Grey Tree Frog... changing his colour?

[charlamanda]

I have UV lighting above my terranium for the little guys and they spend most of the time on the top leaves in the terranium directly underneath it. I am only new to frogs myself, but I have never read anywhere (this forum or other sites) or been told personally that it is bad for them, but actually the contrary, that it is necessary. On top of the UV light, I also dust their crickets once a week in calcium powder and once a week in reptile vitamins, to ensure that they are getting all of their reqirements.

My little froggers stay under their light too. Here is a pic of one that squeezed between the strap and the glass under the light, sometimes 4-6 of them are under there at a time, looks uncomfortable. That "spot" in the pic is a frog, my camera sucks, but assure you it is a frog.LOL I also found, in our many boxes, another light for a small octagon tank I had been using for Baby. My late father use to breed fish and it was a light bulb he had used, but it gets hot. I set it up on the top back of the big tank over the meshing on an angle to help dissipate the heat. I also have their regular fluorescent light on too. I put a thermometer in the tank below the light so I could monitor the temp. I only turn it on during the day for several hours (about 8-10 hrs) and a group forms. I have 10 froglets in this tank and usually around 6 will sit under it most of the day. The bulb itself is 1" diameter and 4"-5" in length. It has a filament, is clear with a yellow/amber tint in the glass of the bulb.
Anyone have any ideas what kind of bulb it is and or if it is safe for the frogs?
I just assumed it was and they really enjoy the heat it emits.
As far as I know most household fluorescent bulbs do not emit UVA or UVB wavelengths, (those years of physics haven't really paid off yet LOL) and I am not so sure that it's a necessity for the frogs either. I believe if you give your frogs vitamin supplements, they are receiving the nutritional requirements of vitamin D and do not necessarily need the light for the D conversion, similarly with humans and Vit D in our milk.
Hopefully someone with some concrete info will let us know because I myself am not 100% sure about lighting and it's benefits or ill effects or even what kind I have or what is the best kind to have. UVA and or vs UVB or either or both, no clue!!

[Rae]

grr so many opinions lol but ty I need lots =D

Oh I changed the picture in the background to one with more green and no brown I hope this might help since hes always stuck hiding to the back glass...

looking for moss too, to cover subtrate to help with adding green and holding humidity better.... any suggestions about this?

[Greenlove]

Your little frog is so cute! Looks just like a few of mine. Ok, I'm going to give you my opinion but you may not like it. Now, mind you, I am no expert, but since acquiring the 11 Gray tree frogs I am currently adopting into my family, I have spent hours and hours and hours researching them. So, here goes. First of all the tank you have him in is way too small-----I repeat---WAY TOO SMALL! These little fellas like to climb like crazy! Your tank should be no less than 24 inches tall (this is optimal). There are numerous ways you can go about acheiving this if you are short on funds, i.e.--kits to turn a 20 gallon fish tank into a terrarium (standing on it's end), put 2 20gallon tanks together, buy pre-fab ones from numerous dealers online, I think one of the companies is called Protean (I'm not endorsing them, just a suggestion from someone else that told me about them, always do research about a company first), and numerous other options. I think I read that you want to get more Gray's? If that is the case, I would invest in the 36x18x24 (in inches) exo terra, that is the biggest they make and would be ideal for a small family of frogs. If you are planing on keeping just the one frog then I think the medium one (18x18x24) would be sufficient, I believe the height on that is 24 inches too. That is probably one of his biggest stress problems right now. Also, I looked at your pictures and his water bowl is dirty. Mine DO NOT like a dirty water bowl. I clean it out every single day. What are you feeding? I have read that variety is the key to happiness. Although, he still looks young so fruit flies and pinhead crickets should be his staple diet until he gets older. Mine are 1 month old and do not get anything bigger than an 1/8 of an inch to eat. I have a few that are bright green without a pattern, a few that are light gray with spots, a few that are a dark gray with pattern, and one that is almost black. I have never read that there color depends on their mood so I can not give you any advice on that, but I will no doubt be researching that in the next few days. I have read that these guys are the chameleons of the frog world so I just assumed that they changed colors depending on their surroundings. I can't help you on the lighting issue as I am still researching that myself, but I did read that you should be very careful with lighting on small terrariums, it can be harmful if you don't do it right. There is a very educational care article on Gray's on this forum. If you haven't already read it, make sure you do, I think it talks about lighting. It's at the top left hand corner under frog and toad care articles. I can not stress enough how much these guys like to climb, and if they don't have that option they will be unhappy. These are arboreal creatures and after their first year of life they normally don't come out of the trees except to mate. This is just my opinion mixed in with what I have read from some experts. I hope it has helped.

[Rae]

Thank you for this... if we could afford a bigger one we'd have it im pushing for Christmas for my husband, my mother, father and maybe in laws to help toward that exo terra large you were talking about i want it sooo bad.. I could easily have 4-6 in it i would think... My husband just wont let us get something that big if I cant seem to find someone to sell or send us more grey tree frogs.

He wants to mix frogs and salamanders im trying to warn him against mixing due to what ive read here on this site.

I clean the water every morning he just makes a mess of it lol.

Frodo eats small crickets not pinheads but still small 1cm maybe in length.

I have read the care sheet and i even posted some questions I had but they never got posted or answered.

[Greenlove]

Your welcome. I hope you get the exo terra for Christmas, or sooner. I know it is expensive but you need to tell your husband that Gray's live for 8 or more years in captivity. It would be a good investment. Also, you said you can't find anyone to sell or send you some? Where did you find your little guy? If he is wild caught just wait till next year around the same time and go hunting. I would advise not putting anything else in that terrarium right now, especially another species (salamanders), because it is too small. I think I read somewhere, that Grays only like to be with their own kind anyways. Maybe you can read up on that. Frodo sounds like he has a cute personality-----messing up his water bowl all the time. I'm sorry to hear that your questions weren't posted or answered. Maybe you can send a message directly to the person you want the info from. Good luck.

[suzic1163]

@ Charlamanda

It looks to me like there is perspex between your frog and the uv light??

If that is the case, are you aware that perspex and glass filter out UVB rays? Which consequently defeats the purpose of using a UV light.
(This all of course is if you want your frogs to get the benefit of receiving the UVB rays).

If you do, I have a mesh lid for my terranium and simply removed the perspex sheet that came in the lighting unit...

[suzic1163]

This is a segment from the 'Amphibian Research Centre Care Sheet' in relation to Australia's White Lipped (Giant) Tree Frogs:

'Although giant tree frogs are largely nocternal they shelter during the day in areas exposed to sunlight. It has been observed that in captivity a failure to provide ultra violet light has resulted in stunted and deformed growth'.

'Those that are white or near white when switdhed off and pale blue when on emit light in the right spectrum.'

'Lights should be placed on a timer for at least 6-8 hours a day.'

'Be sure that the cover in not benesth the light fixture as this will stop the necessary UV light from reaching the frogs.'

Please bear in mind that this is for Giant Tree Frogs, not Grey Tree Frogs...I would think (not saying that I'm correct) that it would be a similar principle...