Beginner - Gray Treefrogs

[Troy]

A few nights ago me and my girlfriend were walking up to my house, it was dark out and I saw what i thought was a toad jump and I'm glad I went and caught it. When i felt it in the dark I knew right away it was not a toad and upon further inspection in the light found that it was a Hyla Versicolor or gray treefrog, we decided to keep him. A few days later I went and searched for another to keep him company. I put a Gray's call on my phone and played it in different spots in the woods by my house until I got a reply and wound up finding another male about half the 1st ones size this morning. I just have a few questions.



Everything except for the rock/watering dish in the tank I is naturally from their own habitat, I found everything within 30 yards from where I caught both. The left layer has a 3 inch layer of muck with a thin layer of Sphagnum moss, the plant, and watering dish. The right has a thick layer of jjust Sphagnum moss with a heating pad for treefrogs attacthed to the tank underneath. This way i pour some water on that side to keep the humidity up, I also put their little house there, a peice of loose tree bark, where they stay at night. I want to get something to put up high with a crevace that they can also stay in. All i really need though is a Background for the tank to put them more at ease.



For food I put in small and large crickets. I havent seen them eat yet, I know they primarily hunt at night and this may be why. A few days ago I found meal worms and fed them to the older one with tweezers, he took them willingly after just 2 days in the tank. I will try with the smaller one sometime soon.

Just wondering if you had any tips. Is the tank good? Feeding good? Also for any of you who are familair with Grays, About half the pictures i see of gray tree frogs are Green and the others are gray. Do all of them have the ability to change from green to gray or are some more green and some more gray and can you find both in the same place? I'm also going to keep my eye out for eggs. I would love to hatch them, Ive hatched eggs from snapping turtles to rat snakes and would love to try frogs eggs, they are a whole different game.

[Troy]

OH I also kept seeing people say you should quarantine new arrivals. What exactly is meant by that when bringing in a new frog?

[Paul Rust]

Everything looks really good Troy. Quarantine is keeping a new frog in a seperate enclosure for 30 days to see if any diseases or other symptoms show up so you don't infect your other populations. Since you caught these two so close together in the same area you can consider them in quarantine as they are, just don't throw any new ones in with them and see how they do. It may take a couple days for them to settle in before they eat regularly. I would use small and medium crickets as adults can be difficult for smaller frogs to handle. Welcome to the forum!

[Troy]

Everything looks really good Troy. Quarantine is keeping a new frog in a seperate enclosure for 30 days to see if any diseases or other symptoms show up so you don't infect your other populations. Since you caught these two so close together in the same area you can consider them in quarantine as they are, just don't throw any new ones in with them and see how they do. It may take a couple days for them to settle in before they eat regularly. Welcome to the forum!

Cool! Thank you very much!

[JeffX]

They do change colors. Mine started out bright green and now he's gray.

I'd give them some time before they actually start feeding. It can take some time for them to get acclimated in a new area.

[Kurt]

Also for any of you who are familair with Grays, About half the pictures i see of gray tree frogs are Green and the others are gray. Do all of them have the ability to change from green to gray or are some more green and some more gray and can you find both in the same place?

You can say that I am familiar with them. Hyla versicolor can change colours, from gray to green to brown to even white. There species name, versicolor, refers to their ability to do this.

If you haven't done so already, check out the gray treefrog care article. There's a link on the left for it.

[John]

Nice acquisitions. My favourite Tree Frog.

[scribbles]

These are my favorite treefrog species, congratulations on the new addition