbit (worlds largest feeder rabbit to us), Matt was frustrated that he couldn't take it home to his albino burm, so we left.

Here's where it gets weird, hard to believe, an' all X files and stuff....

We all arrive at my house and retire to the basement frog room. Alex came all the way from Michigan to view my collection and I did not wish to disapoint! As we are sitting on the couch and I am begining the "tour" with my laser pointer - extolling the virtues of a modifiyed ultrasonic humidifyer and a double layered Brom canopy, my attention fell upon my Cauchero vivarium, containing my excellently producing group of 1.2 frogs and 2 froglets. As SOON as I said "and this is one of the viv's that I am most proud of" or something similarly humble, I noticed that the front half of the glass hinge lid was WIDE OPEN ! I quickly deduced that it had to have been left open since 9 am or just before Matt and I left for the show.

The 3 adult pumilio and 2 froglets had a half open top for over 7 hours!

Later that night, after staying up till midnight with my princeton headlamp on, making sure that every inch of leaf, branch, brom and panamanian ficus was checked, I found EVERY SINGLE FROG inside the viv.

The end.



Wait....Is there more? A moral perhaps? A joke (you know me by now) ? Something more????

I'll leave you with this, for you to judge. All the Pumilio were F1 to F2 frogs (Captive born, second generation). I've had at least 6 Wild Caught Pumilio either find cracks or otherwise quickly sneak out of an enclosure if I even turned my back for a second, it seemed. Were the frogs so well suited to captive conditions that they had no inclination to search for escape? The one female was found near the brom in the top left corner where she always hangs out - INCHES away from the OPEN top when we discovered it. One tiny jump would have been all it took for her to go over the edge and yet she stayed inside the viv.

My horrible mistake......OUR collective learning experience. Submitted for your perusal. Make of it what you will....
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#2
This story is familiar.

Rushed off to work after feeding the frogs. Came home from work 10 hours later. Went into the frog room to stare at the frogs and found the pumilio tank lid open about half an inch (this was back when I only had my female).

Panic!

She wasn't sitting in her favorite brom . Did not find her under her favorite log eating springtails. Did not see her inside her favorite hidey hole where she would go to get away from me. Sad

I tore my frog room apart. It was, at one time, the master bedroom and still has bedroom furniture in it. I was crawling around on the floor with a flashlight, searching every nook and cranny. Even shined the light down the air vents. I was up until 3 am looking for that frog, before I finally went to bed, sobbing.

Next morning, I got up and went to check on the frogs, intentionally ignoring her tank. I couldn't bear to see it there, empty. Something orange caught my eye. There she was, in her tank, happily eating breakfast as if nothing happened.

On the one hand, I was so relieved! On the other, I wanted to kill her! :mrgreen:

But, yea, she had 10 hours to leave her tank. And then she had many hours to watch me crawling around, acting the fool.

Oh, she is F1
Do you know where your frogs have been?
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#3
So Phil, how long did it take to train your pumilio?
Sit BooBoo.....sit.
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#4
Cindy Dicken Wrote:So Phil, how long did it take to train your pumilio?
Sit BooBoo.....sit.


Hey, I have another thread/ story on the Cauchero- SAME frog from the above story, that used to come to the viv door whenever I opened it, and even when it wasn't food related.

Jeff R in Long Island has that particular frog now and.... I wonder......?
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#5
Frog 'non' escape story....searching for a TRUE frog escape story and came across this little dittie. Funny...I forgot all about it.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#6
Back in the day, when the first escudos came in ca. 2006, I traded Marcus a proven 2.3 orange terriblis and a prov 2.3 proven yellow terriblis for (3), 1.1 escudo. I loved my terriblis, but I was moving to CT and it was going to be a lot to take care of my frogs long distance so I made the switch to oophaga. I Qt'd the escudos in 10 gallons. I put a brom in each cause I had the extras, and surely they would make the pums more comfortable. Well, didn't they start tending tads right away, I couldn't have been more excited. The next time I returned from NE, I couldn't find two of the males....until I looked harder..........they were jerky on the floor. I was devastated. I was soooooo disgusted with myself. How could I have missed the gap at the corner of their 10 gallon tanks!?!? Over the years I have found that these types of events shouldn't be commonplace, but occasionally bad things will happen. Now, when I leave my frogroom, I often check 2-3 times, leave the room, and check once again. It might be paranoid, but I've only had one escapee since...
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#7
I used to have a sign on the basement frog room door leading upstairs, that said "Did you remember to close all the viv doors?" and a pic of a grumpy tinc.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#8
About a year and a half ago I was misting frogs and it went without incident until I got to my 18x18x24 Exo-Terra that housed a breeding group of vents. Knowing that thumbs can be lightning quick, slippery, little devil frogs I checked the front glass to make sure no frog was hanging out plotting an escape. No one was sitting there, good news! I opened the tank and pointed the
nozzle of the hand pump mister into the tank. I depressed the handle and approximately 3 drops of water hit the viv before I saw a flash of black and gold leap out of the tank and onto the tile floor. That little devil frog had been sitting amongst the leaf litter at the very front of the tank just waiting for some fool (me) to open the door and make his escape. I clumsily made an effort to snatch him with one hand as I still had the mister in the other hand. But he just winked at me and crawled through the tiniest gap between the bottom of the rack and the tile floor. Underneath the big 2x4 rack...full of tanks. Yes this rack.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
No way in hell I could move all those vivs and rack by myself to try and get that frog. I freaked out. My heart was in my throat. I was actually panicking thinking about that poor little frog drying up in minutes. I did do one thing right, I called another frogger. I called my buddy JBear (Justin). At least being away from the situation allowed him to think clearly. He suggested getting something thin to put underneath the rack and try to "shoo" the frog out. A-ha! I had just the thing!! I ran to the garage and got a 16" zip tie. It was thin enough to fit in the tiny little gap underneath the rack of vivs. After just a couple of side to side sweeping motions that little vent hopped right out from underneath the rack. I quickly nabbed him, gave him a quick little spray of water, an popped him right back into his home, at which time I proceeded to unleash a stream of obscenities at him for giving me a coronary at such a young age.
That's my escape story.

P.S.
Anyone interested in some vent froglets? I've got some available, real cheap too!
Jon
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#9
Here's mine,why is it when you try to just do something good,want nothing back you end up in this case nearly regretting it!

A mate calls me,"Stu can I ask a favour",,so I agree to pick up a couple of frogs at a show for him,I take a separate poly box,to keep his safe ,and protect cross contamination for both of us,meet vendor pick up frogs pop then in the polybox at the show under the table,with the lid off. The show is rammed with folks,its hot in there!! I have a couple or 3 :lol: thermometers about our table,just so I can keep an eye on temperatures,hence the lid being off the box,all good all fine,great show .

So we return home,mate's frogs go in a separate warm room,from any other frogs,remove lid of box,two frogs happily sat in their container,leave lid off box to warm them back up a tiny bit.

My mate is late,I can't get hold of him,eventually I speak to him on the phone and he's on his way over,I walk back in to our lounge,to be screamed at by Shaz "don't move". I turn around not moving my feet,to find a little frog staring back at my,he has come from an upstairs bedroom down all the stairs and half way across the room. Expletives aside ,I quietly reach down "come here buddy" little frog literally comes towards me and lets me pick him up."Phew, oh crap, where is the other blighter",fortunately still in the polybox.So all good,wsh little guy pull all the bits of carpet off him and return him to tub and SHUT DA LID!!! My mate arrives, I tell him all about carpet frog,and all ends good with a QT session and now those boys are now breeding with their new lass.

What gets me is they spent a day in an open tub,in an open polybox at a show where escape would have met with disaster,when they got out at home they could have gone anywhere,it was almost like that frog came to our voices,to get some grub....yeah that frog was a tinc so that is probably close as to an explanation as one can get.


Motto: do a mate a favour that's cool all as it should be,but spend just a few second making sure the vendor,has shut their bloody tub properly,lesson learned!! So for anyone picking up new frogs just spend those seconds checking,We were very lucky,if it had been some pocket rocket rani,then I dread to think how this would have ended.

A few days later I spoke to my mate,"yeah the frogs fine Stu",my answer was simple,"yeah the ruddy frog's ok,but I've been in therapy over this"
Bloody tincs eh? :lol: :lol: :lol: bless 'em

Stu
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#10
Stu I received some pums and imi's (group buy with a friend here) about 4 years ago, they came from a hobbiest in WA. Frogs were delivered to my doorstep and when I opened the box a mancreek pum was staring back at me, loose in the box.
I freaked out but the frog was fine.
When I ship I always tape the containers closed.
Smile
-Beth
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#11
Beth, it's nice hearing of all these "happy endings",even though we freak about such things.A little question sprang to mind,as I was reading your post. Are there any tapes that one should specifically avoid,due to fears about toxicity of adhesives? You would probably be better armed than I with your background in sciences,so i thought worth asking. Tis a great point you have made though thanks for that!!
best

Stu
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#12
Good Morning Stu!
I just use plain ole scotch tape, it doesn't touch the frogs only the cup I ship them in. Smile
A small amount of science from college so not an expert.
I chuckled when I read your post.
-Beth
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#13
Beth ,I expect anyone who has a degree in science to know everything :roll: . I'm awful aren't I :lol: It was a bit of a barmy question,mate, I know that and I do realise you're not sticking it to the frogs,LMAO.These things pop in to my head so I ask,I'm getting paranoid in my dotage aren't I 8) .

Seriously ,not many folks ship here,so our expertise in this factor is not great, my mind was pondering small space for a couple of days,what if there were some form of fumes from the glues used on tapes?

If it still sounds bonkers, I'll blame it on the fact England is having a summer and this does strange things to us :lol:

best always

Stu
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#14
You are hilarious Stu!
I would ponder that the deli cup is somewhat air tight so the fumes from scotch tape don't hurt the frogs plus don't remember getting high when I was a kid opening presents on Christmas morning. Smile
-Beth
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#15
BcsTx Wrote:You are hilarious Stu!
I would ponder that the deli cup is somewhat air tight so the fumes from scotch tape don't hurt the frogs plus don't remember getting high when I was a kid opening presents on Christmas morning. Smile

See that's where the cross Atlantic divide kicks in,me and my kid sister can only remember opening one pressie and then we had the munchies for days,I just never twigged is was the tape mum used to wrap the pressies in. I'll be having a long chat with my darling mum next time I see her

Thanks mate I needed a laugh

Stu
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