White's Tree Frogs...new member, HI!

[firedance21]

Hello folks, I have 3 White's Tree frogs and one blue Dumpy...i am 'told' they are the same..but mine look different from each other. the Blue's body is more compact and his little face is a bit different too. i joined the forum today because my first ..and kinda favorite white's died today She was bright green , no matter what occurred and easy to tell apart from her friends.. I have had her almost a year...I am not new to having White's but hadn't considered this danger: She may have ingested a piece of bark or even a small stone!! I'd like to hear about this because although my Viv is really nice, horticulturally speaking, (all live plants,and a plant-person)....I may be unknowingly endangering the frogs with small bits of moss, gravel or even bark chips!! HELP! i would like to hear from our experts about any similar experience..and what the dangers are. i have seen them grab a cricket and pull a piece of sphagnam moss out of the mouth...wondered about that.. It may be of help to the rest of us! Thank you, my name is Deb and I am pleased to have found this site...

[Rae]

Any of the above may have caused your frog to become impacted assumeing that is what it died from.

Spagnum is common but sheet moss is preferred for that reason. Also try eco earth or coco fiber as a substrate. Why are there small stones and bark in your terrarium are they needed?

And what plants are you useing some are poisoness to frogs?

Also did you recently add new frogs to the home... quaranteen is recommended before introduceing any new frogs to the habitat incase of toxins or diseases.

Also new frogs can cause stress. How big is your terrarium?

[firedance21]

Hi Rae, and thanks for your response.

My frogs are in a 29 gal. tall tank. I recently redid the habitat, though all the frogs..4 have been living very happily together for months. All the plants i have chosen are Frog-proof..but NO there is no real reason for pea gravel except purely aesthetic....
Through the years i have planted many terrariums and had several Viv's....some with Anoles and Newts and the Gecko or 2 (terrible hiders). Since i am a plant grower it has been fun to make them for myself and others, some for sale...Terrariums..pretty little miniature gardens..NOT to be confused i would say, after this....
The 'pea gravel' came in as an addition for looks..the Viv does have Coco fiber and small bark too, the kind you get called 'reptile bark', youve seen it.....It also has mostly sheet moss..although there is a bit of loose sphagnum that the frogs seemed to enjoy burrowing under in daytime....and of course its great for humidity....the only thing that changed from the other Viv's is the gravel and perhaps the bark is smaller....BOTH suspicious now....IN ADDITION... a few years ago my daughter had a Whites that died suddenly..and we were not in a place to really investigate why...so much was happening...it had been fine too....NO gravel...but BARK.. NOW I am reconsidering that also.
There didn't seem to be anything wrong looking about my frog today, indeed I believe I spotted it VERY soon after it died. My tank is in the living room and though I do not handle my frogs much at all, i am always misting or just watching them if I am in the room...i gave up my TV! I looked it over very well to see if there was an injury or other pathology and could find nothing to SEE. One thing for sure the gravel has got to go and I am changing the moss over to the solid type called 'frogmoss'. I USED to have that too!!
This is a hard lesson to learn! my poor Froggy! She was a beauty! stayed green ALL the time! really pretty, they all got along so well....I will be watching my frogs closely for any other problems but i think it was not a disease of any kind....she was very healthy and even appeared so after she died.
I think we can take from this that providing a HABITAT is the first order of business ....and making it a beautiful 'planting' is certainly second...
THANKS so much! this will be a really fun forum..I appreciate any help or suggestions about the necessary habitat requirements, as we remember it is FIRSTLY important..at least my little frog has led me here, maybe others will think about this danger and not make the same mistake.....for that I am grateful
I have long loved frogs like so many folks here, and my daughter has been drawn to them forever too... she is 23 now....I live on a mountain , very modestly, and am lucky have a pond out back, and I love the bullfrogs and the Spring Peepers so much..in fact after a big rain the other night one hopped right in the HOUSE !! and back to the pond it went! .....until next time... the very best to all

[Kisa]

Hello folks, I have 3 White's Tree frogs and one blue Dumpy...i am 'told' they are the same..but mine look different from each other. the Blue's body is more compact and his little face is a bit different too.

First of all, welcome to Frog Forum. Glad you decided to join our ranks! I hope you learn all you need to here. Don't be afraid to ask questions as everyone is really friendly here and if we can answer it, we will.

And secondly, your Blue Dumpy and your White's are the same type of frog. The reason they may look different is because White's come from Indonesia and Australia. The Australian frogs seem to look slightly thinner than the Indonesians, they also have better defined heads. If you use the search function on the left side of the site you may be able to find a thread a friend of mine started a while back about what Indonesians look like compared to Australians, then maybe you'll get a better picture of what I mean.

Also, the bark in your tank is probably a bad idea. As you may suspect, your frog could have swallowed a piece of this bark and become impacted or worse, and died from the injuries. I suggest you remove all the bark from the tank immediately and also any larger pieces of stone or gravel. Anything like this could be very harmful to your other frogs if they happen to ingest them, which is why we always recommend that you use coco fiber substrate and very little to no moss whatsoever so the frogs don't harm themselves.

Hope this helped! I hope your other White's do alright, I'm sorry for your loss.