New Whites tree Frogs!

[elly]

It could be that. Are they in a loud place right now? It might help to cover three sides of the tank with paper to make them feel more secure.
Do you hand feed or bowl feed?
They might be impacted or sick but most likely they're stressed. How old are they? Adults don't need to eat but about twice a week. Younger ones need to be fed more often.
Also, maybe try raising the nighttime temperature by 5 degrees or so. 65's a little low.

[deranged chipmunk]

most likely, the frog is just acclimating to it's new environment. frogs are just like people in the respect that some handle a move to a new environment better than others. it's very common for a white's (also retf's) to not feed for a couple weeks after coming home from the store. i had some that ate right away, but a couple held off feeding for a few weeks. just offer it one or two crickets in a day or so. no worries, he won't starve to death if he doesn't eat right away. they are tough creatures and can go longer than you think without eating.

[Kazzie]

They arent in a very loud or trafficked part of my home, the only person that really goes near their tank, is moi. I have my salamander enclosure and my Pacific Tree Frog Enclosure in the same area as well.

I actually don't like to feed my animals in their enclosures, and most of the time I put them in a feeding tank. (I've had issues with food escaping my poor froggies) and recently I've been hand feeding my pacifics and my Long toed salamander with a pair of feeding tongs from petco. So far it's been going pretty well, with the exception of an over zealous Pierre trying to gobble up the end of one of the prongs.

I believe that all 3 are young adults.

I've been trying to keep my temperature a little higher at night and during the day, but Their lamp and the under tank heater kinda fluctuate a bit. Which is frustrating as hell, lemme just say.


As for feeding, I've been offering meal worms at the moment - no matter how hard I try I cannot get my crickets to breed or stay alive. I might have to resort to a weekly trip to the petstore to keep supplies up- which is SUPER frustrating.

[irThumper]

Hey, I just noticed you are from Oregon too, Kazzie! Where did you get your frogs? If Petco I would definitely keep a sharp eye on them... there are good Petcos, and there are bad ones, and I had the bad luck to have a local Petco which sold me sick frogs

I would avoid meal worms, too much indigestible material, and I've heard for smaller or more delicate tree frogs the meal worms can start to eat into them before they are even digested! Wax worms occasionally, small earth worms/night crawlers (not red worms or composting worms, they seem to hate those!) and Dubia are all recommended foods, though I haven't had much luck with Dubias. They will go for them but seem to have trouble eating and digesting them. Forget Soldier fly larvae (also called Calci-worms/Phoenix worms) other folks here have said they are a waste of time and usually not digested by their frogs, and I went out and had to prove it for myself-- they passed right through my frogs, guh.

I haven't tried breeding crickets yet but I've had good luck keeping them. What do you have yours in? I keep about 100 to 300 small to medium crickets in a 5.5 gallon tank (would like to upgrade to a 10 gallon), provide the crickets a combination of Fluker's dry cricket chow and crushed up original Cheerios in 2-3 plastic jar lids in different corners of the tank, cover these with cardboard egg carton and tea boxes with the lids and tabs torn off, and I provide a plastic jar with cotton soaked in spring water for them to drink. #1 Is to make sure the tank stays dry & clean if any water spills or cardboard gets wet, dry it and throw out the wet cardboard. I clean the tank out between cricket batches with hot water and white vinegar. #2 Make sure the crickets stay warm. For instance keep them in a warm dry room in the house instead of in the garage or on the porch.

[elly]

Maybe the frogs aren't eating because they feel exposed in the feeding tank or were frightened from being picked up? Maybe they'll get used to it. You could try bowl-feeding, but with three frogs it might be tricky to figure out which one is getting what.

I have had luck with dubias and my frogs seem to digest them pretty well. The only thing is that they're so flat sometimes it's hard for the frogs to get them off the bottom of the bowl.

[Kazzie]

I did get my white's from Petco, and I've been watching them like a hawk (I've read your story and that is a constant thought in my mind) However, my fiance and I have had a very very positive experience so far with ours, and the amphibian specialist we talked to seemed to know his stuff (from what I've read that is) The only thing I have found to be negative about the experience is the type of conditions my babies were in when we adopted them. Completely dry substrate and 17 different whites packed into a 5 gallon tank. I was appalled.

Did I say meal worms? Whoops. I meant the super worms. The soft ugly ones. LOL. I've finally figured out how to breed them- which is a relief, because shelling out a ton of money weekly for crickets has been severely affecting my wallet. I had my pinheads in a 5 gallon critter keeper, and my fully grown adults in a separate one (about 30 fully mature adults) and I provided them with moist substrate to lay eggs, and it seemed like they were. About a week after, I moved the substrate to a breeder box with an under tank heater, and within 3 days the adults were all dead and the substrate in the breeder box was moldy. I figure it was due to poor ventiliation, but its just been so frustrating.


I've been thinking of getting some flightless fruit flies- but my only thought is that my whites are not tiny like my pacific tree frogs. Will flies be big enough to satiate them?

Gizmo <- pictured here has eaten about 5 super worms or so from a bowl this morning, and has had really normal stool. She likes to sit on the budha head we got for her tank.

Sprocket <- has eaten a bit less, I think he took a worm I offered him yesterday, but I have noticed he's been poo'ing regularly as well. On the other.... yuckier side, he did happen shoot pee at me today. That was lovely. The scamp.

Fizgig, on the other hand, I havent even gotten a picture of. She doesnt want to do anything but hide in the corner of the tank where it's darkest. I figure she feels a bit more stressed than the other two.

[elly]

From what I've heard fruit flies are pretty poor nutrition wise. They also do seem a bit small for White's.

Superworms may be a little high in fat for White's, so maybe supplement with some other insect? Earthworms are pretty low in fat, though large nightcrawlers might need to be cut down to size. (If you go that route avoid red wrigglers/redworms though.)

[deranged chipmunk]

yeah, fruit flies are way too small for white's. they will take them after they morph from from tads, but after that, they would just find them to be an annoyance more so than food stock.

[irThumper]

Your guys are very cute!

You could also try butter worms and horn worms (domestically cultured). I want to try and let some wax worms transition into moths and feed those.

I've always been worried about the possibility of respiratory infection (Oregon's known for mold, as you know, Kazzie, lol) so don't like to keep the humidity as high, but like everyone's saying they accept a wide range I'm in the NW part so we generally don't have problems with low humidity here anyway, except for the times we get the crazy dry cold snaps like we've had, or those odd super hot summer days But upper 40% to 60% suits my guys well here.