Possible new whites :)

[lraulston]

Well guys, I may be getting a new whites tree frog. I am pretty excited but nervous as well. The one I am looking at is a teenie baby. Very small. I know that I cannot introduce him to my adult whites if I don't want him to be a meal, and I will be keeping him in a separate smaller habitat and he will not have direct access to my adult whites. This time will account for my quarentine also. My question is, how long will it take for him to grow to a suitable size? My adult is every bit of 3" and a little more. I am not sure of their growth rate. Thanks

[lraulston]

oh and the baby frog is probably not even an inch long.

[Rocko]

MY experience may not be the best, as the baby I had planned on doing that with died after about a month. I would highly advise a small enclosure pay attention to make sure it is eating regularly. I was told 8ish months would grow it to juvenile introduction size.

[lraulston]

Rocko, why did your baby frog die?

[Rocko]

Well that's a good question, not totally sure, although from the moment I got it onward, it never seemed to really catch crickets, and try as I might, offering phoenix worms in a dish, smaller or bigger crickets, even flightless fruit flies, nothing seemed to really engage it and one day I came home to find it deceased. I guess just simply from my limited experience, babies might be more difficult than whites in the way of proper nutrition and care.

[bshmerlie]

Babies are definitely more difficult than adults when it comes to care. A few months back I purchased two very small red eyes. They were barely over a half inch. At first I had them in a 10 gallon but I could never really tell if they were eating or pooping and they seemed to get very thin very quickly. So a couple of days later I moved them to a Nano Exo Terra which is 8x8x12. All that was in it was a small Pothos and white paper towels on the floor. I also put in a small water bowl that I raised up so crickets couldn't climb in and drown. I fed pin head crickets and a lot of them everyday. I would drop in probably 20 a night. Many would drown in a simple water droplet or hide under the paper towel so I would put in as many as it would take to make sure I could always see many running around. The frogs sleep on the plant so I would simply lift it out each day, scrub out the tank and replace the paper towel. I would discard any remaining crickets that were left as it is too hard to capture them when they are that small. I did not wet the paper towel as I found the water drops would kill the pinheads. I Misted the sides of the tank and the plant they were on and that was enough to keep the humidity up as I also covered up some of the top of the tank. I got a box of 1000 pinheads for about 20 bucks. As I said you'll lose a lot from drowning or when you clean the tank but you'll have so many you wont really care. As the frogs grow so do the crickets. If the crickets get too large they can be fed to the adults. As the baby frogs got bigger I moved them to a 12x12x12. They stayed in that until they reached an inch a a half and then they were moved in with the adults. Red eyes aren't as big as whites so you'll probably have to wait until you feel they are not meal size. You may need a side mounted heater for your small tank as it is getting colder now. Keep an eye on the temp as small tanks can heat up quickly.. keep it on a thermostat that will turn it off when it reaches your desired temp. Just keep it clean. Feed them alot and check for poop so you know all is well. I dusted my crickets every feeding. They'll grow quicker than you think just monitor them daily and they'll be fine.