Gray Treefrog / Hyla versicolor and H chrysoscelis caresheet

[John]

Our fourth care and information sheet is for the two species of Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor and H. chrysoscelis. It was written by Kurt Kunze and myself. It can be found here. The breeding section is still being written as of Friday June 26th 2009. Thanks to Johnny Farnen for the lovely Hyla chrysoscelis photo.

Please use this thread to discuss/debate/argue/change the care and information sheet.

[John]

Breeding and raising section has now been completed.

[Kurt]

Excellent.

[Ra]

The care sheet says large females can eat pink mice? Is that really a good idea? Seems like it couold be a choking or digestive hazard somehow.

[John]

I've never heard of a frog choking. Anybody? My female Gray Treefrog is more than capable of eating a pinkie - not that I would ever give one to her due to the mammalian fat.

[Kurt]

Come to think of it I have never seen a frog choke on anything. Tonight I fed pinkies to my White's treefrogs. No problems there. I used to have a gray treefrog that was as large as my smallest White's, but I never gave it any mice.

[LORIANNE]

Our fourth care and information sheet is for the two species of Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor and H. chrysoscelis. It was written by Kurt Kunze and myself. It can be found here. The breeding section is still being written as of Friday June 26th 2009. Thanks to Johnny Farnen for the lovely Hyla chrysoscelis photo.

Please use this thread to discuss/debate/argue/change the care and information sheet.

[LORIANNE]

Hi, John!
What a wonderful lot of information! My grey tree frogs are wild, but they have perched on a chair on our deck for the past three summers. The first two summers
it was (from your description) a female. This summer it has been another, smaller one, so I presume it is a male. Now, in October, we have had a tiny one, about 1/2" long, occasionally, and today, another one, a male, I guess. We haven't fed them. I would like to prepare an outdoor shelter for for the winter. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Lorianne

[John]

It's not really practical. They will bury themselves in the soil under leaf litter. I would leave them to it.

[kh2odragon]

During the winter when they hibernate they secreate an emzyme into their cell like an anti-freeze witch alows them to freeze solid with out harming the cells in their body and in the spring they "thaw" and look for food and ponds or pools to breed and spawn in. I live in virginia and they do this every year.

[Timothyfrog]

Can a male grey tree frog breed with a female green tree frog? i have found nothing on the web

[elly]

They share the same habitat yet I have never heard of a case of a visibly hybrid individual being discovered. I seriously, seriously doubt it.

[LeapyIsAFrog]

I have two wild female Gray Tree frogs I cought about 9 months ago at the time of writing this. They appear to be adults and are not growing noticably. Whenever one of my frogs Leapy, crawls onto my other frog Lovey, Lovey makes a little peep noise like she is saying, "Hey! Get off of me!" Is this normal for a female? Im also second guessing if my frogs are females. They both have speckles under their chin, but not as much and not as striking as Iv'e seen on some males I've caught before but did not keep. They also do not call like males when you hold them by their legs, but they will make a little chirp noise sometimes when the other frog hops on top of her. What conclusion should I come to? Should I visit a professional vet and find out? Thank you!

[LeapyIsAFrog]

Oh no! Lovey is now developing a growth or some sort of bulge on her upper thigh! She has just now started limping and letting her leg lay limp. She can still jump very well but walks kind of like a crab now. I am not able to upload images (Seems to be a glitch) The spot is conveiniantly under the orange area of her skin, and I can see throguh with ease. There is a redish brown mark where the bulge is located. The bulge is hard, suggesting a bone fracture. She does not show any signs of pain when the spot is manipulated in any way. Of course, she does not prefer being upside down, but she does ot peep or struggle when i examine the spot. Should bring her handling to a minimum and or consult an exotic vet? Thanks froggers!

Sincerely,
Granger Krajca (AKA LeapyIsAFrog)

(As of finishing writing this post she is curled up at the base of my computer screen and is now jumping around. She just curled up next to the usb slot of my computer.)

[elly]

A vet visit might be a good thing to make sure things are okay, but if it is a fracture I don't know that they could give a frog a splint...maybe? I do suggest bringing handling to a minimum though.

Ps: posting to the general part of the "Tree Frog" section, more people might see this.

[Larry Wardog]

KP you know only people from PA could accept one gray tree frog unless they apply for a permit to keep more frogs right? It's illegal to keep more then one of any species in the state without a permit so this could really get someone in trouble. I just want to respond so that doesn't happen. This comes up on many places people wanting many specimens but there are laws on native amphibians.

I'm not trying to be negative in any way I just want to make sure everyone is upholding the law of the land. At least in PA.

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[KP]

KP you know only people from PA could accept one gray tree frog unless they apply for a permit to keep more frogs right? It's illegal to keep more then one of any species in the state without a permit so this could really get someone in trouble. I just want to respond so that doesn't happen. This comes up on many places people wanting many specimens but there are laws on native amphibians.

I'm not trying to be negative in any way I just want to make sure everyone is upholding the law of the land. At least in PA.

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That's between me and the PA Fish and Boat Commission.

What exactly are you referring to that "could really get SOMEONE in trouble"? Do you mean to accuse me of keeping the hundreds of Gray Tree Frogs you see in my photos? Or of selling them? You need to stop trolling my posts.

[KP]

For those interested in assisting their local Gray Tree Frog population to increase, I can help with that. PM me for details. The reason I prefer to explain how I have increased my local population of Gray Tree Frogs and American Toads by PM is that I have a very persistant troll here who loves to derail threads I post on by attempting to discredit all I say with their opinion and in order to avoid that, it's much simpler to explain the details of my successful "compound" as I call it, in private.

I believe the best way to insure these creature's survival in their native biome is to promote their propagation right where you live if where you live also happens to be where they live as in my case. To that end I've kept a very successful operation going here since 2008 and have, over the last 5 years, had an increase of over six fold in the number of morphs launching onto my property and from there, naturally into the surrounding wildlands.

Anyone who'd like some good methods for doing the same can find out about all of what I've done thus far to try on their own land. My photo albums can explain some of what I've done to date.

For those who are inclined to think the worst, or worse yet, want to accuse me with not-so-veiled-threats as my troll here did; I do not sell or give away any of the Frogs, Toads or other Amphibians from my compound or anyplace else for that matter.
Gray Tree Frogs live in colonies and individuals from other colonies can be detrimental to any colony of Gray Tree Frogs. In fact, transporting and transplanting of most any animal, even within its own natural habitat can be problematic to the local population of the same specie and in some cases, other species as well.

I'm also opposed to the exotic pet trade in general and especially that of Reptiles and Amphibians unless it is verified that the animals are captive bred and treated humanely by their handlers and dealers as the exotic pet trade is notorious for contributing to the endangerment and even extinction of many species through the harvesting of wild specimens and is nearly as impactful as the loss of habitat in some cases.

[Larry Wardog]

I'm just going to start flagging these comments for abuse.

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[bunnyhugger]

I have been researching legal collection of endemics for an educational collection. In the course of this the gov herp guy suggested a versicolor might be a better display specimen than a bullfrog and descried how to legally collect one. Is there any landowner in Illinois with a robust population who might let me collect one?