# recapturing escapees?



## Guest (May 24, 2006)

Hi. Been lurking for a week or two, reading the boards and learning all kinds of nifty things. I just started my first "practice terrarium" - to see if I can keep one going at all, and to experiment with plants for a while. If it goes well, I'll make a bigger one; and if THAT goes well, I'd eventually like some PDFs. I'm patient.  

Meanwhile, you guys are great, and I'm learning SO much here! So much so that I'm already boring my friends with frog stories - friends who are already very patient with my incessant prattling about newts and gardens and other hobbies, hehe.  

One anwser that I haven't found on this board so far concerns the process for retrieving escaped frogs. Obviously, you want to create an escape-proof environment in the first place, but if it DOES happen, what do you do? Is there anything that will lure them back? Do they head for a certain type of cover once out of the terrarium? Do they dry out if they remain out of thier tanks for too long, and die; or will they starve to death first? 

(Asking because, several years ago when I began keeping newts, I had a couple of _ Cynops orientalis _ escape, and didn't find them in time to rehydrate them - newts can only survive away from moisture for a few hours, but can (theoretically) be lured out of hiding with wet towells or shallow water dishes placed on the floor in dark corners...this didn't work for me at the time).


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## Guest (May 24, 2006)

Hi, from now on you can bore us with your incessant talk of newts and frogs, and any herps in general.

I believe that many members on this board have on occasion posted escape stories. SOme end well, others end in a dusty mummified froggy corpse. Many times the frogs are found dried and with lots of dust bunnies all over them, but still alive.

I suppose the best way to find you lost frog would be to set up lots of little cups and or plates of water. Hopefully when they get covered in dust they see these and go for a bath, soaking. Wet towels would probably work really well too, especially for the water shy frogs.

I once had an escape green tree frog. I searched for him for hours. The whole time he was hiding between the black border on aquariums, and the computer fan. Somehow it occured to me to look there, I had to move the fan to look though. Moral of the story, learn all the nooks and crannies of your viv before you put the frogs so you have an idea of where they could hide without being seen.
Welcome to the board and I really like your avatar!


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

I'm afraid to say that any dart frog that escapes from its viv and is not captured within the span of minutes dehydrates very rapidly. So time is of the essence. Usually people end up tearing apart the room in hopes of finding them if the escape occurred unnoticed but odds are against you at that point. There are the occasional odd story where a frog escaped and survived by finding a damp place (around leaky plumbing seems to be a good place) but those are the exceptions.

If you spot them escaping, there are a variety of ways to recapture them with most favoring the use of a small cup, glass tube, etc. to coax the frog into and then place that container in the viv. This avoids contact with their skin and minimizes the chance of injury. However, you don't always have access to such a trapping device so your cupped hands placed around the frog and slowly brought together and up should capture the frog for placement back into the viv.

Any escapees should probably be misted after recapture to remove dust and other junk that may have stuck to their skin.

Bill


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## Guest (May 24, 2006)

Khamul1of9 - hey, don't I know you?  

Your tree frog story reminds me of a Paddletail I had years ago - he "disappeared" from his tank one day. I ripped the entire house apart looking for him, in every conceivable place, even pulling the appliances away from the walls. Days later, having never found him, I started cleaning out and breaking down the tank, only to find him alive and well INSIDE the filter. I have no clue how he got inside it, but I can tell you that I don't use that kind of filter anymore. I should have known - a friend of mine had the same filter, and her siren kept hiding inside of it (she, in fact, went through the same scare two years before).


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## Guest (May 24, 2006)

s1ren said:


> Khamul1of9 - hey, don't I know you?
> 
> Your tree frog story reminds me of a Paddletail I had years ago - he "disappeared" from his tank one day. I ripped the entire house apart looking for him, in every conceivable place, even pulling the appliances away from the walls. Days later, having never found him, I started cleaning out and breaking down the tank, only to find him alive and well INSIDE the filter. I have no clue how he got inside it, but I can tell you that I don't use that kind of filter anymore. I should have known - a friend of mine had the same filter, and her siren kept hiding inside of it (she, in fact, went through the same scare two years before).


I don't know If you know, ever been to Cuadata.org? There I am known as Tindomul1of9


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## dustin_grey (Mar 8, 2006)

s1ren said:


> Khamul1of9 - hey, don't I know you?
> 
> Your tree frog story reminds me of a Paddletail I had years ago - he "disappeared" from his tank one day. I ripped the entire house apart looking for him, in every conceivable place, even pulling the appliances away from the walls. Days later, having never found him, I started cleaning out and breaking down the tank, only to find him alive and well INSIDE the filter. I have no clue how he got inside it, but I can tell you that I don't use that kind of filter anymore. I should have known - a friend of mine had the same filter, and her siren kept hiding inside of it (she, in fact, went through the same scare two years before).


Woah! I have a story just like that with one of those cheap (in quality, not price  ) waterfalls. My white's tree frog disappeared one day and I searched everywhere for it. I spent the next week setting up a better viv so the pump was out of the tank and a week later I found him in the water-catching-part of a house plant. 

He still hides in the pump but he's fine. He comes out at night to catch crickets and goes back in when I turn on the lights in the morning.


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## Guest (May 25, 2006)

Its like they have a sick sence of humor. :lol: 
Poor babies.


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## thong_monster (May 6, 2006)

I have a pretty intresting story about an escaped frog that happened a couple years ago. It was a white's tree frog. He is enclosed in a 20 gallon tank for the longest time, then one day he just decided to take off by squeezing through a small space at the top of the tank.

It was about a week until I found him inside a large porcelain vase that had some "lucky bamboo" plants inside. A couple of days later, he escaped again only to be found inside the vase again.  This happened 2-3 more times until my mom gave me the ultimatum that I keep my pets inside the cage or no more pets. After that i switched to a screened top which put an end to the weekend getaways to his second home.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

My male Auratus is one of the lucky cases. The little bugger lived under my tub for about 2-3 months one summer. He lived in the area where the plumbing comes into the house, so there was plenty of access to food. I managed to catch him while getting out of the tub one day. Nothing quite like catching a frog in the nude. Aside from being a little on the skinny side, he was fine. 

Usually my frogs get out because of me, like accidently leaving the top open or them jumping out of their tempory enclosure when I'm feeding or misting. I quickly cup my hand over them and get them back in their tank where they're misted to remove junk/hair from my floor and observed for problems.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Ahhh Mike so you are the fellow with the frog under the tub....I wasn't certain if I had seen you post that in the past or whether I was thinking of something else....hence my generic comment about surviving in a damp place....lol.

Bill


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## Guest (May 25, 2006)

> ever been to Caudata.org?


That's what I meant - I'm "s1ren" there, too, as well as on vivariumforums.com 8) 



> one of those cheap ... waterfalls.


Yeah, I don't use those anymore (unless I completely seal the thing) - not because of escapes, but because I've had a couple of very small newts get trapped inside/underneath them. I'd hate for that to happen while I was at work, and drown the poor thing.


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## Guest (May 25, 2006)

s1ren said:


> > ever been to Caudata.org?
> 
> 
> That's what I meant - I'm "s1ren" there, too, as well as on vivariumforums.com 8)


Sorry I didnt recognize ya, Im bad with names and stuff.


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

defaced said:


> My male Auratus is one of the lucky cases. The little bugger lived under my tub for about 2-3 months one summer. He lived in the area where the plumbing comes into the house, so there was plenty of access to food. I managed to catch him while getting out of the tub one day. Nothing quite like catching a frog in the nude. Aside from being a little on the skinny side, he was fine.
> 
> Usually my frogs get out because of me, like accidently leaving the top open or them jumping out of their tempory enclosure when I'm feeding or misting. I quickly cup my hand over them and get them back in their tank where they're misted to remove junk/hair from my floor and observed for problems.


I love that story.


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