Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Got a new redeye from a convention yesterday .1'st night in new temporary cage .skin color went from a bright bluegreen color to a purple almost.I don't think it got lower than 68 degrees in there last night. But I always heard that was a sign of something wrong when frogs turn colors that drab and drasticly.Has anyone heard of this ? could this be from the stress from the transport?

Give him a couple days to settle in and get used to his new home. 1 of mine still turns like that if I clean the water dish out while he's awake. it's normal for REs to do this to show stress. Just keep an eye on him, as long as he's eating well and acting "normal" don't let the color changing worry you too much.
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Heather

thanks )

No problem!!

It's usually only when they turn that color and you never see the green again and they stop eating that you have to worry.
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Heather

>>Got a new redeye from a convention yesterday .1'st night in new temporary cage .skin color went from a bright bluegreen color to a purple almost.I don't think it got lower than 68 degrees in there last night. But I always heard that was a sign of something wrong when frogs turn colors that drab and drasticly.Has anyone heard of this ? could this be from the stress from the transport?

I purchased 3 RETFs last month at a show. I had picked out two very nice ones for a friend and the vendor gave me a good deal if I got a trio instead. I saw one that was brown in color. I asked about the odd brown color and the guy said he'd been that way the whole day. Well, I kinda felt sorry for it and thought I'd take that one for myself and the other two would go to my friend as planned. Even though he was the same size as the smaller of the two I'd gotten for my friend, I thought with his odd brown color it'd be easy to tell him apart from the other (I had put them all in the same carry cage). Well, later that day while outside I pulled the container out to show another friend that odd brown one and I look in and there were 3 green retf's not two! The next day at the hotel I get up and check on the frogs in their container and I find 2 greens and 1 purple (nothing like the brown color from the previous day). By the time we get outside to go back to the show...all three were green.

During that 2nd day of the show I was talking to another vendor who had retf's and telling him how the one was being very weird with color changes. I was told that purple was like a 'just woke up sleepy' kind of color that some individuals tend to use, the brown color unhappy/stress related, and green the happy color...like little mood rings. That seem to mesh with the situations I was seeing.

Of course by the time I get home and take the frogs over to my friend to give him his two...all three were still green and of the two smaller ones I couldn't tell mine apart from his. I picked out the one I thought might be his and told him if it turned purple in the morning then I might have given him the wrong one. Well, the next day he says the smaller one had indeed turned purple. Of course the small one I had taken did the same thing!

Over the last month we've both noticed the frogs sleep in the happy green colors and around the time they wake up and start warming up and getting active they go purple which soon shifts back to the happy green color once they start hunting...both of the smaller ones tend to stay purple a bit longer than the larger one. Neither of the two smaller frogs have gone to the brown color like the one had been on that first day at the show before I bought it so we still don't know if I gave him his correct frog or mine. Not that it matters as both of us are still happy with what we have - they are active and eat very well and are growing.

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PHWyvern

Isn't it just so neat how they "communicate"? Both of mine do have that purplish/brown when they first wake up in the evening. It's just the one that I think is the male that turns dark when I have to go into the tank to clean or something. He's a crumpy little thing. The other (possible female) doesn't ever seem to care and usually only turns a slight brownish when she is hunting. Like she is trying to blend in to hid from the crickets.

I just find them so fascinating!
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Heather

I posted a queation about my leopard frog "color shifting" after putting some maroon plants in one side of his cage. When he moves to the other side, which is much lighter in color (light greys and greens) he seems to lighten up in color.