My Frogs

The green treefrog is a very commonly available treefrog. Most animals are taken out of the wild and will be stressed out when you buy them. When selecting your treefrog make sure it doesn't have any cuts or irregular spotting or anything else that is unusual. Some spots are normal, so make sure you know what you are looking for in your frog.

Once have found the frog you like you are going to need a tank. Since they are small arboreal treefrogs they like height and do not require a large cage. I would say that a 10 or 15 gallon extra high aquarium would be fine for three or four frogs. For a substrate I recommend putting down 2 inches of pea gravel and then placing on top of it and inch of potting soil making sure to take most of the vermiculite out. This is a time consuming job so if you want you could buy specially made potting soil for amphibians that already has the vermiculite taken out of it.

What I do is just use some reptibark. The only problem with that is they occasionally get a mouthful of bark when lunging for crickets. The potting soil can get too wet and the humidity breeds larvae and yucky bugs you don't want in your house. Trust me. Plus the reptibark smells much nicer.

The next thing to do is to place in a water dish. All a water dish has to be is a dish about four or five inches in diamater that is no deeper than two inches. Now place asorted branches, sticks and pieces of bark in the terrarium. Next just put some philodendrons and other climbing plants in.

This setup can also be used for barking, cuban, whites and grey tree frogs. For whites and cuban treefrogs I would use a larger tank like a 20 gallon extra-high aquarium.The whites will also need a higher temperature.

Luckily, green treefrogs are not the pickiest eaters. Feed yours about 2 or 3 small to medium sized crickets every other day or so per frog. If you wait four days to feed them, double the amount you would have usually fed them. Mealworms are another source of food for tree frogs. If you use mealworms I suggest you put a dish in the terrarium to put the mealworms in so they don't just burrow away.

With either of the two food sources mentioned above, I would dust the food with a vitamin supplement every other feeding or so. You don't have to do this but it will make your green treefrogs healthier. Or, to kill two birds with one stone, remember, you do have to feed the crickets to keep them alive. Usually a small apple slice is sufficient. That apple gives them extra nutrients for the frogs.

Feeder animals are not vitamin enriched animals themselves and generally are in very poor health. Your frogs need nutrients. A product called gut-load is a cricket food. It makes them big and juicy, so your frogs or bearded dragons or whatever you have get all those nutrients and appreciate the bigger, juicier little crickets. But remember that the crickets need water, too. That's where the apple comes in. It gives them enough moisture so that they don't dehydrate and you have half a dozen dead crickets and four hungry frogs.

Following this care, your frogs should have live a long life.

Frog Characteristics

There are several color phases green tree frogs go through.  They can be green to brown, with yellow spots, blue, or even albino.

Females tend to be bigger and plumper. Maybe even "pear shaped". They also have clean white throats. The males are typically a little smaller and leaner. Males will call when approaching maturity (and through the rest of their lives) and throat coloration is usually "dirty" looking.

I've got four green tree frogs at my house.  I got two summer of 97 to live with me in my dorm room.  I named them Beavis and Butthead -- I let my best friend name them, and as much as I pleaded, those were the names that stuck.  I didn't know much about them, but I tried to find out everything I could. 

Well, I fed them crickets, which are pretty gross, and kept them at 86 degrees or so.  Beavis was the male and Butthead the female.

Unfortunately, Beavis died of intestinal problems in early winter 98.  Butthead became quite depressed and was not eating real well.  So, Esteban got me my two boys Freddy and Sicky and then I found Baby. She was so tiny in the store; I'd never seen a tinier frog, and she was SO CUTE... So I bought her.

Spring 98 -- My mistake, baby is a male. Poor Butthead!!! Baby isn't a real masculine male, though. He just started croaking. He sounds JUST like Beavis. He is a terrible hunter, however, and is still very tiny. Sometimes I hand feed him to make sure he at least gets enough food.

Winter 99 -- Living up to his name, the infection that I thought Sicky had beaten came back, and even after quarrantine took Butthead, Baby, and Sicky to be with Beavis in the big pond in the sky. I will miss them all very much.

After some time, Esteban got me my little Max, the tiniest frog in the store. Well, that lasted until I brought a dozen crickets home and he ate the five I put in for he and Freddy to share. He's my little pig. Max always looks like he swallowed a marble because if I don't stop him, he just gorges himself.

They're living in a spacious terranium,  getting plenty of sunlight, eating crickets w/ vitamin supplement, swimming in the "Beavis Memorial Pond," and listening to the rain sounds tape I got for them.

They croak when it's raining and they love the sounds, but you don't really hear all that inside my bedroom.  I bought them this nature CD, and it's supposed to encourage them to mate.  Now I have to get a larger tank and set it up for tadpoles as soon as I have the extra cash. Of course, now I'll need another female, but I'm not worried about that right now.

Links to other sites on the Web

Back to index

A good way to get people to see your site

Frog info forum.  Ask questions, get answers.
 

Someday, I hope to have this linked up to several frog info pages, but I'm redoing the majority of this site now, so this may take awhile...  Thanx for your patience. If you have any good help sites, e-mail the addresses to me! Feel free to e-mail me with any questions regarding my frogs or yours.  If I can't help, I can help you find someone who can.

I'd love to hear from you!

© 1997-2003 Write to me at fem@spacemonkeymail.com

You are number

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page