Proud New Frog Owner - Blue Chubby Frog or Dumpy Frog

Be careful with the heat lamp, as they can dry out the frog's enclosure and thus, the frog. Seventy-five is a good temperature for your frog, sixty-five is too cool for a day time temperature.
You can cover the coconut substrate with leaf litter. "Live oak" is your best choice as it doesn't break down as quickly as other types of leaves. It can be purchased from either Black Jungle or Josh's Frogs. Welcome to Black Jungle Terrarium Supply - The Natural Choice! and Josh's Frogs - Largest online herps feeders and reptile supplies store
I would give the frog a few days to settle in. Try not to be "in its face" too much. The lack of an appetite has many possible causes. The first one could be the low temperature you have had him at. Second possibility is he is just settling into a new situation/environment. The third could be an illness, but let's put that thought aside for a now and explore the first two. There is also the possibility that he is eating and you are just not seeing it.

Thanks so much for your time! After doing more research online, I believe he is a 'White Tree Frog', not a Blue Chubby/Dumpy, unless these are different names for the same species. He looks just like the images I've found online for a 'White Tree Frog'. He's bright green, a little chubby, and has the yellow eyes with horizontal pupils.
We moved the terrarium to a warmer part of the house and did away with the heat lamp... wouldn't want to dry things up.
The temp seems to be at 74 now, and humidity at about 65.
The frog has eaten 2 crickets, I assume, as there are not any more in the enclosure.
I found him in a different spot in the cage, and a large poop where he was before.
And we have not bugged him at all, so hopefully he's adjusting.
I'll resource the leaf litter you mentioned, and give that a try on top of the coconut shavings.
Thanks again!

You're welcome. Yes, dumpy is another name for the White's treefrog, Litoria caerulea. I have never really heard it called a a blue chubby before. In Australia, they call them green treefrogs.

our two whites were like that wen we first had them. they were constantly hiding and we didnt see much of them for quite a while (plus they were quite small so good at hiding!) and wen i did decide to handle one of them it did a big wee, but we left them alone to get used to their new house. i imagine its quite traumatic for them. weve had them for just over a month now and willow is startin to come out in the evenin and sits on her plants and lets u take photos of her. our other is a lot more shy but we still see him hidin (he is the smaller frog so we figure he is more submissive). we tend to see them most at dinner time so if ur kids up thats the best time to show him the frog. my lil boy convinced me to buy him frogs but he doesnt bother with them as the frogs r always asleep in the day. they r great fun to watch. they are drivin our cats wild! good luck

Hi Kurt,
Well there is so much more to having a pet frog than I was led to believe by the pet store... which is very surprising and a little dis-heartening. It makes me sad that these animals are sold as pets without the right/enough info. He didn't even know the proper name of the frog, which I now know is the White's Treefrog - thanks!
Anyway, I found your care sheet on this sight, which has been tremendously helpful.
I am excited that the frog seems more active at night, is eating, the temp seems fine now and humidity good. He was in the water dish for sometime last night after eating 2 crickets!
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks. And I think we are now on the right track.
By the way, do think it wise to get a larger tank? He's only in a 10 gallon, which considering the size he will eventually be, seems quite small. When do think we may have to upgrade?
And, mim, thanks for your comment. It's nice to know that what we experienced isn't so out of the ordinary...

I THINK you need at least a 20 gallon for a single white's tree frog by the time it is full grown.

Some White's Tree frogs might find a 20 gallon to be dis-satisfactory however and might try to escape, especially if the aquarium is not tall enough. (Tree frogs like to climb) My frog used to try to force the lid of his twenty gallon open until I upgraded to a 33 gallon. Since then he has been fine. It depends how active your frog is though. If you see it trying to get through the lid I recommend upgrading, or at least making sure the lid is secure. I've heard tales of frogs actually getting through the lid and then you have a problem.

Edit: I forgot to ask, do you have any pictures of it yet? I'm curious to see if your "Blue dumpy" is a "blue phase White's Tree Frog" or if it is just false advertising.

Originally Posted by Bolisnide

Hi Kurt,
Well there is so much more to having a pet frog than I was led to believe by the pet store... which is very surprising and a little dis-heartening. It makes me sad that these animals are sold as pets without the right/enough info. He didn't even know the proper name of the frog, which I now know is the White's Treefrog - thanks!
Anyway, I found your care sheet on this sight, which has been tremendously helpful.
I am excited that the frog seems more active at night, is eating, the temp seems fine now and humidity good. He was in the water dish for sometime last night after eating 2 crickets!
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks. And I think we are now on the right track.
By the way, do think it wise to get a larger tank? He's only in a 10 gallon, which considering the size he will eventually be, seems quite small. When do think we may have to upgrade?
And, mim, thanks for your comment. It's nice to know that what we experienced isn't so out of the ordinary...

Ha.

You have noooo idea.

I work at PetSmart...the care sheets and things at most of the big box pet stores are a damn pathetic joke, and it makes me sick. The #1 best piece of advice I could give for anybody new to keeping non-mammalian/avian exotics (this means all tropical fish, reptiles, inverts, 'phibs, and any I missed) is DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!

Many of the animals you could go out and purchase are more difficult than those stores would have you believe, because all they really care about are sales. This doesn't mean that you should completely discount advice from these stores, but you should try to find people who have actual experience with caring for the animal you are buying.

Your White's Treefrog setup is fine for now, but getting some leaves would be a good idea to curb substrate ingestion, which can happen when white's divebomb crickets or other food items. Maple and Oak leaves taken from outside are fine too, but it's important to bake them in your oven at 250 degrees or so for a bit to kill anything that could harm your frogs. After that, wash the leaves in conditioned tap water and place them on top of the substrate. Something else about what you may have been told about the frog that isn't really true is substrate changes....you only want to change substrate for treefrogs if it's been badly soiled by something; otherwise, you should treat the tank as a "forest in a box"; people don't come to forests every day to take away leaves and tree bark, and if they did, the forest would die. Treefrogs are forest denizens, and would not appreciate this much, in a forest or a tank.

Originally Posted by Crystal6

Edit: I forgot to ask, do you have any pictures of it yet? I'm curious to see if your "Blue dumpy" is a "blue phase White's Tree Frog" or if it is just false advertising.

Here's a picture of the frog. Pretty sure he's not a blue phase White's, he's very green.

Forgot to mention he's about 2 1/2 inches and likes to hide in the far back right corner of the enclosure, behind the plant. I think it's warmer in that corner..

Congratulations on your new frog! it would be a good idea to upgrade his terrarium. I would do so as soon as you can, but before he reaches 3". I would go at least 20 gallons, and the taller the better. I'm not sure if you have ever seen them, but I really like the exo terras. They may seem really expensive, but they come with everything you need if you buy the kits. I have a 18x18x24 (which is around 30 gallons) exo terra for my two whites tree frogs.

Originally Posted by Bolisnide

Here's a picture of the frog. Pretty sure he's not a blue phase White's, he's very green.

Forgot to mention he's about 2 1/2 inches and likes to hide in the far back right corner of the enclosure, behind the plant. I think it's warmer in that corner..

Oooh nice. He does look a bit teal but its hard to tell in that picture. Eitherway, he looks great! Congratulations.