Geriatric White's Tree Frog

[John]

You're right in thinking he's very old - 16 years for a treefrog is a very long life. If he is eating alright I would tend to think it's not a bacterial infection but more likely some problem to do with old age, as you guess yourself. In this case I don't think there's much you can do for him except make sure he's comfortable. With a bit of luck it may get better. However a trip to the vet, if only for their diagnosis, is recommended.

[Archeopterix]

Well he's 16+something years old. I did get him in '93 but he had been in the store for a long time and wasn't selling (I worked in that store and was one of the people who cleaned his cage so I was familiar with him and he's been there since before I started), and keep in mind that he was already finished metamorphosized there (that is, he had no residual tadpole tail or anything). So he is really quite old.

[into]

It's nice to see a pet frog live into old age.Perhaps you have a lot of knowledge to share with others here. Sorry he's not looking well.

[Archeopterix]

It's nice to see a pet frog live into old age.Perhaps you have a lot of knowledge to share with others here. Sorry he's not looking well.

Hehe thanks. I've been posting around in some of the White's questions. I also have a corn snake that I got in 1991, and a blue and gold macaw who wil be 20 next year (although that isn't old for a parrot). Both the frog and the macaw were rescues.

[into]

Hehe thanks. I've been posting around in some of the White's questions. I also have a corn snake that I got in 1991, and a blue and gold macaw who wil be 20 next year (although that isn't old for a parrot). Both the frog and the macaw were rescues.

Oh, I love parrots, but had to get rid of my Nanday Conure because he was too noisey where I lived and I haven't had the money to get another since I really really want a Hyacinth Macaw.. it's always been my favorite bird, but since it's endangered and the price of a used car, I can't get one.

[Archeopterix]

Oh, I love parrots, but had to get rid of my Nanday Conure because he was too noisey where I lived and I haven't had the money to get another since I really really want a Hyacinth Macaw.. it's always been my favorite bird, but since it's endangered and the price of a used car, I can't get one.

Hyacinths are one of the only animals that are actually benefitting from rainforest destruction, oddly enough. Its because they can crack the palm nuts that passes thourough the digestive system of the cattle. When looking at parrots, I wanted a blue front amazon, but when you rescue, you don't really get to choose what you get. I did end up fostering a blue front for a while but he and my macaw didn't get along so I found a good home for him.

Same goes for Timmy my White's, if given the choice I would have gone for a blue phase, but he desperately needed a home so here he is (and has been for a good long while).

[into]

if given the choice I would have gone for a blue phase, but he desperately needed a home so here he is (and has been for a good long while).

I'm a bit confused by the whole blue phase whites thing. I have a juvenile whites, Dumper who is a bluish green (today he's grey) and my female whites, Jade ranges from green bean color to a bright yellow/green. I thought I read somewhere that the bluish ones come from Australia and the green ones come from Indonesia. My whites are clearly different in shape and color. Would my Dumper be considered a blue phase?

[Archeopterix]

I'm a bit confused by the whole blue phase whites thing. I have a juvenile whites, Dumper who is a bluish green (today he's grey) and my female whites, Jade ranges from green bean color to a bright yellow/green. I thought I read somewhere that the bluish ones come from Australia and the green ones come from Indonesia. My whites are clearly different in shape and color. Would my Dumper be considered a blue phase?

Indonesian ones are the thinner longer ones and the Dumpys are An Australian species (subspecies(?)) in which the ones that the females can get really really fat. Blue phase I think is just selective breeding. http://art-gecko4.tripod.com/whitest...caresheet.html

Here's another forum with members displaying their blue phase, if those pics are any indication, the blue goes away over time. You could try gut loading your crickets with something that has lots of blue in it (boiled red cabbage goes very blue), like the way people feed lots of parsley to iguanas to keep them green, or feed paprika to red phase canaries to keep them red, and the way flamingos are only pink because of the red brine shrimp they eat. I don't know what food encourages blueness though.

Blue phase also might be factored in with might be a subtractive color so color feeding might not be possible to obtain it, or you might hae to have the frog with the genetics for blueness AND keep up with the keratine free diet (like the way that blue budgies and parrotlets etc get a blue phase by geneticly elimininating the yellow keritine creating a karatine-albinism).

Since the green does seem to return the frogs might be getting the keratine from something in the diet of the food (ie the crickets) who are likely raised on fish food and various greens and vegetables (like carrots), all of which are high in keratine.

I don't really know about the blue phase whites, I'm just making educated hypothesis.