The Arctic Wood Frog:
The Arctic Wood Frog (Rena sylvatica).
This frog is found throughout most of Alaska and Canada. Every spring when the wood frogs come out of hibernation they are collected and kept as pets by many Alaskan youths; this care sheet will attempt to help you keep them happy and healthy in your home terrarium.
The Arctic Wood frog is found in forest, muskeg and tundra, it breeds in early spring in most shallow bodies of water and gravel pits. At the onset of the short summer season, they move into grassland and open forest and can often times be found considerable distances from the water. During the summer you can often find them on the roads after a rain and if you listen to the sounds that the males sing it will sound like a duck with a sore thorat.
In the terrarium, the arctic wood frog should kept fairly cool with a high temperature of only about 70-75 F. When keeping Arctic wood frogs you should have a 10 gallon aquarium with a screen top. A small light should be sufficient and full spectrum lighting such as is used for most Reptiles and Amphibians may not be necessary. In your terrarium, Wood frogs only require a small bowl of water to keep them happy, a small rock should be placed into the bowl to keep them from drowning. A good soil or natural moss covered ground will be a sufficient medium, a few birch or common Alaskan ferns may also be included. When decorating a terrarium for wood frogs the ways of decoration are as endless as your imagination.
Feeding wood frogs is very easy as they will acecpt most insects and crickets but you may want to consider feeding the insects some oat meal with a small pinch of Reptile vitamins on it the night before so that, when your wood frog eats the insects they get extra vitamins.
It is better for the wood frogs if you release them back into the wild each fall as they need a hibernation period that most likely can not be duplicated in a captive enviroment except by advanced hobbyists. Your parents can haelp you take your frog back to the area you collected it from. Have a fun sumer and remember to offer food to your wood from daily. Clean the aquarium and the water bowl, so that your froog has a nice summer home!
