A gradient measured in inches of soil
A pacman frog does not cross an enclosure to thermoregulate; he digs. This squat South American ambush predator spends his life half-buried in damp earth, eyes at soil level, waiting for dinner to walk past, and he adjusts his temperature by shuffling deeper into cool, moist substrate or rising towards the warmer surface layers. So his gradient is compact and lives in the soil itself: a warm end of 80–85°F at substrate level, easing to a cool end of 75–78°F. The whole spread is barely ten degrees, and that is the point — a pacman kept too hot becomes stressed and refuses food, while one kept too cold slows down, stops digesting, and may try to aestivate, sealing himself into a dry cocoon of shed skin in an enclosure that was simply too chilly and dry. Give him several inches of moist, loose substrate across the whole floor so depth itself becomes part of the gradient.
Heat from the side, moisture from above
The safest way to warm one end is a heat mat fixed to the outside of the side wall at that end, on a thermostat — not under the tank, where a burrowing frog can dig down and sit directly on the hottest point, and not a strong basking lamp overhead, which desiccates both frog and substrate and fights the humidity he depends on. Read the temperature with probes at substrate level at both ends; air readings above the soil describe a layer he never enters. Humidity does the other half of the climate work: mist the enclosure to keep the substrate damp like a wrung-out sponge — moist enough to hold a shape when squeezed, never soupy — and keep a wide, shallow water dish at the cooler end, shallow enough that a squat frog with no interest in swimming can climb in and out without effort. Room light from a nearby window is enough of a day-night cycle for an animal who lives under leaf litter.
Reading a frog who mostly sits still
A pacman frog's feedback is subtle because stillness is his profession. A comfortable frog sits buried to the eyes at a chosen depth, lunges instantly at passing food, and shifts position over the days as the soil warms and cools. A frog who climbs the glass, sits on the surface fully exposed, or soaks permanently in his dish is often too warm or too dry at substrate level. A frog who buries himself completely, seals over, and refuses food for weeks in a cool room may be attempting aestivation — check the cool-end temperature and the substrate moisture before assuming he is ill. Feeding response is the sharpest instrument you have: a pacman at the right temperature strikes fast and digests quietly, while one outside his band either ignores prey entirely or takes it and then sits on it undigested, which is its own kind of message.
The vet threshold for a pacman frog
See an amphibian-aware vet when a pacman stops feeding for several weeks with temperatures verified in range, when the skin develops redness, sores, or a cottony film, when the body looks bloated rather than round, or when a frog who has aestivated does not resume eating after the enclosure is warmed and dampened again. Amphibians absorb the world through their skin, so bring the details a vet will want: warm-end and cool-end substrate readings, how the enclosure is misted, and what the water dish is filled with. Handling belongs in the same conversation — wet, powder-free hands or no handling at all, since dry skin and lotions damage the very surface he breathes and drinks through. For the daily rhythm of misting and temperature checks shared between keepers, KinsLe's Family Sharing keeps his 80–85°F warm end, his cooler retreat, and his soaking dish routine in one profile, so a second person topping up his moisture is working to the same figures you set.