Hello,
I built a patio and placed a rubber lined pond in the middle of it last year. This year a little Northen green frog moved in. While I know it is bad to feed wild animals, she looked like she was starving to death, so I began to feed her 6 worms a day. However, she will not let me get close enough to catch her and move her to an aquarium for the winter. We Live in Cleveland Ohio, where it gets very cold.
So, she has to hibernate outside. The pond is only 60 gal and 15 inches deep. I have the following questions.
1. Do Northern green frogs hibernate under water or underground? Should I place a 5 gal bucket of sand at the bottom of the pond?
2. Do I need to buy a heater?
3. She is pretty fat now, will that help her?
Thanks
Our first frog wintered under out preform waterfall section. It did have a leak in the plumbing so it was soupy sand underneath it. We removed the preforms and the frog moved away. lol
We have 2 new frogs now that moved in about a month ago. Check out Robyns' frog pages, they should be of help. "My" frogs are totally on their own, so I'm no help...sorry.
My page at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/frog3.htm has information on overwintering frogs both indoors and outdoors. Your pond is very small. Green frogs overwinter under water. Adding a bucket of sand will just make a mess. My green frogs just lay on open liner but try to hide under leaves and debris if they can. A de-icer will help keep a hole in the ice but you don't want to overheat the pond so monitor the temperature with a thermometer. If it goes over 45 degrees F, it's getting too warm in the cold of winter. Stored fat will help her. My pond winter page is at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/winter.htmGood luck!