Help needed! Must find! :d

[BeckyM]

They don't ALWAYS do well, sure, but...mine did.

I caught my first gray in a friend's swimming pool back in 2005. He was relatively young at the time. Not a froglet, but a small, young frog. The stress of silly younger me playing with him daily didn't cause him to die. Nor did my moving to a different climate (I caught him in Virginia, and then moved to Minnesota 2 years later). He died in January.
I got my second gray (friend caught her) in August 2006? 2007? She only lived until 2009, but she was definitely older than my male.


Personally, I have no qualms about catching things wild. I grew up in the sticks and loved chasing down and snatching up little critters, though the frog was the first one I didn't release.


Grays are pretty hardy little stinkers. I mean, if it lives in such a wide range of temperatures, and can handle below freezing temps in the winter, and handle being messed with, I'd say it's got a good chance of making a GREAT wild caught pet. Shame they're not big in pet stores, they're great pets! And cute too.

But yeah, like Sniffer suggested, check rain barrels, check kiddie pools, check man-made ponds, check your backyard. They'll sometimes hop around.

[InfinitysDaughter]

Wild caught Grays do do fairly well in captivity. I caught mine late last summer and she survived the cat shoving her tank off the table (it was like world tumbling down around her. literally), the cats constant torment on the other side of the glass (though I will bet anything she antagonized him just as much as he did her....she was rarely active during the day unless he was near by watching so it makes you wonder if she intentionally did it to pester him), being introduced to a store bought baby green, and near constant handling. She actually very much liked to sit on my upper chest and watch TV or sit on the desk and watch me play games on the computer. I was her personal jungle gym and the oils on my hands did not seem to bother her in the least. She only recently died because she ate a Asian lady beetle that got in her tank (there poisonous to pretty much everything).

THAT BEING SAID!

I do not condone catching wild frogs or wild anything. Taking one female out of the population could have a serious affect on the population. I did not know this when I decided to keep my little girl. Now that she is gone I am currently trying to entice some grays to breed in a bucket of water in my back yard. I intend to ensure all the eggs hatch, release all but about 50-100 tads in the creek down the road, and raise the rest to froghood. Then I plan to keep 2-3 and release a good clutch of healthy frogs that can then go and breed the next year.

This is what I suggest you do. Its satisfying to raise babies of your own and you develop a relationship with those babies along the way. I know, silly cuse there frogs but I feel frogs are similar to dogs and cats in the sense that they can develop close bonds with there owners. I know Helly (my gray) liked me more then anyone else cuse she wouldn't climb on anyone else like she would me. I know Azy (my whites) is developing a relationship with me as she was content to crawl around on my shoulders as I changed a few things around on her tank the other day.

If you know there are grays in your area just set out a tall-ish (roughly 2 feet or more) bucket of water with some branches that stick out of the water and add some long grasses and leaves. Set the bucket near a porch light or some sort of place where moths or other flying bugs (again, watch out for the asian lady beetles) congregate and sit back and wait. Once you see eggs (the care sheet at the top of the forum will show you what to look for) care for them as best you can and then see which frogs develop there own bonds with you and you are set.