Never had any intentions of having this indoor animal – we enjoy him in the summer on the back deck. When it is time for the next change consider looking at these other substrates. Is a easter lily ( a common houseplant) in the habitat or can it harm the frog? Now we have 11 fully morphed gray tree frogs and 3 that just got their front legs this week. Click through all of our Tree Frog images in the gallery. The one that won't eat is a male and the other is a female. He seems to stay in the same place.. I’ve got water for it, and have bought about 17 small crickets. Do you have particular vitamin/mineral supplements you recommend for tree frogs to put on or feed to their crickets? One way to help prevent new substrates from sticking to frogs in the future is to wet the substrate in a bucket for a day or two first to let it fully absorb water. I think the frog is going to be okay. Even pouring water on it or adding shade might not be a good idea even though it looks like it is really hot. If it is already too cold, you can keep it but I would suggest a low-wattage heat lamp instead of a heating pad (they can work great for snakes but not so good for frogs). For adult gray tree frogs medium size crickets from a pet store which are 1/2″-3/4″ long should work. It is pretty fun to watch tadpoles turn into frogs and I am glad you had the opportunity with the tadpole you saved. That’s why you should contact a vet and let them inspect what it is. How can I tell if it is a male or female? Brave green tree frog is spotted EATING a deadly Coastal Taipan snake - one of the most venomous serpents in the world. Like you suggest, probably it is eating the fruit flies or other bugs around the house. I will ask if she has experience with frogs. The first is water quality. It also varies in shades of grey and brown, where its lightest is almost white. They won’t eat mealworms or waxworms, at least mine never have. You may notice that your frog changes some habits and it is giving signals that it is ready to hibernate. It has been here for 3 days now and is not moving much. The heat of the tank is 70 to 75 degrees. Do you have ANY idea what’s going on? Simply because much of it is not in their diet. This could kill your frog. Is strictly crickets ok?? If there was a frog around to breed there then it is suitable habitat. It’s about 65°F, not too sunny right now and he’s in there now. Use them at every other feeding for adult gray tree frogs and at every feeding for juveniles. Feed it crickets with those earthworms and waxworms as occasional treats to vary its diet. It is a female. Is it possible he was just dehydrated? People usually buy them in maggot form as “spikes” (see https://www.joshsfrogs.com/blue-bottle-fly-spikes-200-count.html) and then allow them to pupate into flies in an escape-proof container. Thank you for all of this great information. The best way to know when to change the substrate is by smell and appearance. The food has to be alive, correct? You write: Regarding the call, I would guess there is some other kind of frog at your pond that is difficult to see during the day but has a quack-like call. The small space can even be beneficial because it helps them find food more easily than if they were in a large enclosure. You want to aim for a range of temperatures between the high 60’s and 70’s during the day. The frog that isn’t eating may have a sickness that you are unaware of, and you don’t want to spread the disease to the other frog. https://photos.app.goo.gl/AkY9vqYjMNivpJUl1. There are several reasons as to why your frog won’t eat. Enjoy your new neighbor. I have seen some pretty ill-looking frogs which escaped and were out of their enclosure come back to life after a soak. Then his pump broke down, (so no more connection with the fish water), and almost immediately the Greys started to breed in his outside pond. It is not ideal but probably won’t cause any serious harm as long as the substrate isn’t sticking because it is dry. Those are just a few ideas. Nutritional problems might develop when frogs are fed the wrong kind of food, for example, if you fed only mealworms for the last few months, or if you don’t use a quality nutritional supplement on the food before feeding (although usually if there is a nutritional deficiency there were will be some serious symptoms of it before the frog eventually passes). Thank you in advance for your time. As much as I enjoy having him around, I was hoping to release him in the spring. Thank you so much, Devin! So how do I know if it is okay? I’m pretty sure they’re grey or green tree frogs judging by the calls we heard from the male daddy. HELP! Use a quality thermometer to measure the temperature under the light to make sure it is not getting too hot. Every morning when I check on him he is at the same place in his plant; perhaps he is happy but just has this spot picked out? The second option would be to release it yourself. It is better to be safe than sorry. Second thought–your idea about temperature might be right on. I moved them back up to the top after their fourth day of refusing live crickets and not moving at the bottom of their terrarium. I am hoping to give the frog a fighting chance. Thanks! If one was really hungry it might try, or if you feed the adult frog and the baby frog hops past it the adult frog might try, to but my guess is probably not. I checked this morning thinking it had passed and it perked up and moved when I touched it. The only way to get enough food in winter is to buy crickets, flightless fruit flies, and other live foods from pet stores. Gray tree frogs, and many other amphibians, produce noxious skin secretions that can cause irritation. Gray tree frogs are surprisingly well suited to deal with cold weather. I put this little critter in a 10 gal aquarium with one side having a UTH on a thermostat set at 80. Once it lost its tail I put it in a separate thing a pet carrier with dirt and and a tiny pet dish filled it with water and put mini krill in the water. Yes, exactly, after gray tree frogs lay eggs they leave. The deck is in full sun during the day, so I placed a small shelter next to it and it moves back and forth between sun and shade. This won’t work though if there are chloramines in it which do not dissipate as quickly as chlorine. Yes, it should be okay to release it so long as you don’t keep any other pet amphibians and the gray tree frog has not been in contact with any other pet amphibians. If the crickets are still in there your tree frog is not eating. I have given over the corner of the counter (2.25 x 4 ft area) to a collection of plants and a water dish. Thank you. It may be helpful to cover all but one side of the aquarium with black poster board or an aquarium background to help the frogs feel secure. If the light is keeping the terrarium too warm or overheating the cage then this could lead to problems. Try taking the tank apart piece by piece and going through the substrate to see if you can find it. If you put in three crickets one day and then check the next morning and there is only one left, you know the frog is eating. You mention that their diet should consist MAINLY of crickets, but is it important that I switch up her diet or are crickets only okay? We know he’s a he because he’s very vocal during the day and in the evening! It can change color by using camouflage from almost white to an almost black color, however, it does NOT have the yellow marking on the inner side of its hind legs, so I’m not sure what type of free it is now. First of all, let me explain to you what hibernation is. Waxworms are good, small earthworms or larger ones cut in half, houseflies, Pheonix worms, etc. Yes, you can try offering freeze-dried mealworms from time to time (maybe once or twice a month) by hand or with feeding tongs. Hes not very active, much of the time just sitting in a plant. Some frogs have even been shown to use hot sunny basking sites to help them fight off diseases like chytrid which can’t tolerate hot temperatures. It moves around every night, as we see some of the non-roosting plants move in the evening, but it has a particular rubber tree that it lives in every night, and we go looking for it each night resting on a different leaf. What do you suggest we try feeding him? Make sure it doesn’t get too hot (above 85F or so) or that if it does get hot there is a cooler area for the frog to retreat to inside the tank. Hi, My principal recently brought me one of these little gray tree frogs that a group of students found partially frozen in a recent snow storm. Good luck. Is he to hot?? Make sure the tail is half gone or more before moving them to the terrestrial setup. Mist down the enclosure with amphibian-safe water once a day using a spray bottle. Thanks for your opinion…just wanting to do what’s best for the little fella . At cool conditions, metabolism will slow and you run the risk of health problems showing up. A tight-fitting screen cover is essential to prevent escapes. There might actually be more food in there than you think. Thank you. Pay attention to temperature to make sure the light does not overheat the enclosure. If there is not a lot of cover the frogs may be digging into the substrate to hide. But, if you are just keeping it for a few more weeks until you can release it I bet it will do okay at room temperature. He’s pretty small, I would say about the size of a nickel. Temps expected below freezing tomorrow with snow. Can’t set him free with a clear conscience without getting an expert opinion. Should I be concerned or is this just that she is going into hibernation mode? Repashy Calcium Plus is what I usually use with my frogs. Fenbendazole and metronidazole are safe to use in frogs at appropriate doseages for parasite treatment, which it most likely requires. Contact someone who can help you with that. Juvenile gray tree frogs are often green in color and develop their adult gray coloration as they mature. Feeding juvenile gray tree frogs: If you have a juvenile frog that hasn't fully metamorphosed into an adult yet, you should feed it 3-6 insects every day instead of every 2-3 days. In either case you will have a gallon of frog-safe water sitting around for the water dish, but you can use straight RO for misting. Reply. Other than the live food, their care is not that demanding and they are enjoyable animals to keep. Is there anything I can do to help him survive? He is now fat and happy. They are the larvae of a moth. Thank you so much for your reply. I have 3 GTF that I’ve raised since they were tiny tadpoles. She eats well, I actually feed her crickets by hand. If you do move it, make sure the temperature at night is not approaching freezing (the warmer the night the better). Avoid aquarium gravel, small pieces of bark, or reptile cage carpeting because these substrates can cause health problems if accidentally ingested by the frog while feeding and/or do not hold adequate moisture. Hibernation is a normal process to go through for some frog (and toad) species. Moving only to take a dip in their little pond at night. A few ideas come to my mind. Enjoy your new tree frog. Given the right environment and a good diet, 5-10 years is possible. Yes, it might be too hot. I can’t feed live food when it grows up, and I wouldn’t have a place to leave it when we travel. Hello. Good luck with them. Move it down to the cooler area. All has been well until now, when he would normally be preparing to freeze over. Temps in the house are 60-70 degrees. Now, he only eats one about every 3-4 days. There are many other reasons a frog can become bloated though, this is just one idea, and if you are able to find a veterinarian they can run some tests and try to figure out what is going on. Can a plastic enclosure suffice or does it need to be glass I have recently obtained a gray tree frog and the habitat is one with a lot of moss and stuff to climb on but its in a plastic tank. I believe it is a female based on what I have read. The light will attract insects that the frog will eat. Also consider keeping the crickets for a few days before they are fed to frogs and feed the crickets a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potato, squash, orange slices, zucchini, etc. If you don’t have a light source on the tank then the photoperiod from indirect light in the room might be getting shorter each day and that could sort of hint to the frog that it is time to slow things down and find a place to hide. It looked miserable, sweating, and instead of resting like a rock, it was trying to stand braced against the brick wall. Gray tree frogs do not required particularly high humidity and adding some extra air flow to the enclosure is not a bad idea. When there is a chorus in the evening I hear occasionally a very different sound from the thrill they normally produce, like a high pitched “Quack-QuacK.” Is that maybe to ward off other males as they sometimes embrace each other trying to mate? One morning, I checked the tank and found the froglet upside down in the water, apparently drowned. (How to tell if a frog is pregnant), What are amphibians? I found him in a potted plant in my back yard that I had been watering with the same tap water and he’d been there for at least a month. I’ll specifically get some small crickets and see if he eats those as I don’t see cricket bodies from the last feed. Use a flashlight. He’s still in the 10 gallon tank but it now has branches to climb (bought from a pet supply), plants to climb and hide under, a shallow bowl of water, day and night heat lamp and crickets to catch and eat. Thank you for this page! A piece of driftwood or corkbark and some artificial (or live if you have lighting) plants will provide perches and cover. This kind of frog doesn’t provide any care for the tadpoles or baby frogs. I had a bunch of tadpoles in the deep end of our pool that got a hole in the liner. I’d hate to keep him because I feel he needs to be wild. As the name rightly suggests, tree frogs spend most of their life on trees and tall vegetation. If you upload a photo of your setup somewhere else like Google Photos and link to it I am always happy to see how things look, and other people might like to see as well. Gray tree frogs are mainly arboreal and need a number of good perches and climbing branches. If mealworms are okay I’ll use them occasionally. You could put small crickets in a plastic cup near the houseplants (if the cup is tall and smooth on the sides the crickets probably won’t escape but the frog could likely get in and eat them). The temperature up near the top by the lamp should be in the low or even mid 80’s and down near the substrate in the low to mid 70’s during the day. Frogs can become bloated for many reasons and it is impossible to figure out what is going on without a veterinarian who is experienced with amphibians. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. We keep it cool in our house. If it starts to smell swampy, sour or like rotting eggs definitely time for a change. She isn’t burrowing I to the soil but she will lay in one position all day on the bottom of her habitat. Yes, that’s possible. So you may have to wait and see. We tried meal worms but they don’t seem interested. See https://amphibiancare.com/2005/06/27/crickets-care-breeding/. They will be here for about 6 weeks, and we are not planning to open our water feature (where they lay eggs) until the bugs are gone. I hope this helps. The tree frogs are nocturnal so they probably came in at night somehow unless they hitched a ride in on something you brought in from outside. My white’s tree frog won’t eat! Too late. Driftwood, cork bark tubes, bamboo poles, or PVC pipe segments can be positioned at different angles in the cage for this purpose. Home / Pet Types / Amphibians / What Do Tree Frogs Eat. All chemical free as I use to have reptiles and had these items readily available. Even longer. If you haven’t heard two frogs calling then it might be a female. If you find the enclosure is getting too warm (over 80-85F for days on end and not cooling off at night) you should not use heat lamps and might need to find a cooler location for the tank. In this case, you might try switching to moist paper towels (and removing the heat pad) that are changed every couple days because it will be easier for the frog to locate food on this substrate. I know it’s technically always best to leave an animal in the wild but just wanted someone else’s opinion? A few times we thought she was going to die (we didn’t know how to keep her warm, how moist to keep her vase, etc), and, one time she escaped when the elastic holding her mesh snapped and she followed her flightless fruit flies out. Chlorinated tap water is not safe for use and should be treated with an aquarium product that removes and neutralizes chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals a day before use. I was talking to my brother telling him these are probably tree frog tadpoles because our neighbor installed a new pool and frogs love pools. Their behavior will change with the seasons even though we aren’t really sensing much of a change inside our house. who protects them? Thank you so much for your time. This page has been so helpful to me! They are just over a year from froglet stage. Good question. I bet the frog will make it until spring on its own since it has been doing okay so far. No algae there… how to feed them? Thank you! Great article on tree frogs. The plant has been indoors for about 5 or 6 weeks, so I’m guessing the frog has acclimated to our indoor temperatures. They have been morphing and moving on with a little help getting out, but I found a very tiny one today on the pool liner and I thought he was dead. It might take a few days, although if the tree frog is hungry and there is a small insect nearby it probably won’t hesitate to eat it. It must be feeding on something. Or could it be because I recently moved his habitat? You might also be surprised by how large of food a small tree frog can eat. I am happy to keep him in a tank for the winter or longer term but would release him if it’s better for him. I am a light very light sleeper, lol. 3 comments. It sounds perfect for the frog. But it also isn’t unusual for healthy amphibians to occasionally have a bit of shed leftover on them that didn’t come off all the way. My guess is it probably completed metamorphosis last year, although if you live towards the southern end of their range it might have morphed early enough this year to put on size and grow to one inch. But if the temperature goes below 50 degrees, you should move the frog to another location. On my way to go get crickets now. Should I turn it off during the day when it’s less active? Very helpful response! Frogs that er sick shouldn’t go into hibernation because they might not get out of it. Frogs are extremely delicate animals. On the other hand, if everything else seems fine and the frog is just spending time near the bottom of the tank rather than up top, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The best way to avoid this is to 1) don’t handle pet frogs, and 2) if you do handle a frog, make sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterwards. Your frog will probably be a lighter color towards the top under the bright light. Thank you so much! You could put the crickets in a plastic bin on the floor with an open top. Sometimes frogs can knock over feeding stations, though, so you might need to either submerge it in the substrate a little or zip tie it to a branch or other cage item. If it’s too cold to release him now and I keep him until Spring, will being a “house frog” leave him not knowing how to catch his own food when I release him in the Spring? Tonight, after feeding the fruit flies (we have a culture container of them), I noticed she hadn’t eaten many, and this frantic crawling of the walls was her trying to find a way out. Think about letting them out after dark or on a warmer rainy day this week, if there is one, which I would guess might help improve chances of survival. Alternatively, you could try feeding in a small shallow dish and at night, and then watching with a small flashlight to see if the frog notices the food. That sounds like a good setup, but something is off. You can trust the frog to find a good place to overwinter. We live in northeastern Pennsylvania and he has been hanging out around our goldfish pond for the last week seeming to do perfectly fine has his own hiding spot during the day which we check in on him regularly. I think the best thing to do is to release it where you found it. This will fatten up a frog, so it is best to use small amounts of the waxworms.eval(ez_write_tag([[970,90],'amphibianlife_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_9',118,'0','0'])); This site is owned and operated by Amphibian Life. If a warm few days show up and night temperatures are above freezing for a while it should be okay to release the frog, otherwise best to keep it until spring (or find someone else who is willing to do so). I assume the cooler hours, when I turn it off, will be at night, which means the enclosure’s temperature will eventually drop to 64 degrees — is that OK? Our frog frequently burrows half her body in at the base of the tree branch we have in there. from the water, he revived. We’ve done nothing other than water the plant every 4-5 days, for which he chirps his thanks every now and again. It’s making my heart hurt to be honest, as I thought we were doing such a great job at keeping this little life alive, and, I have no idea why all of a sudden, she is doing this. Lastly, it could also be related to temperature. Yes, they are native to New York and I guess they are even found in the city (as you observed). I’m keeping 4 gray tree frogs we found when they were tadpoles. A paludarium setup of land and water can also be used because these frogs are found in the trees near water in the wild. Explore Wisconsin's rare plants, animals and natural communities. To give you an idea of age, they dropped their tails between July 3 and 8. I’ve had green tree frogs in the past but adopted these grays to study for a sculpture I was doing. But not really ever in the night so this trying to escape her enclosure nighttime behaviour doesn’t really make sense with that. The only change has been that the temperature is a bit cooler but I keep the heat at 65 in my studio just for them! You can keep an adult in something like a standard 10- or 20-gallon aquarium, or one of those front-opening terrariums they sell at pet stores that is 12″ long x 12″ wide x 18″ high (bigger is even better). I also have a gray tree frog that came in with my house plants in early October. Either way, the idea is to count how many go in and see how many are leftover after night when the frog is active. Or, maybe an unscreened window you keep open at night? We saved most of them, I can only assume the rest were eaten by the cat. I feel bad for him, maybe his brain got fried on the pool cover. 00-01 Unhealthy Yard Tree - Common; 02 I would like to harvest timber on my property. 3 Use supplements every other feeding so your frog gets all of its nutrients. Crickets should be about as long as the width of the frogs head or a little smaller. If a tree frog is handled roughly or squeezed and then a person doesn’t wash their hands before rubbing their eyes or nose they might experience a burning or discomfort. After you get a frog, you are naturally going to take care of it by feeding it. The other has always been smaller and never as good an eater, but did fine. I no longer hear tree frogs making noise in the woods. I have put him out and he finds his way back it. Yes, I think in this situation it is okay to keep the tree frog as a pet. You might want to keep an eye on the temperature inside the enclosure, though. The water had a rainbow film over it and i thought to my self there would be no way that they would survive in that, I scoop them up and put them in the jar. If you do stick with only crickets keep coating them with the calcium and vitamin D3. We’ve switched it out before, putting a fresh carpet in. I was looking in my frogs’s tank today and noticed something on one my frog’s leg. I’m going to start turning it off at night to see if that helps him adjust. Thank you for the information. If instead, you were in California or something where they are not native then I would suggest keeping it. As long as the crickets can’t climb out of the cup, you should be able to easily count how many you put in there before night and how many remain in the morning. Amphibian populations are declining and some kinds are even going extinct, and one of the main causes of the problem is introduced diseases (for example, the amphibian chytrid fungus). Most soils sold for potting plants contain additives that are not safe for amphibians (for example, fertilizers or perlite) and the quality can vary from bag to bag. Working at UPS, you might even come across boxes of live reptiles or amphibians sometimes. If on the other hand, the frog eats everything in a minute or two and still seems hungry you can feed more. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about with your reptiles, though, so I think you are good to go in spring once it starts to warm up. i have two copes gray tree frogs In one tank and usually they act normal and they are usually active at certain times and they just act like any normal frog but once in a while I take them out clean out their tank put new soil and put new like branches and plants and stuff like that and today I did that and I decided to put a few rollie pollies in there so they can just walk around and they can eat whenever and then I just found this centipede type looking thing and I put it in there because usually they eat stuff like that and now they’re acting really weird I don’t know if it’s because of that centipede or what And I’m scared that maybe it’s poisonous and it’s going to harm my frogs because I’ve had them for a few months now and they never acted like this right now theyre jumping around and they are really really active. Here is a short easily read article about amphibian hibernation: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-frogs-survive-wint/ Great question. I finally found a light bulb that would produce enough heat. Lighting–although UVB lighting might be beneficial it probably isn’t required. Often tap water treated with a water conditioner for aquariums is best, but you’re right, it depends on your local water quality. Is that a thing? Gray tree frogs can even survive days at temperatures slightly below freezing by producing a sort of “anti-freeze” to prevent freezing solid. Of course my kids would like to keep it but we know nothing about keeping frogs. I bought my american green tree frog two days ago in the morning and it still hasn't eating a single thing I'm starting to get worried): Any advice??? Is it possible for the frog to live if I put it back outside under some leaves? Then I saw there Was one with its arms and legs. I put it inside of a small ventilated plastic terrarium, added coco bark, a small orchid and a piece of wood. If the frogs are still only the size of a penny or smaller you might consider ordering a culture of the larger fruit fly Drosophila hydei from an online supplier. But I looked EVERYWHERE for the tiny froglet and I can’t find him. If there is not a background on the terrarium you could tape some black poster board to the outside of three sides to make the frogs feel more secure. I followed the advice of a friend and removed the bark from the branches leaving a nice “y” shape at the top for a sitting area. Gray tree frogs also have the ability to change color. When the food is broken down it moves further along the digestive system through a process we call peristalsis. Good cultures will produce thousands of flies and the tree frogs will notice them–they won’t get lost in the coconut husk substrate. started to grow back legs and then front legs and his tail went clear. Lisa. However he was found amongst packages from multiple states so he could have hitched a ride in a truck as well. On the other hand, if it starts to look skinny or thin you could put a 5-gallon bucket in the room near where the frog spends its time with a dozen small or medium size crickets inside of it (they shouldn’t be able to jump out of the bucket) and the frog will likely find them at night.