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Thread: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

  1. #1

    Default How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    LeeValley once again has a precision pocket scale available for the low price of $14.95 in Canada: Precision Pocket Scale - Lee Valley Tools (it's available in the States as well), so I picked one up to monitor my frogs weight. Outside of LeeValley, they are mostly available from your local drug dealer supplier, and I like LeeValley so I went with them.

    You can zero the scale with a (small) container on it then put the frog in the container and voila. It comes with a little pan you can use as well, and I'll probably use this most of the time but it has a sticker with instructions on it that will probably have to be removed (it will get wrecked from frequent cleanings in between frog weigh-ins anyway). I wouldn't weigh directly on the scale as it would be harder to make sure the frog is entirely on the pad and I wouldn't want to have to clean the scale with liquids any more than necessary. This scale is supposed to be accurate to within 1/10 of a gram for stuff under 20g, so I figure this is accurate enough for long term monitoring.

    The scale in action on Waldo using the supplied pan:



    Over the past few days I've weighed each of my frogs, this obviously requires taking them out of their cage so I waited to time it with cage cleanings or external feedings. For reference here are my results of weight, plus snout to vent length as best as I could determine it (frog on glass on a ruler):

    Hyla versicolor
    Waldo, 15.4g, 2 1/4"
    Fatty, 15.6g, 2 1/4"
    Try, 4.6g, 1 1/2"

    Hyla cinerea
    Bamf, 9.2g, 1 7/8"

    Tyr might seem woefully underweight compared to the other two grays, but if all things scaled equally a 50% increase in one linear dimension means a 237.5% increase in volume (1.5x1.5x1.5=3.375). In other words, he'd be 15.525g if you added 50% to each linear dimension and things scaled this way up to 2 1/4". They all look about 'right' for weight, except I think Fatty could still stand to gain some weight (she lost a bunch after a prolapse in the summer). Bamf may also be slightly porky (H. cinerea are a little slenderer). I imagine the weight can vary a fair bit depending on the amount of water and food they happen to be carrying at the time so it's mostly long term trends I'm looking at monitoring, just like I do with my fat self on the bathroom scale.

    If anyone has weighed their treefrogs, H. versicolor, H. cinerea or otherwise, I'd be interested to know the results for comparison purposes.

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    Moderator DonLisk's Avatar
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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Brian, that is awesome. Well, we'll have to remove that from your Christmas list :-)
    1.0.0 Red Eyed Leaf/ Frog - Agalychnis callidryas
    1.1.1 Bumblebee Dart Frog - Dendrobates leucomelas
    1.1.0 Dendrobates truncatus - Yellow Striped
    1.1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius – Bakhuis Mountain
    1.1.0 - Dendrobates tinctorius - Powder Blue
    1.1.0 - Ranitomeya vanzolinii

  4. #3
    Poly
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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Brian... are those WC Grey TreeFrogs? I'd love to find one where I live! I plan on setting up a vivarium for Spring Peepers this winter, and keep two juveniles in it, so I could get the weight of those!

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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    They are wild caught. The two larger ones were part of a pack of 6 that we found in a greenhouse a couple of years ago that we were cleaning out so we could sterilize and paint its interior over the winter. We'd been punting treefrogs out of the greenhouse all fall in light of the upcoming clean, but they are pretty determined to return with lots of ways back in. We found 6 after it was too late to put outside (snow on the ground too late), so I took them in over the winter (these were my first frogs). I released 4 in the spring but couldn't manage to part with Fatty and Waldo. Tyr was a wild "sympathy" catch, one of his front limbs didn't develop properly and we figured he'd be snake bait in no time. I'd normally let nature take its course but my girlfriend wouldn't let me.

    The American green came from a petstore, they said they didn't know if it was WC or not, so I've just assumed it was.

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    Moderator tgampper's Avatar
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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Nice looking tree frog and scale! I found one source (not sure of it's accuracy, though) that mentions a 3 year old grey tree frog weighs about .5 ounce (14.1 grams). I would say that your frog is right on

    I was able to find a more reliable study:
    Life History of the Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) in Western Tennessee
    Mark E. Ritke, Jeffrey G. Babb, Mary K. Ritke

    The mean mass of females is 11.2 g; males 7.6 g. Hope this helps!

    I recommend weighing your frogs on a regular schedule and charting their progress. The information could be used to help keepers maintain healthy frogs.
    Terry Gampper
    Nebraska Herpetological Society




    “If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may understand why it is for us not merely noise but a song of poetry and emotion.”
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    Adrian Forsyth

  7. #6

    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    That's definitely interesting Terry, thanks! I had a look at the abstract of that paper (I sadly don't have access to jstor), and their males averaged a SVL of 45.9mm and females 54.2mm for those weights. I would have liked to see their data set to get lengths and weights of individual frogs, that might be interesting. Their average was smaller than mine at ~57mm, especially the male, though I think I might need some calipers now. Do you have any tips on obtaining accurate SVL measurements?

    Keeping long term records for my frogs is my main goal here.

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    100+ Post Member kueluck's Avatar
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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Nice.......one of my favorites.

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    Moderator tgampper's Avatar
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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Hi Brian:

    Here is a link you may be interested in (it is downloadable): http://wildlife.state.co.us/SiteColl...vGapeWidth.pdf

    I found another article:
    Annual Growth Rates of Adult Gray Treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis)(pp. 382-385)
    Journal of Herpetology > Vol. 25, No. 3, Sep., 1991
    Mark E. Ritke, Jeffrey G. Babb, Mary K. Ritke

  10. #9

    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Hey Terry, I finally had time to read the article on Gap Width, thanks it was very interesting! I've always wondered how to measure SVL in a way that was comparable with others findings. Given that a group of biologists had such a variation with the SVL measurement when working side by side, I guess that answers my question. Hooray for the relatively error free digital scale though.

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    Moderator tgampper's Avatar
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    Default Re: How much does a Gray Treefrog weigh? (AKA- I now own a scale)

    Brian:

    Glad it worked out for you. I am still eyeballing that scale and might get one after the holidays. Keep us up to date on your progress.

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