Pacific NW Frog Lover

[irThumper]

Hello all!

My name's Lisa but my friends call me "Thumper" (first name given pre-birth, lol). My introduction to the world of amphibians began when my grandpa gave me two Pacific tree frogs to take to first grade show and tell a LONG time ago. I have been a frog lover ever since! From those first two little frogs we wound up being "'Phib Keepers" for a number of years as I grew up. Our last were a pair of Bombina Orientalis back in the mid 1990's, then we had a long hiatus... until recently. At the beginning of July 2014 we had a Pacific tree frog show up on the sidewalk near our wheelchair ramp, out in front of our apartment. We have green space behind us (closest known water source is a small pond at a retirement center a few blocks away) but everything here is all concrete and black top out front, no landscaping. We placed a small water dish by the ramp and would look for froggy at night as he climbed up the wood siding and snatched flying insects drawn by the porch light. From the first frog three others eventually showed up... what concerned us was we were heading into a heat wave, and all these little frogs had was a hot sidewalk, a short wheelchair ramp to hide under, and a little dish of water. One day it was so hot that one of the frogs was out in the dish in the middle of the day; he looked bad, and when I came closer he didn't even move. I wondered if he was comatose from the 100 degree heat... he didn't even move after I picked up the dish-- until I took it into our air conditioned apartment, then his eyes suddenly popped open! I put him inside a long tank containing two trailing semi-miniature African violets and he looked very happy to see the plants, crawling into one immediately. We made the decision to try and bring his other little friends in as well (all four were half grown). It wasn't too hard, as when I opened the door that night one was sitting on the metal ridge right in front of the doorway (it might have been cooler there due to the ac leaking through?) so I scooped him up and brought him in; the same scenario happened with #3 & #4. So now we have had these little green & brown "house guests" for about 4 weeks and have made them as comfortable as possible. I determined that when the weather/temps moderate (the frog temps indoors range between 73-75 F. vs the 90 degree temps currently outside) that we would return them to a more frog friendly environment, making sure to be in plenty of time for them to get ready for winter hibernation. In the meantime a 5th frog showed up outside! And that's when I came up with the idea to build a micro-eco frog habitat out on our sidewalk. I've enjoyed having these guys for a visit, and I have taken plenty of video to remember them when they leave our froggy hotel Someday I hope to be able to get a pair or trio of White's Tree Frogs and keep them in a really awesome live planted set up, something I've wanted to do for a long time, lol. Would love to talk to other folks who especially love tree frogs. Thanks! ~irThumper

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF Lisa ! Awesome story... where are the pics ? We have many members keeping Whites and even a care article for them: Frog Forum - White's Tree Frog Care - Litoria caerulea.

[irThumper]

Thanks, Mentat! Working on the vid project and do have a few stills. Will work on getting those up Here's one of the froggles