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!!

[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...