SOP Care Sheet

Enclosure

Since the Argentine Horned Frog spends most of their lives buried and inactive they require relatively small enclosures for their size. Male horned frogs can grow to 4.25 inches and females can grow to 5.25 inches. We recommend a 10-gallon, 20-inch starter glass terrarium. This size will be appropriate for adult male horned frogs but for females we recommend a 24-30 inch glass terrarium. We have quite a few sticks and fake plants for our frog to hide in. He loves to hide in his humidor box during the day. We keep this in the cage to assist with humidity. Inside the box is coconut husk which is kept moist. Mist the cage once a day with de-cholorinated water and keep humidor container moist.

Daily Care

If you smoke or use nicotine products, wash your hands before handling the animal because it could kill them. Spot clean cage, provide fresh de-chlorinated water, and scrub off branches/plants. Strip cage every 3 weeks. Do not use any type of soap or cleaner to clean the cage, plants or rocks. Wipe down walls with a plain paper towel.

Lighting and Temperature

Argentine Horned Frogs are nocturnal frogs.  Due to this fact, we do not use a UVB bulb for this animal.  We provide a 40 watt Zoo Med Red bulb.  We also provide a medium sized heat mat under the cage.  Make sure the heat pad is placed under the same side as the light.  We use Zoo Med ReptiTherm® Under Tank Heater, Medium. We place the light on a timer.  The timer is set for a 12/12 light cycle.  

We use an infrared heat gun to check the temperature of our cage regularly.  We try to make the "heat" side of his cage around 80 degrees F.  The "cooler" side of the cage is kept around 72 degrees F. 

SOP Feed Schedule

Can have 4 large crickets on Tuesdays and Fridays (count crickets in cage – if there are some left from the last feed, just add the difference). You do not hand feed crickets, just place crickets into cage. Alternate dusting crickets with vitamins and calcium during the week. Sometimes animal may not eat all the crickets – that is alright. Just add the correct amount of crickets to cage so there are 4 crickets for the animal.

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