by Devin Edmonds

Leopard Frogs live in most of the eastern half of the United States. The typical color of the nothern leopard frog is olive or dark green with yellow stripes running down thier back. They have black spots and blotches all over thier body, which gives them the name leopard frogs. The southern leopard frog is usually more brown in its basic color with occasional green blothes on its back. It too has black spots all over its body. Both get in the size range of 2 to 5 inches.

Their natural habitat is ponds and marches. In Wisconsin I usually see them sitting on a piece of wood poking out of the water or just where the water meets the land. They get scared very easily and with the slightest move they will qickly hop into the water.

CAGING:Since this frog is so jumpy they should have a fairly large aquarium. A 15 or 20 gallon tank with a glass cover is big enough for 2 frogs at the most. First put 4 or 5 inches of large, thoroughly washed gravel. Take your hand and slope the gravel so that one half of the tank has an inch of gravel that gradually slopes up to around 6 inches of gravel. Fill the whole tank with 3 or 4 inches of water so the tank looks like a little beach. If you look at the tank from the side the tank should have a land side that slopes down into water. In the water place a piece of driftwood or a large rock so the frogs can easily get out of the water if needed. On the land side put 1 or 2 rocks and a piece of cork bark or driftwood for hiding. It is also important to put a terrarium backing picture on the sides and the back of the cage if your leopard frog is wild caught because wild caught ones tend to try to jump through the glass. If you don't want to put the backing on you should at least mark the sides and back with soap so the frog will know something is there. In order to make the terrarium look nicer you can also burrow a couple house plants with their roots washed of all dirt into the gravel. Philodendrons work well in this type of terrarium.

CLEANING THE CAGE: Changing this type of cage is very easy. Every month or if the cage starts to smell take a turkey baster and suck out all of the water. Then pour more water in. Every year or so you may want to brake down the terrarium and wash everything off and replace the bark that is in the cage. Make sure to wash every thing off including the plants when you do this.

FEEDING:You can feed leopard frogs pretty much anything that will fit in their mouth. Crickets are a great food for them. You can dust the crickets with vitamin and mineral powder if you want or gut load them. Earthworms, night crawlers, wax worms, giant meal worms and wild caught insects are also accepted. You should feed your frog about 3 food items every other day or so unless you are using a night crawler which will count as 3 food items. Don't just feed them one food item, try to very their diet.