Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I adopted a white's tree frog yesterday from a small local reptile show...I felt bad for it so I brought him/her home. It's currently in a 10 gal tank white Zoo-Med Repti Bark on the floor, and spots of Fluker's Moss (under a medium size hidey cave and in a small deli cup next to the hidey cave. He has a water bowl in one corner and thats it. I'm in the process of putting together a bigger tank for him, a 25 or 29 gal. What would be good for a tank that big? Does he need an automatic mister, or is manually misting his tank 2-3 times a day enough? I was told by a girl in PetSmart to feed him outside of the tank, so he doesn't digest any of the bark...but will be actually eat if I do that? I am feeding him superworms, and I saw a Mealworm Bowl (one they cant escape from) at the store, do these work, would he eat out of that? Back to the big tank, does he need a waterfall or anything? I think it would be neat to have something like that, but how difficult is it to clean? I'm a neat freak with my critters, and have a tendency to keep decorations to a minimum so it's easier for me to clean, but I do want this froggy to be comfortable and happy. I have had RETF's before, so I am somewhat familiar with the care of tree frogs, but I am not familiar with white's. I know impulse buys are bad, but I couldn't leave him there. Thanks so much in advance for any info/websites I could refer to. Happy Holidays!

Melody

I keep my White's in a 20-gallon tall tank with a screen lid. I've set mine up to be a naturalistic tank with a substrate of topsoil/coconut fiber topped with green moss. I have a couple plants growing in the soil, branches and cork bark, along with a water bowl. During the day a 40 watt bulb in a reflector dome provides heat and an 18watt daylight fluorescent provides lighting for the plants. The daytime temps are in the 80s. At night the lights go off and the temps drop down into the 70-78 range, depending on the season.

I hand mist a couple times a day. He often soaks in his bowl at night, and then basks under the lamp in the morning.

I feed my guy by hand most of the time. It's not necessary, he will eat from a bowl, but I enjoy feeding him this way. He often tries to eat a knuckle or two :-> He likes superworms, mealworms, cricket and nightcrawlers. I gutload the bugs and dust them with calcium/d3 powder.

Your setup sounds fine, although I don't recall any mention of heating.

Sounds like you have the right idea! here my 2 cents

1) get rid of the bark all togther. you dont want to have to worry about him ingesting it, plus I just cant imagine it being very confortable for the frog... you can get coco-fiber, or I use organic potting soil (with out pearlite), they will also look a lot nicer and leave you open to put in live plants if you want.

But you can leave the bark under a layer of soil if you want, i'm sure it will help with drainage/humidity.

2) yes, those bowls work (on the worm end). i made a ceramic one of my own, and it works perfectly, although i used it for my geckos because I dont feed my whites mealies very often, so i'm not sure if yours would want to eat out of a bowl? I'm a big fan of feeding tongs, and I feed all my whites crix that way.

Good luck! keep the questions coming!
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0.2.0. Leo
1.1.0. WTF
0.1.0. Irish Setter
2.1.0. Holland Lop Bunnies
1.1.0. House Cats
Too Many Fish!

Check out my site ~ www.freewebs.com/stephsgeckos

I've fed my guy from a bowl before.

But, he finds out the food bowl is the place to be and spends a lot of time sitting in it. Since the bowl was small and steep enough to keep the bugs in, I could barely see him. So I either risk my knuckles and feed him by hand, or I place him in a plastic tub with the bugs. The tub works great for crickets. After a few minutes he's done and I take him out.

I LOVE that pic! its SO cute

I suppose you could run in to that problem too...mine just love to squeeze into small spaces like that!
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0.2.0. Leo
1.1.0. WTF
0.1.0. Irish Setter
2.1.0. Holland Lop Bunnies
1.1.0. House Cats
Too Many Fish!

Check out my site ~ www.freewebs.com/stephsgeckos

Thanks everyone for all the great info. I was told he would be ok at room temp? I live in south FL...its all of 78 degrees here, my room stays about that temp, give or take a degree or two at any particular time. At night, I put my ac down to like 70, so it gets pretty cold at night. I can get a heat light if he needs it though, but I will wait until he's in the bigger tank (hopefully by this weekend.) Where can I get the coconut bark/fiber stuff? Yesterday, before I fed him, I had to pull a string of the moss out of his mouth...he was "chewing" on it, it was stuck in his mouth. Luckily I was being curious as to what he was doing, and picked him up at that time. Should I remove the moss too?

Melody