Various questions about my new White's Tree Frog

[Kmoonleaf]

Hello ! I'll start with the basic info about my frog, and then move on to the questions. I've had him/her for about two days, and s/he has been behaving ( what i would assume to be ) normally, eating, climbing, sleeping, soaking, etc. When I brought him/her back from the pet store ( a local store ) s/he was quite brown


but turned green after a few hours and has been so ever since.



The frog has eaten 4 crickets, one yesterday and three today. I've fed the crickets to him/her in a glass bowl so s/he doesn't swallow substrate (eco earth). The temperature has been consistent at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity tends to fluctuate, I try to keep it around 60%, but it tends to fall down towards 50% every few hours, so when i'm sleeping / leaving the house I spray until it's way up at 80% just so it doesn't drop down below 55% when I'm not around.

I've been trying hard to identify the frog's gender so I can settle on a name, but I'm getting a lot of conflicting signals, especially because I have no clue how old the frog is. the only things i know are:
1. s/he is 3 inches long.
2. the frog was croaking earlier. I only caught a glance before it stopped, but I didn't see the croak sac expanding like they do on mature males.
I really can't tell if s/he has nupital pads on the thumbs ( as described here ). I just can't get a good look!

So:
Any tips on keeping the humidity consistently high enough? It's summer here so the air is already naturally humid, I'm worried about the winter when it will be very dry and I won't always be around to mist the tank.

The frog hasn't pooped yet. When should I start to be worried about this?

Any help on identifying the gender?

Thanks!

[flybyferns]

Hi
Welcome to Frog Forum.

If the frog was croaking - It is a male. He looks good.

Your frog is still adjusting. It sounds like he is adjusting nicely. This can take weeks !
Avoid handling the frog unless it is absolutely necessary .
Use only de-chlorinate water for the soaking dish - de-chlorinate tap water with a product such as Aquatize
( exoterra)

*The enclosure is a little too cool. Proper temp is very important for their proper digestion. Be sure to have good thermometers. Move the thermometer around; avoid depending on a reading from only one location in the tank.

Since I am sure I will end up leaving something out in the very short reply >>>>> always- follow these instruction - you will have a happy , healthy frog :

http://www.frogforum.net/tree-frogs/...caresheet.html

The lack of poop:
Perhaps skip a day.....and cut back a bit on the # of crickets. He may not have been fed as diligently at the pet store. He made have had a very empty stomach. Let him digest. Pull up the temp! ( *see the care sheet )

Don't worry about the humidity going up after you spray. Use distilled water to mist ( not the frog). Distilled water will not stain the glass.

Keep the enclosure in the dark at night, in a quiet and peaceful place
You could cover three sides of the enclosure during the day -- this will help him feel more secure.

You will get lots of 'expert tips' here ! Enjoy him !

[mpmistr]

I'm a new owner of two Whites Tree Frogs myself. When I bought my frogs in the pet store, they were actually green, when I took them home, during the car ride (store was over an hour away) they were brown and after a while they went right back to green again once they were back in their new home. I myself have not seen my frogs go back to brown since. They are some times "not as green" at night, when they go to soak in the water dish. Now from what I've read these frogs change color a lot. I've seen Whites in pet stores fairly often, they are USUALLY brown in pet stores, probably a lack of humidity?

To keep the temperature up I am using a 60w ceramic heat bulb located on the left side of the tank. I'm still not sure if this is the best way to keep the enclosure warm but it seems to be working. I keep my heat/humidity sensor in that general area and the warmest I've seen it is 80F, but I would imagine under the bulb where the frogs rest, it's closer to 85F. I know my frogs stay on the left side of the tank where it is warmer unless they want to explore/soak for a bit and they -always- sleep on that side of the tank under the bulb. I am sure there are other/better methods to heating the enclosure. For UVB (if the frogs do indeed need it) I allow my enclosure to get some indirect sunlight in the morning, since it's in the northeast part of my house near a window.

Now as far as humidity, I could be wrong here.. but I mist daily, the humidity never goes below 55%, my house humidity is 50% (which may be high). I don't think these frogs need high humidity. I think if you can keep humidity above 50% you should be fine. What I would do is add more foliage to your enclosure, things that will retain humidity better. In winter you could put a humidifier in the room to help keep your home from being too dry. I plan on doing this myself because I get chronic sore throats in winter, so it's win win!

Last thing about the pooping, you may want to hunt down a snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), they are quite common in store gardening sections. My frogs, love love love this plant. They always choose to sleep on the inside of the leaves and... they also use it as a toilet. I always find droppings on the lower part of this plant. In fact they are so fond of pooping on this plant I find the daily removal of feces from my enclosure quite simple, with paper towel.

[Kmoonleaf]

Thanks for the replies!
I'd read that females can croak too- they just don't expand their croak sac when they do. Thanks for the confirmation, I was hoping for a male!
I wasn't planning to feed him today, I fed him the first day just to see if he would eat, and yesterday to get him started on a more regular feeding schedule.

Is distilled water not okay for soaking? I've been using it for both misting and soaking, because I couldn't find any dechlorinators that weren't meant for fish (they all advertised "slime coating" which i thought might not be okay for the frog ). I looked in 5 different pet stores!

I am currently heating the tank with a 40W red heat bulb. My thermometer is stuck to the side of the tank a little out of the way of the bulb, and now that i think about it, the frog really hasn't gone over to the side of the tank where the bulb isn't shining. I would've gotten a 60W, but when I went to the pet store, they had one 40W, and a bunch of 100 + Watt bulbs. no inbetween.

[mpmistr]

Thanks for the replies!
I'd read that females can croak too- they just don't expand their croak sac when they do. Thanks for the confirmation, I was hoping for a male!
I wasn't planning to feed him today, I fed him the first day just to see if he would eat, and yesterday to get him started on a more regular feeding schedule.

Is distilled water not okay for soaking? I've been using it for both misting and soaking, because I couldn't find any dechlorinators that weren't meant for fish (they all advertised "slime coating" which i thought might not be okay for the frog ). I looked in 5 different pet stores!

I use Seachem Prime for my aquatic clawed frogs and I add it to a 5 gallon bucket (1/4th capful). Someone feel free to correct me but Prime is pretty potent stuff, you need very little to remove chloramines and heavy metals from a 5 gallon bucket of water. I would really doubt there is enough "slime coat" (which I assume is Aloe) to have any real negative affect on an amphibian.

I am currently heating the tank with a 40W red heat bulb. My thermometer is stuck to the side of the tank a little out of the way of the bulb, and now that i think about it, the frog really hasn't gone over to the side of the tank where the bulb isn't shining. I would've gotten a 60W, but when I went to the pet store, they had one 40W, and a bunch of 100 + Watt bulbs. no inbetween.

I would say use a 60W for the day time and a 40W for the night time. You could purchase a 60W ceramic from Amazon.