Green Tree Frog burned :(

[snittens]

I am still trying to figure out what happened. My son (age 7, so I was mostly taking care of it) had a green tree frog for about a month. Everything seemed fine and he was eating and active. Then one day, he comes out of his room crying that his frog is all dried up. It seems like he got burned under the heat lamp. I don't know if he got stuck, couldn't move, I don't know. He was dried up and warm. I feel awful! I just don't know how this happened.
I had the heat lamp on top of the cage like the instructions showed. Now we have a new frog and I'm afraid of it happening again. So, I'm using a gooseneck desk lamp so it won't be right on top.

[jasonm96]

Hi sorry for your loss. Have you got a picture of your set up? You can upload it on a picture hosting/sharing site and then copy the URL here. Also what were the temps and humidity?

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

Was it too close to the basking light? Did all of the water evaporate? If you could fill this out, it'll be helpful to us to figure out how the frog died:

QUESTIONS

1----what 'kind' of frog is it ( what species)
2----please include a photo of the frog
3----Please include a photo of the frog's current enclosure
4----size of enclosure ( W" x D" x H" )
5----# on inhabitants - ( if there is another frog --- is there a size difference ? )
6----has or was the frog kept with a different species or with any other tank mate
7----is there a new tank mate----was the new tank mate quarantined
8----what is the typical humidity level
9----what temperature is maintained
10---what is, specifically, being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure
11---describe the enclosure lighting ( very specifically)
12---describe enclosure maintenance ( water changes, cleaning etc)
13---what kind of water is used
-----for misting
-----for the frog's soaking dish
-----is de-chlorinator used / what brand
14---material(s) used for substrate - be very specific
15---enclosure set up:
-----if recent - describe how the enclosure was cleaned
-----plants( live or artificial) if artificial plants are used are they plastic or fabric
-----describe wood, bark , and background materials
16---when is the last time the frog ate
17---have you found poop lately
18---how often is the frog fed
19---what size feeder is given
20---what other feeders are used as treats
21---what is the frog's main food source
22---do feeders roam free in the enclosure or is the frog bowl fed
23---vitamins - what brand and how often
24---calcium - what brand and how often
25---was the frog without calcium for any period of time
26---approximate age of the frog
27---how long have you owned the frog
28---who cared for the frog before you
29---is the frog wild caught or captive bred
30---how often the frog is handled -- are gloves used ( what kind of gloves)
31---is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area
30---has or was the frog properly quarantined (yes or no)
-----for how long
32---has the frog been treated with any medication:
-----for what
-----name of medication
-----for how long
-----what dose
-----was medication prescribed by a herp vet

And once again, very sorry for your loss.

[elly]

As long as there was a bowl of dechlorinated water, the frog should have been able to rehydrate himself. Unless it was extremely hot. You might want to try putting a thermometer underneath the old heat lamp after it has been on for several hours to see how hot it got.
Otherwise, I suspect the frog might have died of other causes.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

But that wouldn't explain why it was shriveled up, unless it was underneath the heat lamp when it died. Again, I think it was either due to desiccation or some other problem inside/caused in the enclosure

[snittens]

I'll have to set it back up and check that. He did have a dish of water.

And, now the new replacement frog died. But, I thought that frog was unhealthy. He was very skinny and not active. He wasn't all shriveled up and dried like the other frog. Sigh. Maybe tree frogs aren't for us. We've had a pacman frog for almost a year and he's doing great.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

Well I'm going to make sure that everything is good with your tree-frogs, they are usually really hardy, I owned several for a while with know hassles except for a male getting nose rub once. Are they always too close to the basking lamp, and do you have any extra things that may be causing heat?

[snittens]

Darn it, I tried to answer all the questions but my reply got lost.
Basically, here's the rundown of the set up.

10 gallon tank, screened top. Heat lamp on top. I'm not sure what the bulb strength was. Coconut fiber substrate (Eco Earth). Fed small crickets, seemed to be eating fine. Used treated reverse osmosis water. Also had a heat mat under the tank.

[elly]

The heat mat plus the lamp might have been overkill. Once again I recommend getting a thermometer to check the temperature if you don't have one.

Also, kind of a minor side note since it probably didn't cause your frog to die, reverse osmosis water isn't very good for frogs. Sometimes bottled spring water is treated by reverse osmosis, but they generally add minerals back to the water. Tap water treated with dechlorinating drops (usually) is fine.

Distilled water (or Reverse Osmosis water) has virtually no ions in it, so it causes more work for the amphibian's kidneys.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Spring_water.shtml

[snittens]

The heat mat plus the lamp might have been overkill. Once again I recommend getting a thermometer to check the temperature if you don't have one.

Also, kind of a minor side note since it probably didn't cause your frog to die, reverse osmosis water isn't very good for frogs. Sometimes bottled spring water is treated by reverse osmosis, but they generally add minerals back to the water. Tap water treated with dechlorinating drops (usually) is fine.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Spring_water.shtml

Our tap water is very hard (we're on a well). I was using the house reverse osmosis that makes our tap water drinkable. I thought that would be preferable than straight tap.