Can You Hold An African Dwarf Frog?

Who doesn’t want to touch their affectionate pets? But, it shouldn’t be appropriate for all types of pets. If you have a pet African dwarf frog, you may want to hold your frog. Now, the question arises in the owners’ minds whether you can hold your African dwarf frog or not.

You shouldn’t hold your African dwarf frog without any emergencies. If you hold your African dwarf for too long, its skin will dry out soon. Besides, the oil, soap residue, lotion, or chemicals may pass through their skin from your hands. Rough handling can injure or kill your African dwarf frogs.

You might have other questions regarding handling your dwarf frog. In this article, I’ve summed up all information on why you shouldn’t hold an African dwarf frog, the etiquette of handling dwarf frogs, and so on. So, you shouldn’t miss this article if you’re an owner of African dwarf frogs.

Can You Touch African Dwarf Frogs?

Without any severe emergency, you shouldn’t touch your African dwarf frogs. These frogs do not require handling. In case of holding your dwarf frogs, you should maintain proper caution.

Why You Shouldn’t Hold An African Dwarf Frog?

African dwarf frogs aren’t the types of frogs that you can cuddle or caress like other pets. The experts and experienced owners strictly forbid not to hold an African dwarf frog. Now, you might wonder about the reasons for such restriction.

I’ve explained 4 reasons here why you shouldn’t hold your African dwarf frogs. Let’s check the following reasons.

1. Risks of Spreading Chemicals And Toxins

Like other frogs, African dwarf frogs have highly permeable skin to pass oxygen and water through their pores. So, there remains a high chance of transferring chemicals and toxins through their pores when you hold your dwarf frogs.

If you do not wash your hands before handling your dwarf frogs, there will remain soap residue, oils, chemicals, and other things.

Not to mention, these chemicals and toxins from other products can kill your African dwarf frogs. It is one of the most crucial reasons why you shouldn’t hold your African dwarf frogs.

If you want to check other reasons for African dwarf frog death, you should check this write-up.

2. Risks Of Drying Out Their Skin

You might know that the specialty of African dwarf frogs is their being fully aquatic frogs. Although these dwarf frogs take oxygen from the air by coming to the water’s surface, these frogs can’t survive without water.

If you hold your African dwarf frogs out of the water for above 10 minutes, the skin of these aquatic frogs will dry out. These aquatic frogs will lose hydration when they’re out of water. You can go through this article about how long can African dwarf frogs hold their breath.

For this reason, the experts suggest not handling or holding African dwarf frogs for too long by removing them from the tank.

3. Risks Of Injuries

Since African dwarf frogs are delicate creatures, rough handling can hurt these frogs. Sometimes, babies or new owners might grasp their pet African dwarf frogs too tightly.

As a result, the bones of dwarf frogs may fracture. To avoid the risk of injuries, the experts discourage holding dwarf frogs.

4. Handling Makes Dwarf Frogs Stressed

Since frogs are sensitive creatures, these livings tend to get stressed over small things. Sometimes, pet frogs might get stressed due to the noise of the horn, television, etc. So, you might guess how stressed your dwarf frogs will get because of improper handling.

Best Pet Frogs For Handling: Infographic

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Do African Dwarf Frogs Bite?

There might appear several occasions where you need to handle your African dwarf frogs. It can be due to checking the symptoms of sickness, feeding your frogs, or other reasons. In such cases, people often ask whether African dwarf frogs bite.

African dwarf frogs can’t bite since these frogs do not have any teeth. Also, these frogs are docile and calm. When you notice their temperament, these frogs do not have any aggression. So, African dwarf frogs do not bite their owners intentionally.

Can You Play With A Dwarf Frog By Holding It?

The experts discourage all owners from playing with their African dwarf frogs by holding them. You can certainly play with your dwarf frogs. But, you should follow other tactics for training your dwarf frogs without touching them.

You can lure your African dwarf frogs by showing frog food on the tip of your finger. Keep swirling your finger outside the tank. After a while, you can let your dwarf frog have the food. In this pattern, your African dwarf frog will follow the movement of your finger with the treat.

Another trick is to let your African dwarf frog chase their treat from a string or tweezer. When you dangle the string with food, your dwarf frog will try to go after the food.

Besides, it’s possible to train your African dwarf frog to receive food from your hand or a turkey baster. In these ways, you need not hold your dwarf frog to play with it.

What Happens If You Touch An African Dwarf Frog?

Touching African dwarf frogs endanger the health of not only African dwarf frogs but also human beings. If your African dwarf frog carries salmonella, touching African dwarf frogs may spread this infectious bacteria to you.

This deadly bacteria can take the life of a sick person. So, you must not hold your African dwarf frogs with bare hands. Besides, you should not keep your African dwarf frogs out of the water for more than 5 minutes.

Keep your gloves wet when you’re holding your dwarf frog. Also, you should hold your African dwarf frog gently so that its bones do not get harmed.

For detailed information, you should check this write-up: Handling Pet Frogs For Beginners [Dos and Don’ts]

Final Words

I hope this article helped you understand well why you shouldn’t touch your African dwarf frogs. Don’t forget to take the required precautions whenever you need to hold your African dwarf frogs.