Gray tree frog from bold to reclusive

[Kesha2]

He's gotten some major upgrades to his digs. He's still not as friendly toward me as he always was before I went on vacation. I've been back a couple of weeks now. I gather this is not a common experience. He was such an outgoing frog. I've been a little heart broken but I'm being patient. My friends say he's acting like a teenager now. His health is good. He just doesn't want to hang out with mom anymore. It's hard to take. I keep trying bribing him. Bigger enclosure. More leaves, more hides. More things to climb on. I feed him six small crickets every night. Should I feed him less? Maybe he isn't coming out because he isn't terribly hungry. Any other ideas, please?

[elly]

Sadly frogs are pretty simple and unlikely to take bribes. It sounds like he got a scare and is ultra cautious. it might be better to feed him every other night.

[Kesha2]

elly, thank you for replying. Do you think if I were to feed him every other night that i should feed him twice as much as I do now each night? He won't eat in front of me lately. He waits for me to leave. I've been bowl feeding lately. I am not sure how to tell how many he can eat in 15 min as I've seen recommended elsewhere if he won't eat in front of me.

[elly]

I held off on answering because I don't really know. How young is the frog? With younger ones it's better/okay to feed frequently. I also don't know how to judge how many small crickets a frog of this species should have, I'm used to figuring it out for larger frogs.

[Kesha2]

Hi elly, I am really not sure how old he is. I found him in my office in early April and he was so tiny I figured he must be very young but I think he was just emaciated. Once I got him fattened up a bit he started calling in May, so I think he must be a couple years old if calling indicates sexual maturity. He is very energetic so I still think he can't be very old. Back when he would eat in front of me he'd easily eat nine or ten small crickets but if I gave him that many every night he'd start chubbing up a bit. I didn't want him getting too chubs because I am worried about him breaking a leg so I usually limit it to six or seven crickets and supplement with an occasional moth or fly and he maintains a healthy looking physique with that. How does one typically transition from the nightly feeding to the every other night for frogs transitioning from adolescence to adulthood? He always eats all his food every night. Is it bad to feed an adult frog every night? I want him to be more sociable at feed time but I also don't want to make him go hungry. If I could feed him the right amount every other night and he'd be hungrier/more sociable at mealtime that would be great but I worry about him suffering from hunger on off nights.

[elly]

Frogs are coldblooded so it's generally good to give them some time to digest. He might be a little hungry, but not too much.
Grays might just be small enough to require daily feeding. On the other hand, American Green Tree Frogs are about Grey size and I've seen several recs for feeding them every other day to every two days. My suggestion: stick with what seems to be working. Edit: There's recommendations for feeding Greys as much as they'll eat for 15 mins 2-3 times a week. But if you're handfeeding and the frog won't eat that much at once it might be better to feed less and more frequently?Here's a caresheet from this site.
Here's a caresheet, it sounds like you're already doing the stuff on it, but here it is anyway.

[Kesha2]

My gray is only 4 - 5 grams in weight (less than a quarter) and about an inch and a half long but he is an adult or at least an adolescent that's nearly adult. I read frogs tend to eat less when the weather cools so I might try this: continue as things are for now since that's working and then switch to a less frequent schedule this autumn or winter and probably give nine or ten crickets each feeding (about 50% more than I give him when feeding nightly and an amount I've seen him consume easily in the past). After I see how that goes I'll come back and let you know what happened. I'm going to continue google searching and reading more about cold blooded animals and digestion. Thank you for the leads, elly.