Good Morning, Pippen!

After a few days of trying out names, "Pippen", seems to fit this little creature.  He has now been with us for just over a week, but I truthfully see no growth whatsoever.  This has worried me and sent me to the amphibian section of the local Petsmart to ask lots of questions about feeding a wee froglet.  I had been feeding him "Leptotreat" which is a packaged mixture of bloodworm goo (yum!) that you see here, as I feed it on some wet paper towel.  He only jumped on it in this picture because I was trying to get him to come out of cage for some pictures and harassed him out of his little hidey hole cave in his pile of moss.

Since I never actually saw him eating it, I asked what other types of food might be appropriate and was given a vial of fruitflies.  I let some out in his habitat and he has been pretty transfixed by them, although I have not yet seen one go into his mouth.  He crawled right up this rock after one, though.  I am hoping he is maybe eating at night.  The nice lady at the Petsmart asked if I could see his ribs, suggesting I flip him over and look.  (Like flipping an ant over to look - impossible without crushing him, so that won't work.) Now I am furtively looking to see if I can see his ribs, which would indicate that he isn't eating properly. 

I also did some redecorating. We now have beaches, landscaping and a pool.  Such an upscale froglet!  They also recommended some tiny crickets.  When I noted that even the tiniest crickets were the same size as him, they said that I could pull off their legs before putting them in the enclosure.  Yeah, no.  I can't go there.  Until it's a fair fight, no crickets are living in the cage.

Also looks like one of 

the tadpoles may soon join Pippen in froglet land.

The pond seems pretty healthy, too. Although I have found a couple of baby snakes in the past two days, I sprayed liberally with my clove/peppermint oil around the pond and one baby snake just took off across the garden, so the snake threat has remained low. The frogs have also started singing a little more at night. I love their calls; their "ponds songs of love."

Here is a little leopard frog I managed to see this morning before she scampered away from my intrusion.

And of course, one more picture of Pippen.
Pippen makes me smile.