Popular Tree Frogs. Robert Mailloux
are relatively easy to establish in captivity and are probably as good a choice as captive-bred frogs. However, keeping more difficult species, whether wild-caught or captive-bred, will prove challenging, and very possibly disappointing, to inexperienced herpetoculturists.
Selecting Healthy Tree Frogs
To have success with tree frogs, you must select healthy specimens. The following guidelines will help you make the right choice:
1. Select species that you can accommodate. Research the needs and vivarium design requirements of whatever species you plan to purchase, and make sure you have the time, money, and space to meet their requirements. Your frogs will not survive unless you provide them with the proper captive conditions.
2. Observe the animals you plan to purchase. Generally, tree frogs that perch on the glass sides or the landscape structures of a vivarium prove healthier than those that remain on the ground. However, this is only a guideline, not an absolute rule. Occasionally, if a store owner or seller keeps their frogs in the wrong kind of vivarium, stressed tree frogs may seek terrestrial shelters or specimens may move to the ground to reduce dehydration or find cooler temperatures.
3. Carefully inspect the animal. It should not have sores, lumps, swollen legs, or clouded eyes. Its body should appear rounded, and the outlines of its hip bones, backbone, and skull should not be prominent.
A healthy White’s tree frog has very smooth rounded contours.
4. When held in your hand, the frog should demonstrate definite signs of vigor. A frog that seems limp or weak is usually very ill. Once you have a frog in hand, reinspect its body, including its ventral area (underside), for sores or redness. Avoid animals that have these symptoms.
5. If the frogs are kept on paper substrate, look for signs of feces. Watery, runny feces usually indicate illness, and bloody feces are a definite sign of physical problems.
If the frog you select has met these criteria, there is a good chance that it is relatively healthy and will acclimate to captivity, given the proper conditions.
Aerosols and Miticides
Aerosol sprays, such as hair spray, perfume deodorants, and disinfectants, can kill tree frogs. The frogs absorb the aerosols through their skin and, thereafter, often suffer painful deaths. Do not keep frogs in areas (e.g., bathrooms or kitchens) where aerosols are used. High concentrations of or long-term exposure to No Pest strips, used for killing mites, will also kill frogs.
CHAPTER 2
ACCLIMATION AND HOUSING
Acclimation
The first few weeks of keeping a new tree frog are among the most difficult. Specimens may harbor parasites, suffer from illnesses, or have difficulty adjusting to their new surroundings. In order to ensure the animal’s survival, keepers should adhere to the guidelines presented below. Use the following steps to establish imported or wild-caught tree frogs in captivity:
1. Keep newly acquired frogs in a room with a cool-air humidifier (available at most drug stores), which will keep the relative humidity between 60 and 70 percent. Humidifiers are not necessary in regions with moderate to high relative humidity. Do not keep frogs at saturated humidity levels (above 85 percent).
2. To create a tree frog vivarium, place your frog in a large plastic terrarium or glass vivarium, supplying white paper towel as substrate and a shallow water bowl or saucer as a water source. With baby frogs, add a shallow container filled with moist moss. Lean a piece of bark against one side of the terrarium in order to provide a vertical shelter and place another on the ground as a ground-level shelter. Keep the vivarium at the temperature range appropriate for the species. Provide moderately bright light with overhead, full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs for twelve hours a day.
3. If the frog appears weak, has sores on its snout or body, or has clouded eyes, monitor it for a few days to see if it improves. If it does not, treat it with injectable enrofloxacin (Baytril), subcutaneously in the ventral area, at a dosage of 10 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of the frog’s body weight. Repeat the treatment every two days for up to two weeks.
4. Monitor the stools of your frog during its acclimation period. Healthy frogs have soft, well-formed stools. Watery and runny feces are signs of parasites or gastrointestinal disease.
5. Offer crickets of the appropriate size to your tree frog every two to three days, and monitor the status of its feces. If the feces are runny, treat the frog orally with metronidazole (Flagyl) at 50 mg/kg of the frog’s total body weight. Repeat the treatment in one week. Using metronidazole twice, at seven-day intervals, during enrofloxacin treatment can be beneficial because of its beneficial antibiotic effects on anaerobic bacteria. If your tree frog has nematodes in its stools, treat it with fenbendazole (Panacur) at 50 mg/kg, and repeat the process once or twice at seven-day intervals. To orally administer drugs or water, use a wedge cut from a plastic deli cup or yogurt container, and insert it gently between the frog’s jaws. For larger species or specimens, gently place an inverted spoon between the animal’s jaws to keep its mouth open.
6. If a frog refuses to feed, open its mouth and insert a prekilled cricket of the appropriate size. In most cases, tree frogs will swallow the cricket when released. If your frog is emaciated and not feeding on its own, use this feeding method as soon as possible.
Although adult tree frogs can be kept for extended periods in a basic setup like this temporary quarantine vivarium, it does not provide the proper conditions for a good quality of life. Experts recommend larger vivaria with plants and climbing areas.
7. If your newly imported frogs are sick or dehydrated, give them water orally in addition to providing a water bowl. Keep the water bowl clean and replace the water several times each week and whenever it is fouled. Lightly mist the frogs every evening.
8. Replace the paper towel substrate whenever it is fouled, and keep all water clean. Feed your frogs every two to three days, and monitor them closely. Healthy frogs are active at night, eat regularly, have formed feces, and eventually put on weight. Transfer your frog to a larger vivarium as soon as it shows signs that it has acclimated to captivity.
Warning!
Quarantine your frog for at least sixty days before introducing it to an established collection.
A Basic Vivarium
To create a basic tree frog vivarium suitable for quarantine or maintenance, you first need an all-glass enclosure with a screen top. For most species, experts recommend at least a 20-gallon tank. Tree frogs are active, and smaller enclosures do not provide the conditions they need to have a good quality of life. You can use smaller vivaria for quarantine and for rearing froglets.
When quarantining red-eyed tree frogs, add potted plants or those grown hydroponically in jars to the enclosure. Chinese evergreen and pothos are the best choices.
When using at least a 20-gallon vivarium, keep most species at a ratio of one frog per 5 gallons (meaning you could house four frogs in a 20-gallon tank). With very large species, such as White’s tree frogs or white-lipped tree frogs, experts recommend at least a 29-gallon vivarium and a frog-to-volume ratio of one frog per 15 gallons of vivarium space.
If you want a different look, put the sliding screen-top vivarium on its side to create a vertical vivarium. Ideally, use silicone to attach a section of acrylic or glass across the base, thereby making a bottom that will hold substrate and water without letting it seep out or clog the screen.
In a simply designed vivarium, newsprint or white paper towel substrate works with many species during quarantine, but it is not suitable for species