Worried about my White's tree frog. He's purple brown, not green...

[Lindsaylee1229]

My son adopted a white's tree frog (spiderman) from petco two months ago. we thought it was neat how he turned purplish brown when he ate and then turned back to green. For the past few days though he hasn't been green. He has stayed purplish brown. I have noticed he doesn't spend much time on the fake plants like he used to. He instead has been sitting in the water bowl. I can take a picture of him tomorrow and put it on here if that helps. Am I overfeeding him? Thats my first thought after reading some of the threads on here. Recently it seems like we gave him one or two crickets a day. Before that it was more like two crickets every other day. Just how many and how often should we feed him? we have only ever fed him crickets. after reading on here, I now know I should add variety to his diet and dust the critters before I feed them to spiderman. I just worried about the little guy. This is my first frog. Humidity is usually around 60 adn I'm not sure about temp. He is in the terrarium setup we purchased from petco that came with substrate, moss, plant, screen lid. His little blue light bulb on the top of his terrarium is on a timer. Light comes on at 10am and goes of at 10pm. should I be turning his light off at 8pm? I read somewhere they need 10 hours of daytime and 14 hours of night. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pluke]

Has he used the pooped recently? Does he look bloated or anything?

[Lindsaylee1229]

He doesn't look bloated. He def. looks like he has grown since we got him. Not sure how fast their growth rate is. It's hard to tell if there is any poop in there. He's def. eating still though. He eats anytime I put a cricket in there within a matter of seconds or minutes. I'm holding off on the feeding to see if his mood improves or his green color comes back.

[Rae]

1. You should post this question in Tree Frogs not Frogs as you might get more advice form Tree Frog owners.

2. Knowing the temperature is extremely important. You don't want it too cold or too hot.

Day: 29 °C (85 °F); Night: 20 - 24 °C (68 - 75 °F)

3. Read this Care sheet on whites carefully it has lots of helpful info: Frog Forum - White's Tree Frog Care - Litoria caerulea

4. I wouldn't stop feeding it unless its impacted. I only feed mine crickets but yes they are dusted with reptile calcium.

5. What light are you using?

6. What water source are you using, if you are using tap water it must be treated... do not use distilled... you can use bottled natural spring water.

[BeckyM]

Some frogs do change color based on the temperature of the tank. Mine does (though she's not a White's. I've seen brown colored white's treefrogs.)

If he's staying in the water bowl, chances are your humidity is too low, or it's too dry in there. Do you mist his tank daily to up the humidity?

Get a tank heater for your little guy. A few degrees makes a huge difference for frogs as I've recently learned. Mine was acting strange the first week I had her. I got a tank heater, cranked it up and she's acting perfectly normal now.

Keep feeding him. If he's hungry, let him eat. What size crickets are you feeding him? My female Cope's (who's about an inch smaller than a young whites) can handle as many as four medium crickets at a time. I feed her every 2-3 days. White's can handle mealworms as a treat ( and sometimes those gross mice).

If you're looking for poop, take out your current substrate and replace it with white paper towels. I use these because there's no risk for impaction and the clean up is so simple. (plus you can see all the frog doodie.)

[Rae]

Before you resort to hiking the temperature... find out what it is at first... you need a temperature and humidity gauge in the there at all times. I posted the needed heat for whites. It is always better to feed daily if you can. Crickets are the best staple diet unless you are into roaches -shivers- which you cant buy usually, so have to breed them. meal worms are ok but high in fat and not high in nutrition. Pinky mice... well... ew again.. don't know much about them as I could never feed a mouse to a frog... and only large whites can usually handle those.

Bathing alot yes can mean low humidity or can mean illness... frogs tend to find water soothing... so don't assume its a humidity level issue till you know temp and humidity and see if its pooping.

If you go to paper towels clean it daily as bacteria grows fast with them... if you don't have springtails in you substrate to help clean poop you should be seeing them as you need to clean poop almost daily... look harder lol.

Don't feed crickets any longer than the width between the frogs eyes to avoid impaction. But definitely get a calcium and multi vitamin dust for the food.

I feed my greys 2 a night...