Gray Tree Frog Care - Hyla versicolor and Hyla chrysoscelis

[Susan Churchill]

Oh, another thing....the froglets and frogs will only eat LIVE insects. They will not eat ants and beetles. I have not kept mine captive. They were bred in a fountain and I did put them in a safe spot while they resorbed their tails. I then felt it was time for them to go out on their own, just like in nature. I got them off to a better start than they would have had in the wild. My husband said if all the froglets lived we would have about 250 around our pool (yikes and yuck). The froglets are a bit like teenagers.....you raise them until they become fairly independent and then you watch them making their own decisions and screwing up a lot..i.e. jumping out of the fountain and drying out like a raisin. (double yuck). Good luck.

[Andoconda]

Thanks for the advice!

[SludgeMunkey]

Managed to get a recording of some Grays tonight. Since I am at work and stuck using my phone, I sent a link to you via email, John. Feel free to strip the sound for the caresheet.

The video can be found on YouTube also. My account there is under the handle "Trombagal". There is also one of grays and a lone cognatus calling.

I'll make a post here with the videos if I can ever get away from work...

[John]

I didn't get an email Johnny. I'll try to get around to adding that sound but it's pretty far down my list.

[angriesthedgehog]

Hi anyone got any info on breeding, mine layed eggs but looks like they are all dud. This is the first time they have layed eggs, I thought maybe the tank was a little too hot?

[Kurt]

How warm was it? (No, is not a lead-in to a Johnny Carson joke )

[angriesthedgehog]

Now I look stupid, the eggs were mostly fine, maybe a small percentage duds which I suppose is normal, it was actually the tadpoles forming in the eggs, I just did not expect it to happen that fast, looked like the eggs were going splat.

Quite funny frogs actually, I had a set up with a shallow dish and shallow waterfall. Noticed they were making loads of noise and caught the male and female inside the waterfall doing you-know-what. About two weeks later I decided to make a deep filtered pool, that night the noise was incredible (2 males and 1 female ) and eggs turned up in the morning.... they are so clever!

Now theres about 20 little tadpoles (they remind me of goldfish fry) sticking everywhere in the pool and more getting ready to come out.

Btw this article was really helpful, shame I didnt notice the pictures before I commented

[LauraCox]

This is a wonderful guide! It's helped me a bundle!

[Kurt]

On behalf of John and myself, thank you.

[Linda S]

This site has been very helpful. The last month or so, we've had these little tree frogs sneaking in under the cover of our hot tub! Yes, it's active and up to temp. (102 degrees on average). It doesn't run all the time, and we've had as many as 4 tree frogs (eastern grays) hanging on the sides or underneath the cover. We don't use a lot of chemicals, mild chlorine only. I was rather taken aback, as I've never seen tree frogs out and about in our yard before. We've had the hot tub for 10 years and I don't ever remember seeing the frogs before.

They are very entertaining to watch, especially when they take off swimming. My husband will toss them back in the shrubs, but the little frogs keep coming back.

It has been a very hot, humid and rainy summer for us in Western Illinois and of course underneath the cover it's a wonderfully humid environment.

[Greenlove]

Where can I buy the moths that this article mentions? I'm trying to keep their diet exciting for them.

[Greenlove]

John,
Would just like some clarification. In your article under feeding, it says to use vitamin powder and calcium, but to use them at different times because the calcium will degrade components and inhibit uptake of some of the vitamins. Then under "Raising eggs, tadpoles and froglets, it says to mix them. I'm alternating the supplements because that seems to be the consensus. Can you please clarify what you mean for me, (the newbie), and all the future newbies that will read this article. Thank you for writing this, it has been very educational.

[Paul Rust]

I won't speak for John, but in my experience I don't think he meant that you cannot feed them both supplements at the same time. You don't want to mix and store them together in the same container. I dust with vitamin on one feeding and then calcium on the next. I will let John answer for himself beyond this.

[Sandi]

I wanted to say thank you for the valuable information I've collected from this blog. My daughter found a little mostly frozen frog on the outside window ledge of a Dairy Queen (it gets about 30-40 F at night). She scooped her up and brought her home with us. After some investigating, we determined that she is a Gray Tree Frog. As I used to keep vivariums in the past, I had an idea of what is required, but needed more 'species specific' info. Which I found plenty of here!! So she's set up in her new home, getting settled. We're trying some waxworms but may go out for some wingless fruit flies.
I hope she survives and takes well to her new home. So wish us luck!!

[Paulalyn74]

They are great pets. I have a 3 year old. We have three grey tree frogs. My daughter loves them. Her pop-pop is getting her a bearded dragon for x-mas..

[WilliBond0007]

Well the setup withe above tank did not seem to allow the terrrarium to get cold enough so I took the two H versicolors I still have and put them in a storage container in the garage. The temperature outside the terrarium never went below 60F/15C even withe temperature outside around 20F/-5C. The container they are in now is filled ~ half way up with dirt and leaves and then I placed the two hides they were in inside the container.

The temperature in the garage is at ~45F/7C. It doesn't get as cold in there as it does outside since there is a huge freezer that actually gives off some heat. That and I suppose some of the heat from the house disapates in there as well. Do you think I should allow them to get colder than 5C? I will monitor the temperature. Has anyone who cycled H versicolor kept tabs on how cold they've lethem become? I assume I should leave them out in the garage til sometime in March.

What humidity level do you recommend? I have a gadget that measures temperature and humidity and I think I will plop that it there when I am done typing this to see what it is. Want to thank you again for this most excellent article.

[Kameron]

i have two baby gray tree frogs proboly about 4 months i was planing on breeding them next year. and in the breeding section it says to stop feeding them for 3 months during the cooling period will that kill my frogs becuase i raised these from the wild when i found them in my pool so i am very attacthed and dont want to loose them. and also are the females going to die after they lay the egg.