New to owning White's Tree Frog, New to Forum!

[LindyHopp]

Hi everyone!

Alright. So let me introduce myself briefly before I go into questions that I hope you will all have wonderful answers to. My name's Linda, I own a 5 year old Mexican Red Rump Tarantula and a 12 year old Red Eared Slider that I have had since I was 11. Exotic animals are my passion on account of I am allergic to anything with fur. (Though I love all animals with fur, I just can't own any!) Anyway, I was looking to expand my happy little family and did research for a few months before I decided that I would love to own a White's Tree Frog. (2, actually.) I was going to order online, but I went to a local pet store and saw a beautiful green one that I fell in love with right away. I bought him on Wednesday and have now had little Apollo for a few days.

He stayed that bright green color until I got him home. He's been a dark brown ever since Wednesday and has not moved from the back corner of the tank. I know he must be moving around at night because his water bowl is dirty in the morning. He's eaten about 10 crickets since Wednesday but even at night he just doesn't seem very happy. I want him to feel content in his new home and I just want to make sure that this transition process is normal and that he isn't sick OR that I'm not doing anything wrong.

The temperature I currently have the tank at is around 80 during the day and 70-75 at night. The humidity ranges between 50-70%, depending on when I mist it. When I took a picture of him the first day, I noticed a weird kind of vein thing and I wanted to make sure it was normal since I hadn't noticed it in White's Tree Frog photos before.


I don't know if you see the little line thingy, kind of looks like a sore. But I might just be looking too much into it.


That's Apollo's favorite little spot to sit in. All day. Every day. I noticed that when he ate crickets he got some of the dirt in his mouth, so I covered it with moss.


I hope I'm not being too paranoid, but I just want to make sure all is well with him. I plan on getting another White's Tree Frog at a Reptile Show next week so he can have a friend. Any idea why he's not that pretty green? Is he depressed? Is it the environment? Too much humidity? Let me know!

Thank you guys so much! I appreciate any feedback you can give me.

[1beataway]

Hi, and welcome.

That vein thing is a little weird. Maybe someone else has an answer.

They are nocturnal, so he is likely to stay in the same spot all day. Try to observe him at night. Sometimes mine will go to the exact same spot to sleep, but at night they are all over that tank. The brown color could be because of stress or because of something environmental. He may just need a few days to settle in.He's eating, so that's good. Are you finding any poop? Is he spending a lot of time in his water dish? Is he going for the crickets immediately?

I would lean more towards him needing to settle in, but I don't know about that vein thing.

[Kurt]

Hi it looks to be a fairly dark enclosure, with that in mind a lot of frogs will lighten and darken with their backgrounds. So biggie there. The "weird kind of vein thing", am I correct in assuming you are talking his back? If so that doesn't look normal at all. Of course it could be a bit of debris stuck to his back.

Welcome aboard.

[Crystal6]

Lets see if I can remember everything I want to say... Welcome to the forum! Congrats on your new frog. What size is his/her aquarium? (Sometimes frogs are discontent if their aquarium is too small even though the size requirement would be fine. I've heard of/seen them jump at the lid of the cage over and over if it is too small but if it isn't doing that it's probably not a big problem.)

Btw, frogs can take a while to adapt to their new homes. (Mine were very stressed out when I first bought them and get stressed out every time I change their cage or do something out of the norm.) Also this kind is nocturnal and doesn't move around very much in the day or even when it's bright in the room at night. (Or at least.. my 3 don't.)

I'm told color is based on mood. (I always thought it was temperature because mine turned green whenever I picked him up or warmed him up.) Again he might just be stressed out due to having a new home.

As for the vein thing, I'm not sure. Sometimes I see blue veins like that on my frogs but I don't think I've seen one that big. (someone else on this board should be able to help you though.)

[IgbyKibbits]

Yeah, I've definitely not seen that type of vein thing in all the WTF pics (or with my own). Your humidity/temperature seems to be in good range. It's great to hear that he's eaten so well since you purchased him. That's a pretty good sign, but I second Kurt in saying perhaps you need to bring him into a vet (usually a good idea with a new frog anyhow to check for parasites, etc.) if that is definitely not some debris on his back.

As far as color, it sounds like he's doing okay. I've heard temperature and humidity affect things as well, so unless he's turning a very very dark brown, I wouldn't worry. Give him some time to settle in, and keep us updated, especially with blue vein/the tank conditions if you have more questions.

Welcome to the forum, and happy to have a fellow WTF owner on board!

[LindyHopp]

Thank you guys so much! It is so nice to wake up to all these helpful comments.

I think I'm going to bring him to a vet once I get the second White's Tree Frog at the Reptile Expo, this way I don't have to go through stressing out these poor frogs twice. I took him out for a minute last night to get a closer look at the vein thing, it's kind of puffy...looks almost like it was a cut that healed? Could be a scar? It's definitely not a piece of debris. He also chirped when I picked him up. The second I touched his scar, though, he "peed"...so I felt really bad stressing him out so much. But then that worried me because he was okay if I touched other parts of him, but touching that spot caused him to shoot that water out of his butt. Hahaha, I admit it shocked me...even though I knew that at one point he would probably do that...Anywho! I definitely want to get it checked just in case.

The tank they had him in at the pet store was very tiny, not very tall or wide. It was lined with papertowel, had a stick in the middle and then a clump of moss on the side. I guess the reason he was so light and bright green is because his environment was very light. I have him in an 18x18x24 Exo-terra terrarium with coconut fiber substrate, some flat moss on top of that, and then I have a little bit of that looser moss on the sides. I have a couple of real plants and then I have those fake ones with the suction cups on the sides. I think it's super pretty and I hope he's enjoying it at night when I am sound asleep.

1beataway, to answer your questions: I am actually sitting next to his terrarium right now. I've seen him physically eat about 4 crickets so far and this is because he attacks them right away as soon as I let them loose inside the habitat. As of last night, he's eaten three more crickets. I put them in there before I went to sleep and..well...they're gone. I have seen/taken out...2 pieces of poo, but the others could be somewhere in the moss that I can't see. And he is definitely using his water dish...I filled it to the top last night and cleaned it out good. Right now, it's all dirty and the water is nearly all gone.

Okay. I'm feeling a bit better about this. Do you guys think adding another little guy this week is okay or do you feel I should check out the vein on his back first in case it is some sort of parasite? Thanks to IgbyKibbits, Kurt, and Crystal6 for your input. I appreciate the help so much!

[bshmerlie]

I think you can go ahead and get another frog because they will need to be in separate enclosures for 30 days anyways as a quarantine period. Get them both checked out and make sure everything is okay for awhile before they go in together. By the way it might also have just been a coincidence that he peed when you touched that spot on him. Hopefully it was just an old wound that healed over.

[LindyHopp]

Okay! I have another little tank set up for the new guy, so I'll keep him in there for awhile until everything is okay. I'm leaning towards it being an old wound that healed over...but it's better to be safe than sorry.