Popular Tree Frogs. Robert Mailloux
you can provide supplemental heat by using subtank heating strips controlled by a rheostat, similar to electronic light dimmers, or thermostat, or by placing submersible heaters in the water section adjusted to keep the water in the correct temperature range. Some herpetoculturists place submersible heaters in large jars of water or put 25-watt red incandescent bulbs over select areas. If controlled by a rheostat or pulse-proportional thermostat, low-wattage infrared ceramic bulbs also work in large enclosures. In the authors’ opinion, the best choice is to keep your frogs in a room that is heated to their temperature requirements and not to supply additional heating.
Two color variations of the barking tree frog.
Cooling
Few tree frogs currently collected or imported for the pet trade require unusually cool temperatures. If you decide to keep cool-temperature or montane species, use a thermostat-controlled air conditioner to keep the room cool. During emergencies or heat waves, place jars of ice in the vivarium and cover it with Styrofoam to prevent it from overheating. In dry climates, “swamp coolers” (evaporative coolers) may be adequate for lowering room temperature to a satisfactory level.
Relative Humidity
Proper relative humidity is critical to the successful maintenance and breeding of frogs. Most frogs thrive in 60 to 70 percent moderate relative humidity (use a hygrometer to measure relative humidity). This level is easily maintained in naturalistic vivaria or vivaria with hydroponic plants. If necessary, use a cool-air humidifier to raise the relative humidity of a room. Lightly misting a vivarium one or more times each day will also increase relative humidity. In an unventilated area, saturated humidity levels are fatal to most tree frogs; never keep tree frogs in glass covered vivaria.
You can condition many tropical tree frogs for breeding by keeping them at a lower relative humidity for a few weeks or months, thereby simulating a dry season. During this conditioning, do not mist the enclosure, to keep the frogs drier, but leave a water container as the primary source of moisture.
CHAPTER 4
DIET AND WATER
Diet
All tree frogs are primarily insectivorous, although large specimens occasionally ingest vertebrate prey. The easiest approach to feeding tree frogs is to offer them commercially raised insects. Use the following guidelines when feeding your frogs:
Gray Crickets (Acheta domestica)
Gray crickets should be a primary component of the diet of captive tree frogs. Most stores that sell amphibians and reptiles also sell these crickets in a variety of sizes suitable for feeding a wide range of tree frogs, from newly metamorphosed froglets to much larger species. Feeder crickets should be about the same length as the head of the tree frog. This general rule works with other kinds of food items also, even mice. Before offering the insects to your tree frogs, house them in a small plastic terrarium for twenty-four hours and feed them a high-quality diet (see page 23).
Flies
You can purchase housefly maggots through mail order companies and keep them in jars or screened enclosures until they pupate and metamorphose. Using houseflies is a cheap way to feed large numbers of froglets and provide a good supplemental food for adult tree frogs. They are best used in greenhouse facilities, where escaped flies will not be as much of an annoyance as in your home. However, if you allow them to pupate in jars, you can funnel them into a vivarium with a nylon stocking; cut off the toe-end of the stocking, attach it to the pupating jar, and guide the flies from the jar into the frog vivaria.
Fruit Flies
The large flightless fruit fly (Drosophila hydei) is a good supplemental dietary item for froglets (check Reptiles and Reptiles USA for mail order sources). These flies are easy to raise using a standard fruit fly mix, which is available by mail order or through biological supply houses.
Mealworms and Superworms
Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) and superworms (Zophobas molitor) should be offered to tree frogs only as part of a varied diet. White mealworms (recently molted) are more easily digested and are preferable as a diet to chitinized ones. Larger tree frog species fare better than smaller species on diets that include mealworms, particularly superworms.
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