Froggy Moments
Keeping African Clawed Frogs is something I won’t soon forget. 14 years later I still dream that there are random African Clawed Frogs scattered throughout my house.
Are They Real?
The first time I saw a young African Clawed frog, I stood by the tank for a minute trying to figure out if this was a real animal or some sort of motion-activated tank decoration. I finally decided that they must be live animals and brought one home.
Trout the Escape Artist
As our first dark-colored African Clawed tadpole began to morph, it grew long whiskers, and my 5-year-old daughter insisted that it must be a “Trout.” Little Trout was our favorite frog for almost two years. But he was also my little escape artist.
Oh, the escaping feats he accomplished! The first time he escaped, our tank was uncovered. I did not know that he was big enough to get out yet. I saw something dark hopping across the floor and quickly jumped up onto the chair thinking maybe a mouse had found its way into our apartment. We had a good laugh once we realized that the little critter who had given everyone such a fright was our favorite frog.
Trout often went for the bedrooms when he escaped. I’m not sure why. One time when my daughter wanted to camp on her floor we found him by her pillow. Another time he woke me up in the middle of the night scampering around in the stuff under my bed.
We tried so many things to keep Trout safely in his tank. Each time he would amaze us with his ability to get out! We used covers designed for fish tanks. We used mats made to keep rugs from slipping. We used metal cookware from the oven. We used ropes to tie the various things we used in place. And every time – we ended up laughing at his ability to get out! Some frogs just aren’t meant to be contained.
My Guard-Frog
It’s amazing what makes some “tough guys” all squeamish. When a friend of a friend who I wasn’t particularly fond of came over one evening, I decided to be nice and introduce him to my pets. – When he first saw my albino frog, he thought there was a chicken wing in the tank and was looking for what kind of fish I had to eat it. … When that little “Chicken Wing” started swimming around he practically ran out of the house!
Thanks little Chicken Wing (a.k.a. “Frogit”) – You have made my home a more comfortable place to live in.
An all-nighter for Frogger and Frogit’s first illness.
We named my first two frogs “Frog-it” and “Frogger.” I got them from Walmart in San Marcos, Texas, and thought they were the coolest things I had ever seen! Not only that, they actually survived their first few months living with us! (I had some bad luck with betas and goldfish.)
Back then I didn’t know about the importance of quarantining new pets. I added to the aquarium a beautiful Black Moor (bubble-eyed looking black goldfish). Unfortunately, my new fish was sick. It died two days later. A few hours after removing it from the tank, I heard Frogger jumping up and banging her little head against the light bulb in the tank. She died soon after. That night Froggit seemed to lose control of his movements. His left side became paralyzed, and I stayed up all night keeping his body moist and his head above water. The next day he slowly regained the ability to use the left side of his body and by the end of the week – he was back to normal, living in a freshly cleaned tank.