Filled with air?

[Pandamanda111]

Great! Thanks a ton for your help!

[Pandamanda111]

No worries
Thanks a ton!

[NatureLady]

I would dare say your Ollie is overweight. My biggest thoughts from your thread are that you need a bigger tank with more chances to climb and a change in feeding habits. I also think that you need to change the bedding/substrate material in whatever tank Ollie is in. Bark chunks like those in the (SUPER ADORABLE) frogbutt picture can pose a concern for impaction. Especially since you allow Ollie to hunt his food (I did read that, right?). Impaction can lead to even bigger froggy problems.

[Bolisnide]

First I'd like to say that you are welcome on the forum and that everyone here only wants what's best for your frog. Please don't take anything personally. You've had your frog for a while, and that is definitely a good sign that most things in his enclosure are fine. But to ensure his long life and health, the advice above should be followed.

I agree that your frog is a little on the heavy side, though I've seen fatter! It's really not healthful for the frog to be overweight. I feed my adult whites's 3 appropriately sized crickets (about the size of between his eyes) every other day, and a red wiggler about once per week. And he's borderline over weight. I also dust with Repashy Calcium plus every other feeding.
I have my frog in a 33 gallon tall tank (exo-terra 18x18x24). He gets lots and lots of excercise at night climbing on the branches and vines I have in there. I also have 3 snake plants, a pothos, and one ficus that he has beat up pretty bad with all his jumping around. Your white's would appreciate some extra verticle space. Craigslist is a great resource for used enclosures/aquariums. And as Omar has said, you can turn a horzontal tank on side for the xtra height.

And, as others before me have said, get rid of the moss and bark as those pose an impaction risk. White's dive bomb for their food and always inevitibly eat some substrate. A good substrate (I've found) is the coco fiber and leaf litter atop that. You can find live oak leaf litter at www.Joshsfrogs.com and www.blackjungle.com. Carpet moss (the kind that grows like carpet on the enclosure floor) is really wonderful, but I have never been able to keep it alive...
Also, invest in a $2.00 Hygrometer. It's important for white's to have the proper humidity.... not too high and not too low (about 70 degrees). I live in a very desert climate, and only need to mist twice or three times per day (during the colder months, when I run a ceramic heater, I mist more oftern).

So, if your frog is pooping and eating, I don't believe his big belly is caused from impaction... he could be retaining water from high humidity?

Anyway, good luck! He is so adorable! If you have any other questions, this is the place to ask. I've learned a lot from this forum!

[S13]

I think moss could be wonderful if you take precautions. Like for example, I feed out of the glass bowl so crickets cant escape, thus no risk of my frogs taking moss to the face while munching.

[Bolisnide]

I think moss could be wonderful if you take precautions. Like for example, I feed out of the glass bowl so crickets cant escape, thus no risk of my frogs taking moss to the face while munching.

Yes, that is very true... Thanks for adding that point!

[Pandamanda111]

I will definitely beg my parents, but I'm not sure if they'll go for anything over 10 gallons I can try though! Maybe I'll save up, just for my little olliefrogboy a few questions:
-how after should I do a complete cleaning of his terrarium?
-do I need to get driftwood,mor is some sort of fake wood or something okay? I have a cave for him, which he climbs on.
-how do you guys plant live plants in the terrarium? You must need a lot of substrate!
-what do you guys use for heating? Ollie's terrarium has a hood with one purple (heat) bulb, and one white lightbulb.

Feel free to give me any advice, I'd really appreciate it. I won't take anything personally, you guys are very kind and helpful!
thanks a ton!

Ps-I do get quite a kick out of his chubby little bottom!

[Pandamanda111]

I'll go to petsmart and see what terrariums they have. Since Ollie doesn't really climb, should I get one thats longer than it is wide? I'm also going to get him a bigger cave, he loves that thing! Silly boy. Do I need substrate, or can it go without? I'm not sure if I can order that stuff or not. Maybe they have it at petsmart...?

[Pandamanda111]

Does anyone know? Because he really doesn't go on the walls. He always sleeps in his beloved cave. You sure a tall terrarium would be best?

[NatureLady]

I am sure he only sleeps in his cave. He is nocturnal so he probably explores while you are asleep.

Think of his native habitat...wide open tall trees to explore far from the forest floor.

Look up pictures of his native forests for inspiration.

[Pandamanda111]

Of course, I totally understand. I'm not trying to question your knowledge or anything, but is it possible that this particular frog likes to be on the ground? He is always either in or on top of his cave. I've never seen him climbing his branch.
But I'll get the tallest terrarium I can find


Today I want to pick up after him, and I didn't see any poop! But he has been eating...? Am I just not finding it? He has coconut husk substrate. Maybe it was just hard to see? I took out a few things that may have been it, but I couldn't tell for sure. Maybe he poops in his water bowl? He gets it pretty gross.

Ps- how often can I hold him? I love holding him, but I know that he doesn't enjoy it like I do

[NatureLady]

Of course, I totally understand. I'm not trying to question your knowledge or anything, but is it possible that this particular frog likes to be on the ground? He is always either in or on top of his cave. I've never seen him climbing his branch.
But I'll get the tallest terrarium I can find

Don't worry. I don't offend easily and I didn't take it that way anyways!
I understand from posts past that you are school age? (You meantioned that your parents wouldn't let you..) Being a "herper" takes time, practice, and most of all...you have to keep learning and changing to keep up with the field!

As far as the tank height goes, let me use an example that I use here at work. Your habitat is rather large compaired to most small animals...your home, school, cars, families homes, friends homes, grocery stores, etc. If I where to say that since you spend the majority of your time in location A (maybe school or your bedroom) that from now on location A is the only place that you can stay. You must find all needed items in that space (food, water, shelter, enough space to be happy, and everything that you need for the rest of your life properly arranged so that you could live)...would you be the happiest person you know? Quality of life is my thoughts when keeping pets!

Today I want to pick up after him, and I didn't see any poop! But he has been eating...? Am I just not finding it? He has coconut husk substrate. Maybe it was just hard to see? I took out a few things that may have been it, but I couldn't tell for sure. Maybe he poops in his water bowl? He gets it pretty gross.

The coco fiber DOES make it harder to see poop! Mine likes to poop on his plants...yay for me! If he poops in his water it will look like a peice of poop in the water. What I mean is that it takes time to not look like poop.

Ps- how often can I hold him? I love holding him, but I know that he doesn't enjoy it like I do

I don't know that I have a good answer for you on this one. I don't hold mine very often, mostly because I have small kids (under 5) who like to be like Mommy...so for the frogs sake we have a look but don't touch policy while the kids are awake. I clean up and all of that stuff after they go to bed.

[Pandamanda111]

Okay! Thank you. I'll try to get him a new one soon.

His water is really gross dark brown in the morning, so I always assumed he pooped in there!

[InfinitysDaughter]

It is possible hes pooping in the water dish. If he poops in the early night hours and it sits there several hours then he disturbs the water then it'll break up and look like dirt. My Azy poops in her dish sometimes. I should take pics of it one morning. She dosn't always poop in there but often times she does. If yours is the bowl will look like its caked with substraight at the bottom, maybe mostly pushed to one side. If you have to rinse the dish to get it all out its probable that hes pooing in there. Especially since hes in such a small space he might be going in the one place he knows will get cleaned up every day (they dont like laying in there poo anymore then we would).

And whites would prefer to be up when there awake. Azy likes to sleep in her hollow log on the bottom of the tank but when she comes out at night shes almost always up in the branches rather then on the floor. If you have up space they will use it. Since your babe hasn't had a lot of up space you might need entice him to at first but eventually he'll get the idea and he'll probably burn off a lot of his excess weight too.

As for holding, I let Az sit on my shoulder and chest a lot. She'll sit and sleep on me while I watch TV or read. Shes not too thrilled if I "play" with her, like move her around a lot or something but she loves to just sit on mommy and sleep. Whites have a coating to there skin that resists the oils in our skin that other tree frogs dont have so they take better to being held then other frogs do but as for actually LIKING being held that would be a frog to frog thing. Percy, my green, would rather hop off into the room and hide then sit in my hands and my gray, Hellen, loved to sit on me like Azy. Other people say there frogs dont like to be touched at all and they dont unless absolutely necessary. If yours settles into a relaxed position or falls asleep then you know he is content with being held.

And lastly! I take apart my tanks once a month (roughly) and rinse them with declorinated water or very very hot water if there has been a problem (I put boiling water into the smaller when my gray died to be sure there wasn't anything in there to kill my green and I did the same recently when I had a bad mold problem in Azy's tank) and I put all the decorations (mostly fake plants and things) and water dishes into a large tub and fill it with as hot of water I can get out of the tap and let it sit, occasionally disturbing the water to get the dirt and things off. I just started using live plants so I'm really not sure if things will change. I have my plants in small containers, though, not planted directly in the soil. If there directly planted then it would be very bad for them to be uprooted once a month.