Grey Tree Frog... changing his colour?

[Rae]

Hi This might be a strange question but is there anyway to get our Grey Tree Frog to show more green.

When we found him (just over a week ago) we had observed him for 3 days he was bright green and no pattern...

He is since the night we brought him in and put him in his new terrarium turned quicky to dark green with pattern to brown and now almost grey.

We find him cute still but what attracted us to him was the bright green, he was so different to anything we had seen in a frog around here.

If you look at my album you can see I have lots of green in the terrarium as well as brown.

Willing to take any suggestions as long as it safe for Frodo of course

Thank you

[suzic1163]

I am only new to the frog world myself, having aquired two juivenile (Australian) Giant Green Tree Frogs. From my little experiences and readings done on green tree frogs, they turn brown when they are stressed or unhappy. For example, if we get a really cold night here and the terranium temperature drops below 20 degrees celcius they will go brown, but colour up again once it warms up.
I havn't quite succeeded in keeping my fellas green all of the time yet, not entirely sure why, as they have everything that I understand that they need in all of the right conditions, so my next process is adding more hidding places. If that doesn't help, I will change their substrate as I noticed some rocks in their faeces yesterday morning (that would have hurt coming out )

Good luck getting your fella to colour up!

[charlamanda]

[QUOTE=suzic1163;37156]I agree with suzic, I have 13 Grays since they were tadpoles and when they were tiny froglets they were almost solid green with out any patterns. Then as they have gotten older 3 months old now and between 1/2" and 1+" they vary considerably. Some are still green with a patteren, some are still small and solid green very faint patterns and some are light gray to dark gray and everything in between that.
Depending on the size, age, etc. and when you brought him/her in they will turn dark due to the stress of the change. Some of mine stayed dark for weeks..up to a month or two , while others took only days to get used to their new diggs.
Give your little fella some time and plenty of greenery and he/she will turn green again soon.
Oh and light also with cause your froggy to lighten or darken too, as well as the humidity and if they are in or out of their water bowl too.
They can be stubborn creatures so he/she may never turn that beautiful shade you found it wearing.
I took several in based on their exquisite colors and after bringing one in never saw it again, but I could never send him/her back into the Fall cold now, very shallow of me!LOL

[charlamanda]

BTW...love the name. I adopted 5 dwarf rabbits from the shelter several years ago(a family friend worked there, saw me and told me the bunnies were scheduled to be euthanized because of over crowding, I paid for 2 and she snuck 3 out and even gave me some cages, I am a sucker for sure) and named them all after the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings...Frodo is my soul survivor. Frodo the frog has a nice ring to it...best of luck and if you have any more ?'s I'll be happy to help. With 13 and 3 with lots of problems I learned about them very quickly, outside and as pets.

[Rae]

Thank-you for the suggestions... I'll give it more time and it isnt very light where we keep him.... and we saw him bathing in th sun so maybe the light as you said might also contribute with stress to cause such a drastic colour change...

Any other suggestion always wanted and thank you again!

Time will tell

[Rae]

Okay so now I'm totally confused we decided to look into getting UVB lighting for our terrarium and have been told by the Reptile store here that puting even a UVB light source on such a small terrarium could be dangerous to the frog.

Our terrarium is 12"x12"x12" (ZooMed Naturalistic I believe its called)
And as I said Frodo is A Grey Treefrog (eastern/ Hyla veriscolor we believe due to finding it here in Ontario)

Anyone know anything about if this is true?

Is the calcium supplement really enough to give him the D3 vitamins he'd get from a light.

[charlamanda]

Lighting is definately not my forte'. I am still using a light from when I had fish in the tank. It doesn't even have any info about the uva or uvb output if it even has any. I am glad you brought this up because I am also confused when it come to my lighting.
If anyone reads this that has knowledge on lighting I too have a questions.
The packaging on the light bulb, I've kept for 12 years says, Colormax by Coralife, fluorescent 20 watt freshwater aquarium daylight lamp with color-enhancing phosphors. Other specifics says it enhances the natural beauty of freshwater fish and plants, full-spectrum light that simulates the sun at high noon. There is a graph thats shows the wavelength(nm) between 287-793 and the relative energy output peaks are between 450 and 620 nm.
In my 10 gal tank I have, for the time being, a regular fluorescent bulb for under a kitchen cabinet to light the counter tops, it's all I could find in our zillions of boxes from the move.
Hope this can help anyone with some knowledge determine if the bulbs I am using are sufficient for my Gray Tree frogs either for now or to keep permanently.
Rae, I think that some of the supplements sold for frogs have the additional D3 vitamins. I saw it somewhere, possibly at Josh's frogs, check it online, or hopefullysomeone will answer our questions with that info too.

[suzic1163]

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.

[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!!