Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 21 to 40 of 41

Thread: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

  1. #21
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    I didn't domesticate any others that year but I figured if another malformed version of Henry came out I'd take it in but I've learned a huge lesson about being vigilant when it comes to socializing a domestic frog in the pool pond.
    Last year I had almost 200 froglets that I accounted for and probably half that many more in the hours of the night when I wasn't monitoring their exit from the waters of the nursery pods. I saw 6 one-eyed froglets and since I have neither the space nor the budget to feed that many I let them go about their business and a couple of months later 2 of them were sticking around so I took those two in. Along with them there was one that I determined was blind or at least so close to blind that I decided to take that one too and another that was less than half the size of any other I'd seen in my years of observing them and so off color that I decided to take that one in too so now I have 4 yearlings, each with a different set of challenges. The "blind" one we've named Scooter definitely has a glaucoma-like condition in one eye that for the first several months swelled that eye up huge and kept it black like in their night-vision setting and also has an almost spina-bifida condition in her back legs and her hips and lower spine so she can't climb up or jump very well but her apetite is normal and she traverses the 75 gal. tank (which stands vertically) with normal Tree Frog enthusiasm. The initially tiniest oddly colored one we call P-Nut is a doe and has a cleft pallet but is otherwise a normal, hard charger of a Tree Frog. The 2 one-eyed ones are bucks named Iz and Buck. Buck is otherwise completely normal and Iz has respiratory difficulties he's learned to deal with and is the largest of them all at this point, he's the biggest eater among them. Needless to say, I only take them out under full supervision never more than one step away from them partly because of the owl hazzard but mostly because unlike Henry their unique physical characteristics can't be spotted from any distance at all.

    Your place sounds really great. What are your native frogs and/or toads that spawn there?

    Keep an eye out for any noticeable darkening of your suspected male's throat as the females don't have that at all. It only happens periodically. After 12 weeks, sometimes sooner, you can play recordings of Gray Tree Frog choruses and that'll fire up any males you have who can't chirp yet but can get excited about hearing the chorus. When they get excited hearing that their throats will definitely turn very dark and you'll know they're a buck rather than a doe. I have some good sound videos of our choruses on the youtube playlist I posted the link to in an earlier message that would serve that purpose and of course youtube in general is full of them.

  2. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Posts
    Many
     

  3. #22

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    KP, I would love to see some pictures of your disabled frogs!

    P.S. I do love the use of "sticky little gremlins". I might have to start using that. I refer to mine as my sticky and/or greasy children quite often, and also as God's little boogers.

  4. #23
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    EtTuBrute, I'll llok for some photos but in the meantime this playlist has 20+ videos of my Frog/Toad project: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...8f46gZXD7Bq3FD

  5. #24
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    These are of one of the one-eyed males we call Bucky
    Name:  Bucky_1.JPG
Views: 400
Size:  2.60 MBName:  Bucky_2.JPG
Views: 595
Size:  2.77 MBName:  Bucky_3.JPG
Views: 564
Size:  2.86 MBName:  Bucky_4.JPG
Views: 397
Size:  3.10 MB

  6. #25
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    This is one of the females we call P-Nut. She has a cleft palate making her snout shorter and more rounded.
    If you look closely you can see the tiny cleft on her upper lip and how it affected the color pattern on it going up to her nostrils.
    Name:  P-Nut.JPG
Views: 437
Size:  1.71 MBName:  P-Nut2.JPG
Views: 610
Size:  3.03 MB

  7. #26
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    This is Scooter whose lower body from her hip & sacral area down is twisted under, with large bony protuberances on her lower back. Her legs never really got fully developed muscles and they're hypermobile in incovenient ways so they make her move almost like she had a Spina-Bifida or as if she has a palsy. I know hypermobility and palsy seem contradictory but it best describes her way of moving. She can't very well climb up but she's learned to control her descent from wherever I place her up high so that she can get to wherever she wants below herself with surprisingly skillful use of both arms and legs. And she really seems to enjoy it. She gets as fired up during a thunderstorm as her normally agile siblings but if she's on the floor of their habitat all she can do is tiny stilted jumps that only move her about an inch or even backwards or not at all just jumping up in place. So I place her into the upper levels and she hangs out or spends a while making her surprisingly acrobatic descent. She can end up on her back pretty often when she's on flat surfaces trying to jump but she's mastered righting herself. Because of that I keep their water bowl very shallow and mist them frequently. She also gets 10 minutes of hydrotherapy under the faucet every other day and regular exercise Physical Therapy sessions outside of her habitat and has been imroving in both her confidence and her skillset. You can tell she really enjoys these sessions because she turns the calmest color they do which is a very light, almost whiteish gray which is their default "everything's right" color. If we miss a couple of days she gets noticeably stiff but she bounces back right after her sessions resume.
    Name:  Scooter1.JPG
Views: 544
Size:  3.00 MBName:  Scooter2.JPG
Views: 437
Size:  3.38 MB

  8. #27
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    This is from left to right-Bucky, Scooter and P-Nut. Scooter got herself wedged in on the metal frog by backing down from the leaf above where I put her, right after she left a tiny turd on the leaf. Her weight made the leaf rest on top of the metal frog.
    Name:  BuckyScooterP-Nut.JPG
Views: 451
Size:  3.45 MB

  9. #28
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    This is the other one-eyed male named Iz or Izzy. I thought he was a female because he was a late bloomer and his name was Isabel. So I decided to make it more Jamaican/Rasta and just go with Iz. He's hangin' with a visiting adult Spring Peeper who came in for a photoshoot.
    Name:  Izzy&aPeeper1.JPG
Views: 461
Size:  1.81 MBName:  Izzy&aPeeper2.JPG.JPG
Views: 553
Size:  2.93 MB

  10. #29
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    I like the booger name. They are often green and always extremely gooey.
    A couple others I sometimes use are Thunder Frogs because they love thunder and get very excited during thunderstorms, and Ice Frogs for their antifreeze component in their blood that enables them to survive icier conditions than most other frogs without going deep below the ground surface in winter. Another frog around this region that has that component in their blood is the Wood Frog. Both species can dessicate so completely that if you find one before they're coming back from the winter cycle they do and you didn't know they did that you'd be positive they were dead. But warmer weather in late winter/early spring brings them back.

  11. #30

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    Your P-Nut reminds me of my Squidge! She's sort of funny looking, and we finally figured out it was due to metabolic bone disease (despite always being well supplemented and getting UVB - go figure). Now she has to get calcium directly syringed into her mouth every day for a month.

    Name:  IMG_20190818_214107.jpg
Views: 385
Size:  3.96 MB

    And here's my Brutus, thinking I have food:
    Name:  IMG_20190818_214117.jpg
Views: 430
Size:  4.14 MB

    And here's Anakin, stepping on Brutus' face:
    Name:  IMG_20190807_214705.jpg
Views: 415
Size:  2.69 MB

  12. #31
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    This is Henry Gray. He was the first one I domesticated from egg to near adult. In the 4th photo he's trying to match the lichens and the concrete at the same time and doing a pretty good job of it. His color-changing abilities were precocious by the standards given in most scientific studies of them.
    Name:  IMG_8843.JPG
Views: 437
Size:  1.59 MBName:  IMG_8925.JPG
Views: 423
Size:  1.93 MBName:  IMG_8939.JPG
Views: 450
Size:  1.79 MBName:  IMG_9040.JPG
Views: 546
Size:  1.89 MB

  13. #32
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    Oh she's a cutie. The beauty is in the flaws.

  14. #33
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    Nice looking crew. Brutus has a distinctive face. They're not all indistinguishable by any means and if you didn't already know, their markings are as unique as our fingerprints and probably as intricate over a large population of them.

  15. #34
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    Here's a couple more of Henry Gray.
    Name:  IMG_0792.JPG
Views: 557
Size:  1.91 MBName:  IMG_0794.JPG
Views: 470
Size:  1.72 MB

  16. #35

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    You sound a little like me, I think I would have to take in any malformed ones if I saw them. I don’t recall ever seeing anything like that and I know my mum would try to help them if she saw any, if she finds a frog dead she gives them a little burial bless her.
    We only have 2 types of frog in the UK, the Common frog and the pool frog. The ones my mum gets in her little pond are common frogs. I don’t believe I have ever seen a pool frog or If I have I certainly don’t remember.
    we also only have 2 types of toad, the Common toad and the Natterjack toad. My mum gets common Toads in her garden but they don’t spawn there but she finds them hanging out in her flower baskets. I don’t think I have ever seen a Natterjack toad. From what I’ve seen in pictures they are a little like my Southern toad in their colouring.
    I did play a recording of grey tree frogs calling to my two last night but they were totally uninterested.
    my Southern toad has only been with me for a few weeks and last night I played a recording of southern toads calling and he turned his head but nothing. I went to bed and about half hour later my husband came in and said that he was having a little go at calling. I think that maybe hearing the toad on the video gave him that push to have a go. Just as well it turned out to be a male as his name is Trevor, after the toad in Harry Potter. I’m afraid I’m not very original when it comes to naming my frogs and toads. One of my Whites tree frogs is called Kermit and another is Freddo after the Cadbury chocolate frog.
    In all I now have 5 Whites tree frogs, 1 Southern toad, 2 Yellow bellied toads and my 2 new Grey tree frogs.

  17. #36

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    I have only just seen the pictures of all the frogs.
    poor little scooter, she wouldn’t have stood a chance in the wild would she.
    They are all so cute.
    I think these little frogs are a little overlooked in the UK. As soon as someone decides they would like to start keeping frogs everyone says Get a Whites tree frog but these little guys are (I feel ) a good frog for beginners too. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my Whites tree frogs but these are great too.
    I was interested to read that when the grey tree frogs go white it means that they are totally calm. One of mine sits on the paper towel substrate (quarantine tank) and goes really pale and just chills there. When it is up on the vines he goes grey with lovely patterning.
    Im new to the Greys so I am finding all of this very interesting so thank you both for sharing all this. I did of course do my research before I got them but it’s nice to read other peoples experiences, especially when you have them as a native species.
    Last edited by KayJoh; August 21st, 2019 at 02:56 AM. Reason: double posted

  18. #37
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    I think it's safe to say that most likely none of them would have survived until their first winter cycle.
    Since spring of 2008 I've accounted for dozens of adults in my community and not a single one had any physical issues.
    Even in Henry Gray's case he was the second one I had seen between spring 2008 and spring 2016. They were both in the spring of 2016.
    The first one had a similar leg deformation but so slight that it didn't impede it's movement in any way and it had all the energy and agility and enthusiasm of the best among them so I didn't want to domesticate it as that was never my intention. Then a couple weeks later Henry crawled out of the water and his leg actually kept him from jumping any distance as it would stick when he jumped and yank him back forcefully to where he was trying to launch from. He'd have been bird food in the firat couple minutes if he lasted that long. Unfortunately as it ended up he became an owl snack a little over 2 years later. But he had a great 2+ years and he started me out so I was ready when the population exploded and a few more exceptional individuals crawled out of the nurseries. I'll remain ever grateful to him for his initiating me into Gray Tree Frog adoption and long-term care.

  19. #38
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    Their color changes do have a lot to do with their surroundings as the scientific research suggests but in my experience of years of observation of a good-sized community,where the wild ones are concerned it seems like it's more determined by their general mood, threat level, spawning seasons and maybe something to do with their individual characteristics since some when newly morphed start frog life wearing a charcoal gray to almost black color and others are a vibrant green like spring foliage, while others are various shades of blue-green or aqua, and they stay that way until they're a couple of months old and even older. The vast majority of adults around the property here spend most of their time doing bright green. If I didn't know the name they have, I'd be inclined to think of them as Green Tree Frogs rather than Gray. With my domesticated ones it becomes much more centered around things outside of their immediate surroundings. They'll go green or gray whenever I take them out for a play period and they know when I'm going to get one of them out for that. People might think I'm projecting, but they each behave as individuals and have their own personalities and preferences.

  20. #39
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    So how are your little Grays doing? We've been taking over your thread lately. Do you have an update?

  21. #40
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Amelia, VA
    Posts
    11

    Default Re: Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

    Sure I can give an update. Lately I've been working on getting them out of the five gallon tank and into their permanent paludarium setup. I'm keeping it mostly water since the grays rarely use the ground level anyway. That way I don't have to clean it out - their waste falls into the water and I have tons of invertebrates that I always keep in all my aquariums that act as an amazing cleanup crew. The tank I'm converting is a 56 gallon tall aquarium - I've never been happy with it as an aquarium because the extra height makes it really hard to get enough light down to the bottom level for solid plant growth, but that extra height makes it perfect for a tree frog setup. Plus with the land portion I'll be able to get plants closer to the light and I should be able to get solid plant growth throughout within a few months.

    The water portion is home to five species of snail, some dwarf crayfish, freshwater shrimp, and a small school of golden tetras as well as six species of aquatic plants. I'm planning on also adding a couple of african butterfly fish. They'll be a perfect addition because they skim the surface so they are easily visible when looking down from above. They are generally considered difficult fish because they tend to only eat live insects and refuse anything else, but that makes them perfect for this tank because they will clean up all the flies and other bugs that fall off of the branches and end up in the water.

    Above the water I have a large sycamore branch with coprinus micaceus mushrooms growing on it (collecting mushrooms is another hobby of mine). This particular variety of mushroom is interesting because they glisten and sparkle in the light. They bloom every evening but only last about a day before they dissolve. Under the branch I have a cement planter shaped like a log - even though it was cement I still had to weight it down with four pounds of vinyl coated lead diving weights to get it to sit solidly on the ground. And don't worry about the cement leaching into the water - I coated it with epoxy for stability and then an additional coat of non toxic acrylic sealer over that. In the planter are two bromelades and a pothos which climbs up the sycamore branch. Some giant orange isopods live at the base of the plants as well, but I never see them, because they are buried in the leaf litter I put in there for them.

    Light is full spectrum 4000 lumen on a color controlled timer so it goes through a full cycle of orange sunrise to full white noon sun down again to a nice blue tinted evening before going dark for the night. Rock waterfall in the back is a filter and I also have the heater for the water inside it. Keeping the water heated to 78F ends up giving the entire aquarium a nice warm feel with decent humidity so everyone is comfortable.

    Believe it or not the frogs are in there. Really only ever see them in the evening when it's feeding time, during the day they wedge themselves in at the top of the branch or behind the waterfall power cords and basically disappear. Hopefully when they get bigger they won't be able to squeeze into such tight spaces and I will see more of them.
    Attached Images Attached Images   

Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. What is killing my grey tree frog tadpoles?
    By EtTuBrute in forum Tree Frogs
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: September 5th, 2017, 06:23 PM
  2. Wanted: Grey tree frog tadpoles and/or eggs
    By LilyPad in forum Wanted
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: July 7th, 2016, 11:41 AM
  3. Grey Tree Frog Tadpoles
    By Brian Perkins in forum Tree Frogs
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: June 8th, 2016, 12:00 AM
  4. Grey Tree Frog - Tadpoles
    By oneilsfrogs in forum Tree Frogs
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: August 2nd, 2013, 10:14 AM
  5. Grey Tree Frog Tadpoles Update
    By Tubby0512 in forum Tree Frogs
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: July 16th, 2013, 07:43 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •