If you are an exotic pet enthusiast, you may find flat-faced frogs interesting. Due to having the unique physical appearance, Mozambique rain frogs are popular as flat-faced frogs. These frogs are so rare that people do not find a foolproof care guide for these frogs. So, beginners might wonder how to ensure their Mozambique rain frog thrives in captivity.
Undoubtedly, it’s not an easy task to create a perfect environment for a frog-like their wild habitat in captivity. You must ensure all environmental conditions, nutritious feeding, and other demands for keeping Mozambique rain frogs as pets.
In this article, I’ve shared detailed guidelines about how you can help your Mozambique rain frogs thrive in captivity.
Let’s dive further into this article without any further ado.
Overview of Mozambique Rain Frogs
Before going into details, you can take a quick look at the overview of Mozambique rain frogs. It may help you get a basic idea of these unique frogs.
|Scientific name||Breviceps mossambicus|
|Common names||Mozambique rain frog, flat-faced frog, etc.|
|Size||2 inches (52 mm)|
|Terrarium capacity||Minimum 10 gallon|
|Optimal temperature||77-85 degrees Fahrenheit|
What Do You Need To Take Care of Mozambique Rain Frog In Captivity?
If you have a plan to make Mozambique rain frog your pet, you should complete buying your required supplies. For this, you might be looking for the basic supplies that you need for taking care of Mozambique rain frogs in captivity.
I’ve made a short list of this below.
- A 10-gallon tank
- Best moisture-absorbing substrate
- Live or fake plants
- Safe water
- A shallow water dish
- Under-tank heater
- Low-powered LED bulb
- Crickets and other insects
How To Make A Perfect Enclosure For Mozambique Rain Frog To Thrive?
To make your pet frog thrive in captivity, the very first thing to ensure is to create a perfect enclosure for your Mozambique rain frog. It begins with setting up the terrarium according to the features of the wild habitation of these rain frogs.
Let’s see how to make a perfect habitat for Mozambique rain frogs in captivity.
1. Choosing Right Terrarium
Before selecting an enclosure, you should know the type of your pet frog. These Mozambique rain frogs are terrestrial and fossorial. So, you should buy a large terrestrial terrarium to support the burrowing habit of your pet Mozambique rain frog.
Make sure that there is enough space horizontally. The experts suggest keeping a minimum of 10 gallons for keeping one Mozambique rain frog.
In addition, you should ensure that the tank has a good height too. Since these Mozambique rain frogs are burrowers, you should make a deep layer of the substrate. For this, the tank should be taller as well. You can choose Exo Terra 18”×18”×18” All Glass Terrarium.
Before introducing your Mozambique rain frog, you should wash the tank thoroughly with warm, soapy water. You must ensure not to leave any soap residue in the tank. Otherwise, your Mozambique rain frog will get sick if it absorbs soap residues.
2. Provide Soft And Moisture Absorbing Substrate
Mozambique rain frogs are found in sandy shores or tropical dry shrublands of South Africa, Zimbabwe, etc. In the wild, these Mozambique rain frogs stay burrowed under the soil of those areas. If you examine the soils of those areas, you may see clay slits, clay particles, sand, etc.
Due to their burrowing habit, these frogs require a soft substrate to thrive in captivity. When you bring a Mozambique rain frog to your home, you must think of a good substrate that can readily be pulled off.
There are several suitable options for a substrate for your Mozambique rain frogs. You can use mixed soil, cypress mulch, orchid bark, sand, coco husk, coconut fibers, peat moss, etc. The mixture of these substrates can be another excellent option for the substrate.
Mozambique rain frogs can burrow underground from 2-8 inches. So, you must make the substrate bedding at least 12 inches deep. You can pick Zoo Med Eco Earth, Zoo Med Repti Soil, etc.
Don’t forget to choose a substrate that holds the maximum moisture. Such substrate helps retain the optimal moisture level in the terrarium. Besides, you should change the substrate every six months. Make sure that the substrate doesn’t remain water dripping wet.
3. Keep The Humidity Range 75-85%
You might be aware that the humidity of sandy shores remains high. Since Mozambique rain frogs hail from sandy shores and shrublands in the wild, these frogs tend to thrive in high humidity. To mimic their wild environment, you have to keep the humidity range higher in captivity.
According to their demand, you should keep the humidity level of the Mozambique rain frog terrarium around 75-85%. You can retain the moisture of the terrarium in 3 ways. These are-
- Spray the terrarium twice a day.
- Keeping the best moisture-absorbing substrate.
- Keeping live plants in the terrarium.
Since Mozambique rain frogs aren’t good jumpers, you don’t need to put a tank lid in their terrarium. But, adding a tank lid may not let the air of the tank get away. As a result, the humidity level remains higher. Otherwise, adding a heater may reduce the moisture level of the terrarium.
Don’t forget to keep a hygrometer to monitor the humidity level. Also, you should not let the humidity level exceed 85%.
4. Keep The Optimal Temperature Level
In the wild, the Mozambique rain frogs live in a hot and humid climate. So, these frogs require around 77-85 degrees Fahrenheit temperature to thrive in captivity. Otherwise, your Mozambique rain frogs do not remain active and playful in cold environments.
If the room temperature fails to keep the terrarium hot, you can use several heating options. Such as heat mat, heat bulb, heater, etc. But, keeping a heat lamp or bulb may not be appropriate for these frogs due to their nocturnal trait.
For this reason, the experienced owners suggest using a thermostat-regulating under-tank heater. Fix the under-tank heater on one side of the terrarium. That side will be considered the warm zone of your Mozambique rain frog terrarium.
5. Lighting For Mozambique Rain Frogs
Before going into the lighting requirement, you should know that Mozambique rain frogs are nocturnal. These frogs remain burrowed during the entire daytime. They emerge out of the soil at night time.
To maintain a day and night cycle, you can keep low-powered LED lighting for 12 hours during the day. On the night-time, any night-specific bulb can help to monitor their activities.
Although Mozambique rain frogs are nocturnal, these frogs require UV lighting. A little exposure to UVB lighting can boost vitamin D3 among your rain frogs. Besides, you should provide UVA lighting to increase the metabolism and circadian rhythm of Mozambique rain frogs.
6. Keep Water In A Shallow Water Bowl
There are many debates regarding keeping water in a rain-frog terrarium. In the wild, these Mozambique rain frogs do not require open water sources to survive or breed. So, it’s not a mandatory option to keep water in your Mozambique rain frog terrarium.
But, keeping safe water in a shallow water bowl is a trick to retain the moisture level in the terrarium. If your Mozambique rain frog wants to soak itself in the water, providing safe water in a shallow bowl may help them.
You should keep in mind that the depth of the water is not too deep. Otherwise, your Mozambique rain frog may drown in the water bowl due to not being able to swim. The water dish must be low enough to readily get in and out.
7. Décor and Accessories
To create a naturalistic environment, you can add a few décor items to your Mozambique rain frog terrarium. The hideouts can provide your rain frogs with a good place to hide and play. You can add a few rocks, live plants, and other accessories.
Do not overcrowd the terrarium with many décor items. You should ensure that there are no sharp edges in those décor and accessories.
8. Providing Nutritious Feeding: What To Feed Mozambique Rain Frogs?
Mozambique rain frogs are mainly insectivores. In the wild, these rain frogs emerge out of rainfalls to hunt the swarms of winged termites. They also eat beetles, dragonflies, ants, spiders, small invertebrates, etc.
Your pet Mozambique rain frogs require varieties of insects to thrive in captivity. You can keep crickets as their main food. In addition, you can feed them ants, dubia roaches, flies, mosquito larvae, earthworms, mealworms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, etc.
An important thing to notice is the size of the insects. Make sure that the insects should be smaller than the space between the two eyes of your Mozambique rain frog. Otherwise, these insects may cause impaction and choke on your pet frog.
Lastly, you should buy insects for your Mozambique rain frogs from reliable sources. Do not risk your frog’s health by feeding wild-caught insects.
9. Supplement The Diet
To add nutritional value, you can gut-load the insects before feeding them to your Mozambique rain frogs. When your pet frog consumes the gut-loaded insects, the nutrition will pass to your frog.
Another way is to sprinkle or dust the supplementation over the insects. To reduce the risk of metabolic bone disease, the experts suggest adding calcium supplements to the diet. Besides, your Mozambique rain frogs need the supplementation of vitamin D3, vitamin A, and multivitamins.
In the list of best supplements, you can keep Repashy Calcium Plus, RepCal Herptivite, and Repashy Vitamin a Plus.
10. Tank Mates: Do Mozambique Rain Frogs Need Tank Mates?
Generally, Mozambique rain frogs are solitary. But, these frogs aren’t aggressive. In the wild, Mozambique rain frogs allow other frogs to remain nearby. However, these frogs enjoy living alone.
Considering their temperament, the experienced owners suggest not keeping any tank mates for Mozambique rain frogs. You can welcome more Mozambique rain frogs for breeding. After the breeding season, you should move out other rain frogs.
However, you can add another Mozambique rain frog if the terrarium remains too large. But, it’ll be better to leave your Mozambique rain frog alone.
11. Breeding Care: How To Ensure Breeding-friendly Environment In Captivity?
The breeding months for Mozambique rain frogs are from October to February. These seasons remain cool and wet in the wild habitation of these frogs. When you intend to breed Mozambique rain frogs, you should create a breeding-friendly environment.
Firstly, you need to introduce the partner of your Mozambique rain frog. For this, you should learn about the sex of your pet Mozambique rain frog.
The next thing to do is to mist your Mozambique rain frogs heavily. Heavy moisture can recreate the breeding season in captivity.
Although maximum frogs require open sources of water for breeding, Mozambique rain frogs do not need water for this purpose. These frogs make a tunnel of about 30-40 cm in the substrate.
Instead of water, the female Mozambique rain frogs lay eggs in that burrow or tunnel. So, you must keep the substrate soft for frogs to pull off readily. Also, you should make minimal noise around your Mozambique rain frog terrarium. Otherwise, the breeding procedure of your frogs may get hampered.
12. Maintenance of Mozambique Rain Frogs
There are some things that you should maintain regularly. These little things will help your Mozambique rain frogs thrive in captivity.
- Do not feed your Mozambique rain frogs fruits, human foods, processed foods, table scrapes, etc.
- You should store the frog foods carefully. If you bring worms, you must keep the container of worms in the refrigerator. In the case of other insects like crickets, you can keep them at room temperature.
- If your rain frog is an adult frog, you can feed them 2-3 times a week. You should remove the uneaten insects from your Mozambique rain frog terrarium.
- Although Mozambique rain frogs aren’t poisonous, you should not handle your pet rain frogs without any emergency. If you need to handle your rain frog, you should use wet gloves.
- You should do spot-cleaning regularly. Also, you should wipe the sides of the tank and the leaves of fake plants once a week. Make a thorough cleaning per month.
- Change the supplementation of your Mozambique rain frog after 6 months of opening its container.
- Do not forget to change the substrate every 6 months.
Before You Go
I hope you got a detailed idea about the Mozambique rain frog care guide from this article. Another rare rain frog species is the Cape rain frog. Like Mozambique rain frogs, you might wonder how to ensure the Cape rain frogs thrive in Captivity.
For this, you can take a look at the following article.