Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds

RETF Questions

charlotte_cloud Feb 16, 2008 09:26 AM

Hello

I've had my RETF, 'Dave' for around 2 months and much to my distress I found him dead in his tank this morning. When I checked on him he was generally happy, lime green when sleeping during the day and darker green when active.

I kept the humidity at 60-80% but the ventilation in the tank meant that the humidity was usually around 65-68 although I tried to keep it over 70%. When I misted him iot was only with treated spring water.

I kept the temperaure within the recommended range, it was generally about 22 degrees centigrade, I would have turned the heat mat off at night but it gets pretty cold at night here and the heating goes off at about 1am, so I can't guarantee that the drop would be OK or too much.

His tank was decorated with fake plants because I was advised these were easier to clean, i had a few at the bottom that he liked to hide in and some draping from the top of the tank. I had a piece of bogwood for him to climb on and a plastic jungle tree root. i used tropical bark substrate from my local pet store.

His crickets were dusted with nutrobal once a week but he sometimes left one or two until a few days later.

His tank is around 10g but he was the only resident and the care sheets I looked at said this was fine.

I covered the sides of his tank during the night because we have some housemates who are total night owls and some who work late and come home in the middle of the night so I couldn't guarantee it'd be dark enough for him.

A couple of days ago I noticed that he was sort of olive green and when I checked on him at night his eyes were often closed, with a gold membrane over them. the morning after I noticed he was olive green he went back to his usual lime colour.

I phoned the shop I bought him at and they said the batch he came from were all still going strong. When I described the conditions of his care they said it was completely fine and the only thing they could think of causing his death was stress.

I would be looking to get another tree frog as soon as the tank has been completely cleaned, but would prefer if it didn't die on me as I love red eyed tree frogs and i was very upset by Dave's death, especially by the position I found him in. Can anyone advise me on anything I may have done wrong based on the above info? Perhaps it would be better to get a tree frog less prone to stressing out? Or maybe I should get another Red Eye and alter a few aspects of his care?

Help would be much appreciated

Replies (6)

Litoria Feb 16, 2008 04:14 PM

I think thats odd. Red eyes do stress easily, and are a little harder to keep than some of the other common species but you sound bright enough to not have overlooked anything obvious. Unless there are significant environmental factors, such as overhandling the animal, people crowding around the vivarium unbeknownst to you or poisoned water/materials I would speculate the frog might have escaped at the pet store and they had a hard time catching him or something to that extent. It really doesn't sound like you did anything in particular wrong, and since you were carefully monitoring the enclosures temp and hum, I'd really say it was probably not something you need to learn anything from.

Red eyes are beautiful and fascinating, who doesn't like them? I'd just get another, this time I would get an adult from an established breeder (see kingsnake classifieds) and go from there.

Best.

Mercedesherp Feb 17, 2008 08:33 AM

You explained your setup very well but the obvious missing part is the supply of fresh clean water avialable for the frog in your vivarium.

charlotte_cloud Feb 17, 2008 08:56 AM

yeah I provided fresh treated springwater for him every day.

Also the crickets I fed him were gutloaded with broccili or any other veg clippings i had to hand.

I never handled the frog, apart from when putting him in his tank for the first time. He was always very timid though and we had to move him from the living room to a more secluded spot when we realised that he was just hiding if the TV was on.

I really do want another. I think I'll probably just thoroughly clean everything in the tank, wait for a few weeks and get another from a place I prefer. The place I bought him from was quite good but seemed to be run by teenagers who were mainly there for the snakes. I'll definitely be interested in getting an older frog who had already reached full weight and will be looking to hunt down uneaten crickets in the daytime.

Thanks a lot for your help so far it's made me a lot more confident about getting another frog.

otis07 Feb 19, 2008 12:41 PM

really sorry about your frog, it sux when they die for no apparent reason. you should def. get another though.
-----
RES
WTF
FBT
Russian Tortoise
Hingeback tortoise
Leos
Lawsons Dragon
Aussi
Ocelot Gecko
0.0.3 Vietnamese Mossy Treefrogs
Oregon Newt
Japanese FBN
American Bullfrog
0.0.4 D. tinctorius
D. auratus
D. leucomelas
1.1D. imitator
0.0.2 imitator intermedius
1.1.1D. lamasi
Grandis Day Gecko
Mali Uro
0.0.4 Hourglass Treefrogs
Conehead lizard
Painted Turtle
Hedgehog, bunnies, dog, fish, crawfish...

charlotte_cloud Feb 19, 2008 04:21 PM

having considered the idea for a few days, spoken to the shop I got him from, my boyfriend and fellow RETF owners I've finally come to accept the fact that Dave died due to factors I could not help and have been repeating the mantra "I did not kill Dave."

Before I get new frogs (think I'll get a pair) I'm going to get a much larger tank with waterfall and fogger setup so my new "froggy babies" have a high level of humidity without me having to faff about and the tank can stay cleaner for longer so I don't have to intrude on my frogs as often, thus reducing the risk of random stress.

Thanks everyone who's commented on this thread, you've been fantastic help

otis07 Feb 19, 2008 04:25 PM

stuff like that happens, just don't give up. if you need help making the new tank i have made lots of tanks with waterfalls and stuff (lots of dart frogs) so if you need help don't hesitate to contact me at otis07_@hotmail.com. good luck!
-----
RES
WTF
FBT
Russian Tortoise
Hingeback tortoise
Leos
Lawsons Dragon
Aussi
Ocelot Gecko
0.0.3 Vietnamese Mossy Treefrogs
Oregon Newt
Japanese FBN
American Bullfrog
0.0.4 D. tinctorius
D. auratus
D. leucomelas
1.1D. imitator
0.0.2 imitator intermedius
1.1.1D. lamasi
Grandis Day Gecko
Mali Uro
0.0.4 Hourglass Treefrogs
Conehead lizard
Painted Turtle
Hedgehog, bunnies, dog, fish, crawfish...

Site Tools