Going to die?

[elly]

I feel terrible. This morning at 2:00 when I checked the tank temperatures they were 73 F. I thought it wasn't going to get any colder, so I left it alone. Turns out, it got down to 64 by 5:00. I picked up Bonk to warm him up, added a hot water bottle and put a moonlight heat bulb in my desk lamp to warm the tank up.

He's hiding now but I imagine he's not in great shape. Don't temperatures below 70 cause organ failure? Yeah, I'm imagining him slowly dying right now. I'm also worried that I shouldn't have picked him up or heated him up so quickly. Was that a mistake? He reacted badly to the moonlight heat lamp, gasping a couple of times. Maybe somebody else can learn from my failure.

I was planning on getting a second frog. Now I'm not. Not until I get a much better heater or move to a place with central heating. Frogs are too fragile to risk that way.

[UncleChester]

Hi Elly, Bonk is a Litoria caerulea correct? You might want to check out their range maps in the wild and corresponding weather conditions over a year. If a dip to 64F caused death they'd be periodically wiped out, especially in their more southern ranges. You might also want to check out Breeding White's Tree Frog which has suggested temperatures for a cooling period to promote breeding. Not that you want to put yours through a cooling period, but it should be able to take some mild temperature dips like this.

Where did you read that temps below 70F caused organ failure? That sounds highly dubious!

[elly]

Yeah, I realized that he might be okay after I posted but I'm still concerned that heating him suddenly and getting him out of his torpor might have a bad effect. The little gasping/ twitching slightly thing he did with the incandescent bulb turned on was worrying.

honestly, I could swear I read something like that on here, but I may be misremembering it. It might have said under 60F.

Thanks, I feel somewhat better though I know cooling periods are a little risky and Bonk is still recovering from his antibiotics.


EDIT: I just saw that his heating pad somehow had come unstuck and fallen off. No wonder the temp dropped suddenly.

[elly]

Update: And, of course he isn't dead. My worries were a bit much and the title seems overly dramatic now.

[Jessalyn]

Hey, it can be scary especially with such small creatures you never know how something is going to affect them. I'm glad he's ok!

[elly]

Heh, thanks. Seriously, that moment of gasping and jerking when he was exposed to warmth from the second heat lamp spooked me. He's not moving around a lot, but he's been like that since he got medicated. I've moved him to the kitchen which is much warmer.

[irThumper]

Glad he's ok! Are you sure the gasp and twitch wasn't a shedding thing? I can understand the angst, believe me. I check my frogs more than once before bedtime and then every time I have to get up at night. The plant/frog room is actually the 2nd bedroom in this dinky 2-br apt, so I have my bed in the front room We finally managed to get the baseboard heat up and running for the winter in the main part of the apt, and now I need to reorganize/clear out extra pots and plant stuff in the frog room so I can get their baseboard heat on. It runs pretty hot so I have to monitor it closely to make sure it doesn't go up TOO high, particularly since I have 60 watt lamps on the frogs and all the plant lighting adds some heat too.

One of the books I have on White's Tree Frogs, by Phillipe de Vosjoli, says "White's tree frogs should be maintained at temperatures of 76F to 85F. They can safely tolerate drops at night to 65F. Several methods can be used to heat a White's tree frog vivarium. During the day, low wattage incandescent bulbs can be used over select basking areas, usually part of a branch or a slab of bark, so that the highest temperature of the area nearest to the light is 85F...." Another book, by John Coborn, suggests daytime temps of 79-80F during the day reduced to "room temperature" at night. A recent awesome WTF article by our own Frog Forum founder, John Clare, in the Oct issue of Reptiles Magazine states the following: "White's tree frogs are tolerant of a wide range of temperatures. I've kept them in the low 50s Fahrenheit for short periods of time, and they will also tolerate temperatures up into the 90's. That said, I recommend a terrarium temperature in the 70's or 80's during the day, with a slight drop at night. For many people this is close to normal room temperature, and the artificial lighting previously mentioned may be enough to get the temperature inside the enclosure up to 80 degrees during the day. I don't recommend heat lamps for frog terrariums. If the enclosure temperature needs a boost, use a reptile heat mat attached to the side of the terrarium (be sure to use a thermostat to regulate its output)."

Hope this helps!

[elly]

The twitching happened when he jumped off my hand onto the side of the tank that the light was shining on so, yeah, I don't think it was normal shedding. I know that the pad isn't going to be enough for me and I haven't had any problems maintaining humidity with my 60 watt ceramic heat-emitter. Quite the reverse, really. Being in the heated kitchen will help, but then there's the problem with checking for overheating. I can see you know all about that. When Bonk moves into his permanent tank maybe I'll have fewer issues because I have a much larger heat pad, but then again I don't think glass holds heat very well.

[irThumper]

I haven't had any problems with the 60 watt bulbs, since it's usually so warm in the plant room. The situation I have now is the humidity is apparently dropping to 40% in the frog tanks... no idea how the heck it's getting so low when it's staying 50% something in the plant tanks, especially since I'm misting a couple times a day at a minimum and the water dish is always full :/

Good luck with Bonk and keep us updated on how he's doing. Definitely interested to see how your heating/lighting works for you when he gets into his future home