Can frogs see night lights

[Frogman1031]

Hey everyone, question. The companies that make those nighttime lights for reptiles for a little extra heat, they say that frogs and other animals can't see them. Is this really true? It just seems my whites are never really comfortable.


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[LilyPad]

I think some are comfortable with it but not all. I've tried two different kinds, I have two tree frogs who will wake up with it, and two that will continue to sleep. My frogs will wake during the day to hunt though, so they're not deep sleepers to begin with.

So I would suggest trying it and seeing what happens if your frogs seem to wake up easy.

[Jayne Irlam]

I have also been told the same thing about night lights but I soon noticed that my oriental fire-bellied toads were very happy to hunt at night by infrared light (which I'd been assured they would perceive as darkness) so I have my doubts. I also think its dependent on the species as to which individuals are comfortable in low nighttime light. My North American Grey Treefrogs bounce around under infrared, but my African Reid frogs will not set foot outside their shelter at night unlesss the infrared is off, and both species are nocturnal.

[Frogman1031]

I have ordered a blue exo terra light. I will see under which light they are more active under.


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[LLLReptile]

Yes, they can see night lights, but the discomfort or secretiveness you are seeing might actually be a result of the type of color light being used. Studies on nocturnal geckos and on reptile vision in general have shown that they can actually see better and in more colors than we can, especially at night. Infrared bulbs often work well as night time bulbs because it is a color of light that would only be that intense at night - during the day, there would be the entire range of colors, resulting in white light. For more secretive species, or stressed frogs, they will still react to infrared as though it is a light exposing them to view...which it is.

Moonlight bulbs more closely approximate the color of light that would be seen at night, but even then, adding light to a cage is like mimicking moonlight...and on a full moon night, nocturnal species are going to be less active if they're prey species, as they are aware that they're more visible.

Here's an article I wrote on the basics of vision, and one on nocturnal geckos as well - while neither is directly applicable to frogs, I don't think it's a far stretch that they'd have similarly functioning sight for similar reasons as nocturnal reptiles.

-Jen