should I be concerned? Our white's tree frog is ALWAYS hiding

[shaybear]

My husband and I are new to frog ownership. we recently purchased our very first tree frog. He is a juvinile sized ( 3 inch long ) whites tree frog. his name is Cujo ( because as lazy as he is, he lunges at his food like a mad dog LOL )

we keep him in a 12x12x18 terrarium. humidity between 60-70 percent, temp between 70-75 degrees. in the terrarium, we have coconut husk substrate ( recommended by the pet store ), moss, a vine for climbing, a log hide, his water dish and artificial plants. he eats 1-2 crickets every day ( with a calcium dusting on the crickets every second feeding. the water in his dish is changed every day, and gets filled with spring water ( non clorinated) which is also what we use to mist the terrarium 2-3 times a day.

my concern is that he is constantly hiding under the log hide . the first few days we had him, he was perched on the glass behind one of the plants but since then he is ALWAYS under that danged log. i know he comes out for water in the middle of the night because there is substrate in the water dish when we wake up in the morning, but we never see him out from under the log unless we take him out manually and move him from under the log ( we sometimes do this to feed him so we know he is eating).

when being fed, he lunges at the crickets, but then he will go back to hiding.( due to this he is always brown, but will turn green again if he actually stays out from under the log long enough. he also likes to burrow under the moss behind the log.

is this a cause for concern?

I have been playing a video of other whites "calling" for him a few times a day, ( mainly because we get a kick out of hearing him respond to the video -haha ) and he usually responds by croaking ( sometimes VERY LOUDLY ) in reply, but even that isnt as enthusiastic or as often as it was a few days ago.

he just seems very lethargic, and although I know whites arent the most active of frogs, im just concerned that he is always under that log, and we havent seen him on the glass, or the vine in almost a week.

also, is it even possible that playing the video could be stressing the little guy out or a bad idea?

as I said we just started this whole area of pet ownership, and I may be paranoid, I just want to make sure our little Cujo is ok.

[andaroo]

How long have you had the frog? Male white's tree frogs are more shy than the females. I had a male than was very shy and would hide out at the back but after a while he got braver and now sits out with the big girls lol. Your humidity is too high, they 40-50% is ideal, I never mist mine they absorb alot of water when soaking and have a thick waxy skin that holds alot of moisture so they don't need high humidity. Temperatures should be around 82 degrees. Take the moss out it's not safe they are very clumsy and will shove anything into their mouth if they see movement and if they swallow the moss they might become impacted and not be able to pass it. I use a reptile carpet with mine otherwise they get so dirty and make a huge mess. I find white's are alot more active if there's more than one in the enclosure, so maybe you should look into getting some more of them, although you would need a bigger tank as yours is very small and could be the reason why he isn't very active as he does need more space than that, 18x18x24 minimum for one whites. 12x12x18 isn't suitable for any frog, they need room to jump that size is too constrictive and should only be used for quarantine or froglets. Give him time he will adjust, settle in and become more active. Frogs take a while to settle sometimes and can take many months so you have to be patient. Playing the video won't stress him out so don't worry about that.

So you should
raise the temperature to 82
lower the humidity to 50%
remove the moss, change substrate to a reptile carpet (NOT the exo terra moss mat the canadian one is awful and the threads are very loose the US version is much better so if you go to Buffalo look out for one the US one is great and not available in Canada yet.)
get a bigger tank, 18x18x24 minimum
get more white's (3 max for a 18x18x24, they are so much more active in a group and a lot more fun to watch them interact with each other.)