Having temperature and humidity troubles

[mrsixstrings12]

Hello folks! Ever since i set-up my viv and introduced my White's Tree Frog to his new home, I've been battling against keeping the temperature and humidity high enough. Here's my set-up:

Custom built 20G Vivarium with false bottom and great stuff foam background
Medium Exo-terra heating pad placed on bottom
Dual light set-up with red "night lamp" on at all times and flourescent day light for 12 hours a day
Daily misting by hand

I have a cheap stick-on thermometer and a standard humidity gauge. The thermometer will barely read 70F and a few hours after misting, the humidity is barely at 50%.

To try and help, I would place pieces of paper over the mesh top to try and trap the humidity in and it helped slightly. Today, I made a wooden top to go over the mesh to try and help even more (it has multiple holes for air flow)

Should I go for a full glass top? What else can i do to get the temps higher?

I'd like some quick answers as it seems my frog is stressed out. He DOES eat but spends most of his time sitting in the water dish and he has lost all his color and is now a dark brown

[Mentat]

Heating pads should not be used with frogs on the bottom. They can be used on the enclosure side; but are inefficient when used so. What wattage is your red bulb?

Stick on thermometers are inaccurate. Recommend get a digital one and get probe located on back center, around 2/3 way up. Can also move around the probe to get temps at other cage locations. IRT stressed frog, please answer the below questions to get a better idea of whats going on. Thank you !

“Trouble in the Frog Enclosure”

The following information will be very helpful if provided when requesting assistance with either your frog or enclosure. To help with your questions, please utilize the below list and post the information in the proper forum area to get advice from FF members that keep the same frog. This will allow for little confusion and a faster more informed response.

1. Size of enclosure
2. # of inhabitants - specifically other frogs and size differences
3. Humidity
4. Temperature
5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish
6. Materials used for substrate
7. Enclosure set up i.e. plants (live or artificial), wood, bark and other materials.
- How were things prepared prior to being put into the viv.
8. Main food source
9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often)
10. Lighting
11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure
12. When is the last time he/she ate
13. Have you found poop lately
14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine)
15. How old is the frog
16. How long have you owned him/her
17. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred
18. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats
19. How often the frog is handled
20. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area
21. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc)


by Lynn(Flybyferns) and GrifTheGreat.

[mrsixstrings12]

Heating pads should not be used with frogs on the bottom. They can be used on the enclosure side; but are inefficient when used so. What wattage is your red bulb?

Stick on thermometers are inaccurate. Recommend get a digital one and get probe located on back center, around 2/3 way up. Can also move around the probe to get temps at other cage locations. IRT stressed frog, please answer the below questions to get a better idea of whats going on. Thank you !

Well, looks like I'll do some research instead of asking the local pet store employees haha

The wattage of the red bulb is 60 watts. It came in a day/night package by Zoo Med. Wasn't having much luck with the day bulb. I went through 2 in 2 months.

I'll go by a new thermometer this week. When I was first building the enclosure, I was trying to stick to a budget and opted for that. I have one on my aquarium and seems to do just fine.

[flybyferns]

please see reply
http://www.frogforum.net/tree-frogs/...his-color.html


Hang in there
Keep us posted.

You could try some glass on top ( cheap picture frame stuff)

[mrsixstrings12]

Alrighty folks! A little update on my enclosure! After informing my parents about what is happening in frog land my dad pointed out to me that we have one of those laser-pointer thermometers. So we pointed and checked and the tank is nice and cozy! An average temperature in the mid 80's. A little higher up about 2 inches from the top where the light lays was about 88F and down at the bottom where my frog seems to spend most of his time was about 82F.

I also changed out my sphagnum moss and cypress mulch substrate with coco fiber (approximately an inch thick). I have also started misting more water than what I was, as well as twice a day. We'll see how it goes but hopefully it will stay humid now.

2 things that intrigue me.

1: When I changed the substrate the bottom of my 2 logs in the enclosure had some sort of mold on it. Could this possibly what the problem with my frog was coming from??? I ran the logs under as hot as water as I could from the tap and scrubbed the mold off.

2: My frog is still brown but he has moved out of the water bowl and likes to hang out between the gap of my foam background and the top of the substrate. Is this a good sign? Should I build up the substrate so there is no gap at all?

[flybyferns]

Hi,
Give things a few days......to see if he spends less time in the water bowl now that the temps and hopefully the humidity levels are
better/or confirmed to be all set.

Since you had sphagnum moss in the enclosure.....watch for poop
We want to make sure he did not swallow any moss.
Seeing poop will be a great sign ! ( imagine that ! )

Oh...Don't worry about the "mold" as long as you baked the wood first ? ....just let things cycle.
If you did not bake the wood....pull it.....scrub it... and bake it at 200 degrees for about 45 min ( keep an eye on it !! as it bakes) No soap , of course, just HOT tap water.

Keep us posted.
Lynn

[mrsixstrings12]

I'm sad to report that Hopper passed away on Friday Thursday night as I went to mist the enclosure he seemed alright, hanging out where he used to in the back. When I got home Friday from work, I found him by his water bowl with all his color back. I was like hey look at that! But then I realized from the way he was laying, something was wrong and when I poked him, he did not move. I then noticed he wasn't breathing so I gave him a proper burial out in the yard.

I find it a little strange that he changed back to green before passing away. Maybe, he was getting better but the stress was just too much.

My plans for now are to fully stock my aquarium first and then get a new frog. This will allow my plants to grow in a little better. As much is I liked my White's Tree Frog, I'd like to have something that's active during the day and what first got me into this hobby was the extremely bright colors of Poison Dart Frogs. Are they more active during the day?? My mom's worried about them being poisonous since we have a small dog that likes to get into everything but I never had an escape whether it was Hopper or even a Cricket (other than when i was changing the substrate and one surprised me)

[Flying Dutchman]

Sorry for your loss.