Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I just got 2 Whites tree frogs last week, when i got them they were very skinny and not active even at night...I am new to them so i need as much help as i can get right now, I woke this morning to find my little brown guy was gone he passed on during the night ....I dont want my green guy to do the same PLEASE HELP I dont know what to do!! Since i got them both were not eating I got the green guy to eat a couple crickets the day after i got them but he refuses to eat now... there are crickets in his tank with him but he is not interested. I went out and bought some mealworms thinking he might need something other than crickets..I put the mealworm between tweezers and held it in front of him but he just turned around and walked away from me,,,PLEASE IF ANYONE HAS ANY ADVICE IT WOULD REALLY HELP I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S I can post some pics but im new on here can anyone tell me how??

to post pics, go to the kingsnake photo gallery and up load your pics to that. when you post a message, your photos will appear in the box below. just highlight the photo and hit preveiw message. if you hold down control as you highlight your photo link you should be able to post up to 3 photos in one message.

as for your frog, we need more info. what are the temps in your tank? day temps? night temps? my whites treefrogs are kept during the summer with highs around 80 to low 80s. night drops are in the mid 70s. during the winter the temps are now mid-upper 70s for highs with drops to low 70s. they eat fine through out the yr. do you have hi humnidity? low humidity? what kind of substrate are you using? do you have a water bowl? do you have hide spots? do you handle them everyday? if so i would stop. frogs arent really a pet you want to handle to often. it could be stressed out if you are handling it to much so soon after buying it and transferring it to unfamilier territory.

Hi again ok here are a bunch of pics....The brown guy is the 1 who passed away this last night sometime I have the green guy still...The set up is as it looks in the pic the water is stale water that has sat for 24-48 hours i have a filter in there to keep clean the temps are around 75 to 80 during the day and about 70-75 at night i am using a UV bulb and a red heat bulb as well....the substrate is moss. I have tried to feed them crickets with the green guy only ate the first day then stopped.. Here are the pics Look how skinny they are its discusting i need help i dont want the green guy to leave too
PLEASE HELP

I also have some more pics here they are....Oh the brown guy who passed had this blister on his toe??? He had it there when we got him last week from the suplier...how can people treet frogs or any animals like this.....was he not feeding them at all??????? I feel sooooo bad PLEASE HELP

ok, I'll give this a try.

First off, move the still alive frog into a smaller tank with paper towel substrate, a water dish and something to hide in. Keep the temp warm and don't check up on the frog every ten minutes, this will stress him out even more.

Secondly, get rid of the moss, this can cause impaction and the crickets can hide in it. Use coco bedding, like bed a beast. Safer by far and you can plant in it well enough.

As for UV, not necessarily usefull at all. White's sleep all day so don't get much exposure to it. Use supplements to provide him with the stuff that nature gives him.

A heat lamp is not necessary unless the temps are really cold in your house. Don't turn it on unless you have to, as it dries the air and the frogs. (note: I do use one when I need to, but don't use it to controle the temp in the tank.)

The blister could be alot of things; rubbed against something that aggravated his foot, a cricket got hungry and munched on him or it could have been there previously. (poor living conditions and such before you bought them)

Just a note, to avoid possible heartache next time, make sure you do research and find out what a healthy animal looks like. Don't buy them if they are not healthy looking. You can even ask a pet store person to dangle some food in front of them or something and see if they eat (if they don't eat, not really a good idea to buy). Rescuing animals is a knightly thing to do, but you'll just have trouble with it afterwards and the animals may or may not make it. If you bought these two from a breeder, then maybe next time make sure you have some references from other satisfied people. Especially if you don't know them.

I'm not saying this to get you angry, just a little advice.

Keep youre frog warm, don't worry about food for another couple of days, I know they are skinny looking and you want them to eat, but if the frog is stressed by anything, you should give him a couple days to settle before trying to feed him again. (don't forget to put him in a quarantine tank).
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1
Mantella viridis : 1:2

Hello again, things are looking really bad i put him in a seperate cage like you said with paper towels and a log to hide in and a water dish he has gone from his beautiful green to a brown colour and hes kinda patchy in his colour brown and green, he looks sooo bad dont think he is gonna make it through tonight I put a heating pad on the bottom of his new enclosure (outside not in) but its not getting hot enough what kind of heating should i use and should it be around 80 or higher? I realize that i should have taken a better look before i bought them but i live in a really small town and they had to order them in for me the pet store guy brought them right to my house so i didnt really have a chance to "check them out first"
This really sucks...

i think you are ok with the spaghnum moss, i have been using for four yrs with my whites and never had a prob. i actually have it as a peat mosst, reptibark mix with the spaghnum moss on top. i would do away with the half water half land set up. give your whites just land. i spray my tank lightly to make sure the moss is damp, but not soaking wet. i also use a glass top to hold heat and humidity in. i have a plastic strip at the back of the tank for ventilation. it is true that a heat lamp on a screen tank will dry it out quickly, but that can be easily remedied. make sure to have plenty of hides. i use uv light over my frogs, partly for the live plants that i have in there and partly because i do think that the few rays they get will be beneficial for them. my green gal sleeps all day out in the open under the uv light. i think your temps are fine. i too am using a infra red heat bulb on the outside of the tank to heat it up. (although they have been fine for 3 months with day highs or 70 and night time lows or 65). for your uv light, make sure you have it on a timer. makes it easier to set up a day night cycle. i have mine on for 12 and off for 12. i think that since we dont know why your other frog died, it would be a good idea to talk down the whole tank and clean everything (and then give it a tank all land, with a water dish). also, i think that putting it in a smaller more secure tank is a good idea like the other poster said. keep it simple, some hides and a small water dish with paper towel. dont handle the frog at all. set him up and wait a couple days before feeding again. take the crix out if she doesnt eat them. feed at night. with all that said, your frogs are most like were wild caught. they could have worms or parasites that you cant see. i never had to treat a frog with parasites so i dont know how you would go about doing that. you need to fatten that frog up though before anything. oh, how big is that tank anyways. mine share a 25 high tank.

There is a lot of info on thefrog.org in the help section on parasites and the folks over there seem to know a lot about treating them. They answer quickly also. I am including a link to the help forum there. Good luck! Diane
thefrog.org help forum

roon: I don't know what else to say, going over to the frog may be your best bet.

phantom: White's tree frogs do not require high humidity, it can cause alot of problems such as lung infections. Actually,
white's do better with circulation, a screen top, as opposed to a completely enclosed top. Reptibark is one of the worst things to use with white's because of the lunge habits. I have read posts of people who have kept their frogs for years with moss with no problems, but have all of a sudden a huge issue with impaction. I wouldn't want to take that chance.

I do agree with the all lang thing to a degree, since tree frogs do need a water dish of some sort. How is this water area being cleaned? THe water needs to be changed regularily (every day if possible) because of the frogs habits of doing bm's and urinating in the water, and shedding in the water.
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1
Mantella viridis : 1:2

the water is being cleaned by filter i got a filter for the water but planned on cleaning the BM's by myself...I dont know what else to say..i went over to the frogs link you gave me but there is a message about posting says noone can reply at this time so there goes that....what about heat what should the temp be in the quarentine tank?? Thanks Again roonaddie

Well, I noticed that you had placed a heating pad under it, you should take that off. your frog doesn't register pain the way we do and won't jump off even if he's being burned. I would say that comfortable room temp would be good for the frog. 24C-28C
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1
Mantella viridis : 1:2

i know that too high humidity can cause probs. from all the reading whites info in a few books and from browsing over the post on here for the last few yrs it seems that its agreed that whites do well with low humidity, but they also do just as well with high humidty. i dont know my numbers, but i will agree that to much can be bad. i think that if the frogs are sitting in constant wet substrate then thats the worse. there should be dry things for them to sit on. i think that i have a higher humidty in my tank then some keepers, but they are doing quite well on it. that said, my substrate isnt soaking wet. the repti bark is minimal in the tank. its mostly peat and spaghnum moss mix. havent had a prob with it for four yrs. i think any substrate we offer them is gonna pose a risk for impaction unless they are big pieces that they cant swallow.

ok well thanks for the tips...i hope my little guy makes it The heating pad does not get very hot at all and it is on the outside of the tank at the bottom if i shouldnt use a heating pad or a uv light or a red heat buld how do i regulate the temps inside my house is cold and its winter i live in Northern Canada and its minus 30 here please tell me how to regulate the temp so i can keep him warm? Thans Again Roonaddie

Guess where I live too?!

Turn up your heat! what can I say, I wouldn't be able to function in the cold, I'm in the basement, so I turn up the fireplace. It's warmer today, but its going back to -25 tomorrow. Fun Fun.

Phantom: I guess your right, even coco bedding can be a possible problem, especially if its dry. Whatever works I guess.
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1
Mantella viridis : 1:2

HI again...well i guess i could turn up the heat in the house it seems silly to heat the whole house when i could just heat the tank he is in...?...what should i use for lighting during the day just a regular household bulb? because u said UV is no good and heat bulb is no good im confused??? Sory i am asking so many questions but im new at this and need help no critisizm... I noticed after i put the WTF in the quarenteen tank that he/she has developed these ?blisters? Heres the pic.. Oh and its colour looks much better today!
Still megga worried though when should i take the WTF out of quarenteen and put it back in its reqular tank how wil i know its ready?

thats kinda bad pic so i will try to pu another he/she has 1 on her leg (the pic previous) one below her eye and one on her lip i will try to post better pics next post.

i think that you could use a uv bulb no prob. it probably wont do a lot, but every little helps right? otherwise you could use a reg flourescent bulb for light. i think that the prob with a heat bulb is that with a screen top it really dries the tank out. and quick. right now i am using an infra red heat bulb to heat the tank up to the mid 70s. house temp is 65 during the day and 68 at night.....if you are using a screen top you could use something to to hold heat/humidity in and use a heat bulb. for my central american wood turtle, i used clear ceran rap to cover every thing in the tank except where the heat bulb is. so far its working great. i dont know how big your quarantine tank is, but you could put the bulb near it and see how warm it gets. make sure to use a thermometer. the infra red for my whites is about 6 inches away from the tank. i would keep it in the quarantine tank til the blisters are gone, and its eating.

here is another pic of his leg i cant get any good pics of his eye or mouth ok well thanks again will keep everyone posted
oh there are no other frogs or animals in the regular tank with him so is it really nessesary to quarenteen???? Thanks

if thats the quarantine tankin your last pic, then yes put him in the other tank. do an all land set up and make the necessary changes to the tank that have been suggested. as for the blisters, idk. maybe your frog needs to see a vet. i am unsure what kind of ointmaents can be used with frogs.

no thats not the quarenteen tank that hes in, He is in alot bigger one i just put him in that one to take pics... Does anyone know about melafix i heard its good to use for tree frogs if they have sores but dont know the ratio you put with water to dilute it, thanks for everyones help unfotunutly i cant take him to a vet as the closest herp vet is 4 hours away

Have you looked at all about frogs medical page?
It has more detailed instructions & a link to another wtf Disease page.

Hope it helps.
The Frog Doctor

The point of a quarantine tank is so that there is a sterile environment for your frog to heal. He may be the only frog in the bigger tank, but it may be something in his environment that is making him sick too. This also gives you a chance to make changes to his tank.

The only thing I can suggest is to get him to a vet, although I know this can be difficult.

You don't really have to heat the whole house, just the room the frog is in. A space heater may help?
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I think my frog owns a megaphone....

White's tree frogs : 1:1
Mantella viridis : 1:2

The blisters look kinda like sores my WTF had before, those were caused by rubbing his nose to the glass tank. Basicaly theyre just open wounds. Definetly go with the quarantine tank, much more cleaner. You wouldnt want an infection to settle on these babies.
Colour changes are just a normal thing WTF's do, they change brown usualy because of stress, which in this case is because of unfamiliar environment of the new quarantine tank.
Whites are quite hardy, tough as nails, as long as they eat well.
I had one that wont eat and would just try to run away. The other would eat and shortly just ate almost anything in front of him. Coz of some events, both got out and i decided 2 keep em in the backyard, coz i've seen that both were doing quite well on their own (i live in Indo so theres not much of a problem, native area & temps, hehe).
The male (the one that was a good eater) can be heard croacking from time to time. If you see the post i've made on top, thats the hardier one. The other one i cant seem to locate 4 now
For food, how big is the cricket and how big is the frog? sometimes foods that are just to big would be swallowed anyways and could keep em going 4 quite a while. Has he eaten after that first meal? having a good first meal is quite crucial (in my case anyway), coz usualy it means that they would eat normaly after that. Just leave a few crickets and leave the frog alone 4 a while. Dont bother/stress the frog by checking on it every moment. Provide some greens for the crickets just in case they ever get hungry and need to much of something. Have you tried anything besides crickets? Earthworms from baitshops and waxworms (which are high in fat therefore very good 4 a skinny one) are welcomed choices.
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My "babies" :
1.0.1 Indo BTS (Tiliqua gigas gigas)
1.0.2 RES (Trachemys scripta elegans)
0.0.1 Amboina box turtles (Cuora amboinensis)
1.0.0 Chinese softshell (Trionyx sinensis)
1.0.0 Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata)
1.0.0 Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius)
1.0.1 Indonesian Whites Tree Frogs (Litoria caerulea)
And hopefuly still growing...