I'm kind of a newer tree frog owner, so forgive me if I don't know all of the lingo or anything. I work at a pet store and we sell green tree frogs, and I'm familiar with their basic needs and also when any of them are ill we do have a vet that we take them to regularly (I've treated quite a few tree frogs with skin diseases). I was never super interested in owning tree frogs so I never cared to learn more than what I needed to about them for my job.
Background:
One night while I was working, a regular customer of mine who always purchases crickets stormed into the store with her little terrarium looking distraught. Her daughter owned two red-eyed tree frogs. Apparently while she was out of the house, the daughter decided she didn't feel like caring for the frogs anymore. She opened the cage and threw both of the frogs out of the window. When her mother came home, she freaked out, and went outside searching for the frogs. She found one but couldn't find the other. Not knowing what to do with them, she brought them to the store hoping someone would adopt them. I quickly plugged in the heat source on her terrarium so the little guy could warm up and misted the enclosure with some luke warm water since the tank was freezing. I'm kind of a big softy and have a tendency to take in abandoned animals, and tree frogs are no exception! I told her I'd take him, and stayed up all night doing research on the little bugger. My roommate's boyfriend named him Speckles. I left the cage at work over night because I figured Speckles had seen enough action for one day and I didn't want to stress him out anymore than needed.
The next day, the woman came back into the store later on in the evening holding her hands out in front of her and looking more spastic than the previous day. She had found the other tree frog, and apparently didn't feel the need to put him into any container for her drive over. -_- She found him up on the roof of her house! He'd spent the whole night outside. I was glad I didn't move Speckles and the terrarium that night so I could quickly place him into the proper habitat. Poor guy was freeeezing! Once he warmed up he seemed to be okay, but obviously both frogs were very stressed out so I wasn't sure about any illnesses at the time. I thought they'd be okay after things settled down.
I gave them another night at the store while I set up a seemingly perfect happy tree frog home. I know they enjoy taller enclosures, but I used an empty 40 gallon breeder cage I had lying around (working at a pet store, you tend to bring home tanks and cages and all kinds of random stuff thinking that you'll one day use it for something). It was the same height as the tank they were in, just way wider.
I set it up with some tropical soil and put a few live plants into the tank, some branches and vines, and a few artificial plants as well. I set up the heat source, made sure I have a good supply of water conditioners, calcium, multivitamins, etc. and brought them home 3 days later.
I noticed that Speckles was doing much better, actively eating at night, and during the day sleeping on the side of the glass. Swag was a little off, however.
And here lies the problem:
I noticed that Swag never really moved around too much. He was always in the same place in the morning as he was the previous evening. It started off that he'd hide in the plants, but then I noticed he was sleeping on the bottom of the cage a lot. It had only been about 5 days since I had them that I noticed this behavior. I haven't even actually watched him eat, but I never really sat and watched the cage for very long.
A week ago I left for vacation. When I came back, my roommate informed me that one of the frogs (Swag) wasn't looking too good. I glanced in the cage and the first thing I thought was that he had died. I cautiously picked him up, breathing a sigh of relief when he moved in my hand. He must have been sleeping. He's quite lethargic right now, and his color is very dark. I tried soaking him in some dechlorinated water. He opened his eyes and gave me a seemingly dirty look for a second, but ever since then he's been sitting half in his water dish in the terrarium with his eyes half open, and he just seems so weak. I'm about to run to my store and get some reptaboost for him (repti-aid I think is what it's called now), to ensure he's getting some sort of food in him.
Anyone know what to do? What it might possibly be? I'm going to take him to our regular veterinarian on Friday, but it's only Tuesday and I want to know if there's any way I can help him before I get him there. The only things I can think of are to keep his humidity and heat perfect and give him the repti-aid if he refuses to take food.
Some pictures for reference:
This is Speckles and Swag. Speckles is the more alert looking one on the side of the dish.
This is Speckles about to jump over onto the branch.
This is Swag, taken only 20 minutes after the first photo. His color got very very dark, very very fast.
Also... do they look too thin? I keep thinking of blue dumpy frogs and it's making me paranoid that these guys are too skinny.
Thank you for any help you guys can give me, and I'm sorry about the novel!





Reply With Quote
