Want to trade: Mature Male Bullfrog for Female

[JeffAHayes]

Ever since I started doing outdoor water gardening in 2001, I began buying bullfrog tadpoles to add some bullfrogs to my yard (expanded from a fountain, to 1 preform pond, to eventually a couple more ponds with a 55-foot stream running between them).

Every year, I'd have a number of tadpoles grow up to be mature-looking frogs by fall, and each spring some of them would still be there, but before cover plants sufficiently developed, they'd disappear (to predators like birds and cats, I assumed)... So in April 2006, I bought a new, slightly larger batch, and kept two to rear inside in an aquarium... They soon grew to be big bullfrogs and eventually outgrew that 10-gallon aquarium they were in, so now they're in a 40-gallon terrarium with a smaller, 5-gallon aquarium at one end, which I periodically stock with feeder fish (otherwise, I mostly feed them gut-loaded crickets)...

The thing is, both turned out male, and both are HUGE... And some days and nights they croak practically non-stop, looking for a mate that's impossible to find in their enclosure. Both are big and healthy (at least a pound, I'd say -- I have pictures), and what I'd like to do is find someone with a spare female bullfrog who either lives close enough to meet and trade "even steven" in person, or else someone out of the area who can work with me on a way to do a successful live-animal transfer... Then I'll never have to worry about replenishing my frogs again, and hopefully I'll make a frog very happy and much less vocal.

Anyone who has a female BF and DOES want to trade, please let me know, ASAP (and if you don't know for sure how to sex them, it's by the ears... if their earpads are the same size as their eyes or smaller, they're female; if they're bigger than the eyes, they're male).

Looking forward to your replies.

Happy Froglovin'!
Jeff

[Green Ghost]

If you want bullfrogs they're not too hard to get. Where are you?

[JeffAHayes]

I've found finding MATURE bullfrogs here rather difficult... tadpoles are fairly easy to find on a yearly basis, but ya never know if they'll all be male, all female, or a mix... The two I picked to grow up indoors this last time both turned out male (likely due to their environment, if tadpoles are anything like reptiles, but I don't know quite enough to know that)... I KNOW some of the ones I've put in my water garden outside have grown up to be female... In at least one case, I've seen a VERY BIG female; but I don't care to catch one I already have acclimated to my outdoor ponds -- I'd rather trade for one that's used to being indoors (mine haven't been outside since they were tadpoles without any legs, yet).

The ONE TIME I saw a bullfrog for sale in a pet store here they wanted $25 for it, and that's another thing, I'm not ABOUT to pay that much for a frog that's as abundant and indigenous as bullfrogs... But most pet stores don't carry them, and I haven't seen one in a pet store since... can't even get most to carry the tadpoles and have to drive to a nursery in a neighboring city 30 miles away each spring that does a big water gardening business to even get tadpoles (didn't get any this year, as it appeared I FINALLY had enough survive in my ponds for a successful breeding).

Still, they're hard to catch, and I don't really wanna catch one; I wanna trade for one, or even buy one, if it's not too expensive.

Anyone have any thoughts?
Jeff

[Green Ghost]

I have 2 females here that I raised in my tank. I'm in Montreal though....

Edit: forgot to mention that I would want to give them to a good home. I don't want any money for them.
I'd be more than happy to let you have my two but I really don't know if it's possible to send them to you or even worth it?

[JeffAHayes]

Thanks for the reply, Steve. I agree there are probably WAY to many issues to keep you from successfully getting one of your female froggies to me all the way from Montreal, but I DO appreciate your reply and the thought.

First, considering the time of year and the fact that EVEN HERE we're having snow at the present time, you'd have to package the frog(s) (I really need only one), in some very carefully prepared live animal packaging designed to keep amphibians alive during winter weather (either keep them warm and wet, or cool and damp, or however -- I'm not sure HOW the professionals ship them)... Second, as they'd be crossing international borders, there MIGHT BE issues with live-animal transport across international borders, and I'm thinking the time and expense would probably surpass what either one of us would be willing to pay.

As for "a good home," my two males are likely the two most SPOILED male bullfrogs in Spartanburg County, lol... They have their own 40-gallon terrarium, complete with a 5-gallon aquarium with little feeder goldfish in it, and a big rock to sit on, a nice big planter they can sit in, a "toadhouse" to hide under, peat moss to hop around on, a smaller, shallow water dish on the floor of the terarrium, and a regular scattering of live crickets that are allowed to live and breed as they wish and regularly fed Fluker's high-calcium cricket feed...

There are two (2) 100-Watt GE Reveal (or equivalent) light bulbs in those clamp lamps with the round aluminium bell-shaped covers on them hanging just above the screen cover of the terarrium -- one above the aquarium, the other above the planter in the opposite corner, which has a little tropical plant, plus some impatiens and pennywort in it.

Yeah, they have it REALLY GOOD!

Again, I really appreciate your response, but I think we're just too far apart... Originally, I raised these frogs from tadpoles in a 10-gallon aquarium, and I think I may get a couple more tadpoles this year and try again and see if I get a female this time... I can always release extras into my outdoor ponds... If I get a female, I'm going to find someone with a decent indoor setup to take one of my males, because I think having lived inside all its life, it wouldn't be properly equipped for life in the wild.

Take care,
Jeff

P.S. Feel free to email me direct at JeffAHayes@aol.com