Don’t get confused seeing the part “man” in the frogs’ name of ‘Pacman’ and wondering if the frogs are the only male! Although there are no Pac-woman, Pacman frogs can be both male and female. Hence, I’ve conducted some researches to find out some exclusive ways to determine Pacman frog gender.
To determine the gender of a pacman frog, observe the size and the presence or absence of nuptial pads. Males are generally smaller than females and have nuptial pads. These pads are rough, darkened patches on their inner thumbs used for gripping females during mating. Females lack these pads and are typically larger in size.
In this article, I’ll explain those differences to determine the gender of Pacman frogs in detail. So, you’ve come to the perfect place. Let’s get enlightened together whether your Pacman frog is male or female.
Why Should You Know If Your Pacman Frog Is Male Or Female?
If you’re a beginner, you may have found the gender determination of your frogs unimportant. But, you should know your Pacman frog’s gender for making several important decisions. So, let’s get to the points of why you should know if your Pacman frog is male or female.
Choosing Vivarium Of Right Size
If you are keen to keep a Pacman frog as a pet, you need to choose a vivarium first. Not to mention, the vivarium should have enough space for your Pacman frog. Hence, knowing the right size of vivarium for your frog is important.
On the other hand, the appropriate space of a vivarium depends on the size of your Pacman frog. Again, the size of the Pacman frog varies according to its gender.
Usually, a female Pacman frog gets bigger than a male Pacman frog. Hence, a female Pacman frog needs around 20-gallon vivarium, while a male Pacman frog can adjust within 10 gallons.
No wonder, the sound health, and growth of a frog depend much on its habitat’s space. If you bring a smaller vivarium for your Pacman frog than its need, your frog will feel discomfort and stress.
So, it’s essential to know your Pacman frog’s gender for choosing the right vivarium.
Breeding
No wonder, you have to know the gender of your Pacman frogs for breeding. If you are a serious breeder, this thing is a must.
In the case of breeding, usually, you need to place one male Pacman frog and one female Pacman frog together in a tank. So, if you already have a Pacman frog, you need to know its gender first. After this, you can buy or borrow another Pacman frog of the opposite gender.
Otherwise, if you put Pacman frogs of the same gender together, they will end up harming themselves. Instead of breeding, you might lose your Pacman frog in this way. Thus, it’s very important to know if your Pacman frog is male or female.
Placement Of Terrarium With Pacman Frog
You don’t want to keep your Pacman frog in your bedroom if you find out its noise. Although both male and female Pacman frogs croak, one of them makes croaking much.
Hence, you need to know their gender before buying if you don’t want much noise. Again, knowing the frog’s gender will help you decide where to put its terrarium.
How Old Does A Pacman Frog Need To Be To Tell The Gender?
It’s hard to guess the gender when a Pacman frog is just a baby or juvenile. Even if they grow old, it is pretty hard to determine their gender, seeing their signs. They only show accurate signs of being male or female when they’re ready to mate.
A Pacman frog needs to be at least seven to eight months old to tell its gender. But, they need to be 12-16 months old to determine their gender identification signs better. Although they reach their maturity at almost two years old, you can identify their gender at 12-18 months old.
However, these frogs grow pretty quickly, depending on their diets. There is also another uncertainty regarding determining their gender. While you need to wait for the perfect age, determining its age is also a difficult task.
You can ask for the age from the breeder or the store from where you bought this new Pacman frog.
Male vs Female Pacman Frog: Differences
There must be some eye-catchy differences between male and female Pacman frogs. If the differences aren’t noticeable, we need to figure them out.
Hence, I’ve summed up some differences between male and female Pacman frogs. Let’s take a look at the following table.
| Determining Factors | Male Pacman Frog | Female Pacman Frog |
|---|---|---|
| Nuptial Pad | Dark nuptial pads on their hands | Female will not develop or possess any nuptial pads on their hands |
| Size | Smaller in size | Larger in size than male Pacman Frogs |
| Skin | Rougher skin than female Pacman frogs | Smooth skin |
| Sexual Dichromatism (Color) | Show several colors from dark green to lime | Remains tanned |
| Croaking | Croaks often | Croaks but less than male Pacman frogs |
| Vocal Sacs | Have vocal sacs | Do not have any vocal sacs |
| Arms | Thicker and muscly arms | Thinner arms |
| Nose | Flattened shaped | Triangular-shaped |
| Chest | Darker chest or beard | White chest |
| Throats | Loosen, colored skin on throats that do not match with the color of the belly | Smooth skin with coloration that matches with the belly |
These are some telltale points of determining the gender of a Pacman frog. To give you an elaborate concept, I’ll describe 7 ways to determine if your frog is male or female.
Both genders of Pacman frog reach sexual maturity around 10-12 months of age. However, females, due to their larger size, might require a slightly longer time to reach full maturity compared to males.
Pacman From Gender Identification: Infographic
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How To Tell Pacman Frog Gender: 7 Ways
1. Nuptial Pads
Nuptial pads are a significant sex-determining factor of Pacman frogs. By observing nuptial pads, you can smoothly determine if your Pacman frog is male or female.
During mating season, male Pacman frogs develop nuptial pads while female Pacman frogs do not develop them. Generally, you can find this in matured male Pacman frog.
These nuptial pads grow on the thumb of the male Pacman during their mating period. Again, you can name it their breeding gland.
The androgen hormones cause this swelling on the forearm or thumb on the male Pacman frogs. So, these nuptial pads help the male Pacman frog improve its grip on the female Pacman frog while mating.
On the other hand, female Pacman frogs do not need such grips while mating. Also, no hormones trigger the development of nuptial pads in the female Pacman.
Thus, you can easily differentiate the gender of your Pacman frog if you look for the nuptial pad on its thumb.
A single female Pacman frog can lay hundreds of eggs at a time, which she deposits in water. The male then fertilizes these eggs externally.
2. Size
The size differences between male and female Pacman frogs are a noticeable factor. Usually, the female Pacman frogs tend to be larger than the male Pacman frogs.
You can determine the gender easily by noticing the size of any adult Pacman frog. Because the size of Pacman frogs varies on their gender.
How Big Do Male Pacman Frogs Get?
The average size of an adult male Pacman frog is around 4-8 inches (6-10 cm).
Besides, these male Pacman frogs are as long as they are round. Moreover, their breeding method, care, food habits, genetics play a vital role in their size.
How Big Do Female Pacman Frogs Get?
An adult female Pacman frog can reach up to seven inches (10-18 cm).
On the contrary, a male Pacman can get 4-8 inches large. So, you might have realized how big they are in comparison with the male Pacman frogs!
Imagine a 7 inch bigger female Pacman frog beside a 4-inch male Pacman frog! Kind of a beast and easily recognizable as being a female frog, isn’t it?
3. Skin
Another way to determine your Pacman frog is to notice its skin.
Generally, male Pacman frogs have rougher skin while female Pacman frogs have smoother skin.
Moreover, male Pacman frogs develop roughly textured patches on their hands. Although this is pretty tricky to notice, those patches become dark in the mating season.
4. Croaking
Another easy way to determine a Pacman frog’s gender is croaking. There are sayings that female Pacman frogs do not croak at all.
The reality is both male and female Pacman frogs croak. But, male Pacman frogs croak more often than female Pacman frogs. Moreover, the male Pacman frog croaks at their loud and high peach. It can easily be distinguishable.
Pacman frogs do not only croak but also make different noises like chirping, screaming, grunting, squeaking, etc. You need to understand the differences. Then, you’ll realize whether your Pacman frog is male or female.
Do Female Pacman Frogs Croak?
The assumption of female Pacman frogs not croaking is entirely wrong. Female Pacman frogs do not usually croak often.
Instead of croaking, you can say that female Pacman frogs also make noises sometimes. Besides, they make sounds like screaming, grunting, squeaking when they are distressed, angry, or afraid of something.
Even if they croak sometimes, the number of time of croaking is much less than the male Pacman frogs’ croaking. The croaking of the female Pacman frogs is just like long high pitched groaning or chirping.
How Often Do Male Pacman Frogs Croak?
It depends on their habitat. Male Pacman frogs croak less in captivity. On the other hand, they croak more in their natural habitats.
In captivity, your male Pacman frog may croak a few times while feeding or misting. You can also experience their croaking at night only 3-4 times. But, they tend to croak often in the time of their mating season.
On the other hand, male Pacman frogs croak more often in the wild. In their breeding season, they croak much because this works as their mating call to female Pacman frogs.
Some studies suggest that factors like temperature during embryonic development can influence gender outcomes in certain amphibian species like pacman frogs.
5. Color
You can also determine the gender of your Pacman frog by noticing its skin color. The skin color of the female Pacman frog is kind of tanned. They can be brown and albino too.
On the other hand, the male Pacman frog can be ornately colored. They can be dark green, yellow, lime, etc.
Such sexual dichromatism helps you identify their gender at ease.
6. Chest And Arms
The chest of Pacman frogs exhibits obvious differences between male and female frogs. If you notice the chest of a male Pacman frog, you can see the darker chest.
Especially, male pacman frog’s chest color becomes darker in their mating season. On the other hand, the chest of female Pacman frogs remains white all the time.
Moreover, notice the arms of your Pacman frog for its gender identification. If its arms are thicker and muscly, count it as a male Pacman frog.
7. Nose And Throats
Now, let’s take a look at their nose and throats. These can also give you a clear identification of their gender.
If your Pacman frog’s nose is triangular shaped, then it is female. Otherwise, your Pacman frog is male if its nose is flattened.
On the contrary, male Pacman frog has loosened skin on their throats, and its color doesn’t match with its belly. But, there is no such mismatch coloration of throats in the case of the female Pacman frog.
Can You Put A Male And Female Pacman Frog Together?
When you notice your Pacman frog burrowing or sitting in one place all day long, you may think of bringing another one in the same tank. But, don’t make this horrible mistake of putting a male and female Pacman frog together. It doesn’t even relate to their gender.
Pacman frogs are not only aggressive but also cannibalistic. Also, they tend to make their prey of anything to eat, even if it is another Pacman frog. Moreover, Pacman frogs are solitary creatures. As a result, they don’t want to socialize with another creature let alone other Pacman frogs.
If you want to put them together, you can put highest two Pacman frogs in a tank. Not to mention, you have to put a divider between them in this case.
Again, you might need to put a male and female Pacman frog together for breeding. In this case, you need to mimic the environment of the reproduction cycle first.
Usually, Pacman frogs go through a hibernation period of 60 days before mating. After that, you can put their pair together.
But, don’t forget to part them away after breeding. Otherwise, they might end up injuring others. In worse cases, they can also kill the other Pacman frog.
So, it’s better not to keep a male and female Pacman frog together.
Final Words
Hope that this article helped you know the differences between male and female Pacman frogs. By this, you can easily distinguish the gender of your Pacman frog.
