White Tree Frog Cycling

[Geofrog707]

Hey, I am going to get new White Tree frogs soon in a week or so hopefully. They are supposed to be babies when they come but I want to research everything I can about them before they get here. Anyway, I heard that they needed to be cycled if I wanted to breed them in a couple or so years? I was wondering if I needed to cycle them even though I lived in GA and the temperatures change on their own. It goes from cold to hot pretty fast here and vice versa. Or do the frogs need better changes? Thanks

[Kisa]

I don't know anything about cycling or breeding, but I just wanted to get this quick question out of the way. Are you using external heating sources for your frogs? Because if you plan on using lights or heating pads to help warm them up it should be pretty easy to control temperature, as long as they're in the proper place where there isn't a lot of draft.

[Geofrog707]

Yep, I use a lamp and a zoo-med heater. But the room they are in gets pretty chilly at night so I am worried about leaving them off once I get the frogs

[Kisa]

Yep, I use a lamp and a zoo-med heater. But the room they are in gets pretty chilly at night so I am worried about leaving them off once I get the frogs

I understand I get freaked out at night too with my White's. If you leave the heater on at night and get a night time bulb for them you won't have to worry about sacrificing heat, but you can't leave a daytime bulb on all night or they'll get confused. White's won't come out of hiding until they're sure it's dark. I use (on my young White's tank) a zoo med heater on the side, a daytime blue bulb and a night time infrared bulb. At night I just turn the day time bulb off and that drops their temperature to about 70 or 71, which is good for White's. On my big guy's tank I use an Exo Terra 2.0 and 5.0, both 26 watts and a medium exo terra undertank heater. At night I switch the 2.0 and 5.0 for two 26 watt night glo moonlight bulbs and that drop the temperature to 70-71 too.

You heating and lighting sometimes depends on the type or tank you're using, have you decided on that yet?

[Geofrog707]

Yep, I have. I have a medium Exo-Terra tank (it was the rainforest kit) with a sun-glo (It was left over and I didn't want to spend too much on a new bulb when the other one kept the tank at night temps) and a bulb, and the zoo med heater. So almost the same as your other set up for your "Big guy" Although I do keep my heater at the bottom of the tank, like the directions recommended (or I thought they did), would the tank be warmer if I moved it to the side of the tank like it seems most people do...? Thanks so much for all your advice/help btw!

[Kisa]

Yep, I have. I have a medium Exo-Terra tank (it was the rainforest kit) with a sun-glo (It was left over and I didn't want to spend too much on a new bulb when the other one kept the tank at night temps) and a bulb, and the zoo med heater. So almost the same as your other set up for your "Big guy" Although I do keep my heater at the bottom of the tank, like the directions recommended (or I thought they did), would the tank be warmer if I moved it to the side of the tank like it seems most people do...? Thanks so much for all your advice/help btw!

The advantage to having your tank heater mounted on the side of the tank is that it creates a good heat gradiant so that your frogs can choose what tempertaure they want to be. It's hard sometimes though because they don't always have the best adhesive and sometimes fall off of the side and bottom, I've used tape to secure mine to the side of my small tank. Do you have a compact top for the bulbs or are you using some other lamp set up?

And no problem, I'm always here to help, as well as any other White's owners out there. ^ ^ Feel free to ask any questions any time.

[Geofrog707]

I am using an exo-terra canopy, so the compact top for bulbs. And thanks, I think I will TRY and restick it onto the side. Hopefully it hasn't been already attached on too long. I don't have much patience for little things like that (considering it doesn't stick back on) so do you think my frogs would enjoy a small fire to keep them warm in their tank? I mean they can sing camp songs and roast cricketmellows.. The smoke will ventilate out because I have a screen roof, and the fogger will keep the flames down. It is also pretty cheap

[Kisa]

I am using an exo-terra canopy, so the compact top for bulbs. And thanks, I think I will TRY and restick it onto the side. Hopefully it hasn't been already attached on too long. I don't have much patience for little things like that (considering it doesn't stick back on) so do you think my frogs would enjoy a small fire to keep them warm in their tank? I mean they can sing camp songs and roast cricketmellows.. The smoke will ventilate out because I have a screen roof, and the fogger will keep the flames down. It is also pretty cheap

Hahaha yeah maybe they would like that as long as they didn't get carried away, their skin might dry out from being around the fire too long. >> I like the cricketmellows ideas but it sounds messy to have to mash them all up...>>

I like the way your set up is, sounds almost just like mine. XD; I will say that overall I prefer the Exo Terra heating pads to the zoo med simply because of the design and I feel like the Exo Terra work better overall, but a zoo med should be fine for your purposes now. If you plan on setting up future vivs though I would go with the Exo Terra heat pads, but that's just me. They might be a little more expensive though, I'm not sure.

Like I said if your Zoo Med seems to keep falling off you can just use regular scotch tape. I was worried about a fire hazard at first, but the heating pads don't get hot enough to melt the tape I don't think unless you have a giant one and the worst thing you'd have to do is replace the tape every now and again cuz the adhesive on the back wears of.