Gray Tree Frog
Species
Cope’s gray tree frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) and eastern gray tree frog (H. versicolor)
Size
Adult gray tree frogs measure between 1.3 and 2.3 inches (3.2 to 6.1 cm) in length. They mature at two years of age.
Appearance
As their name suggests, gray tree frogs are predominantly gray. There are bright orange or yellow flash marks on the insides of their legs. Gray tree frogs also have the ability to change color. They seem to change color depending on environmental conditions such as temperature, light intensity, and the color of their surroundings. This can cause gray tree frogs to be almost black, white, or even green. Juvenile gray tree frogs are often green in color and develop their adult gray coloration as they mature.
A gray tree frog displaying green coloration.
Distribution, Habitat and Behavior
Gray tree frogs are native to eastern North America. There are two different species: Hyla chrysoscelis and H. versicolor. The two species look identical and can only be told apart by their call, though like most frogs only males call. Gray tree frogs inhabit wooded areas and are common around forest openings near water. Here they are active at night, usually perched above ground. During the day they hide under bark and leaves, within crevices, or under other cover. They are often encountered by people who live near their habitat, found sleeping on the sides of houses or other structures.
Availability
Gray tree frogs are occasionally available at pet stores. More often they are kept by people who catch or find one in the wild. If you catch a tree frog and keep it in captivity it is best not to release it afterwards. Check with local regulations before catching a gray tree frog because most States have rules related to collecting amphibians or other wildlife.
Housing
Although gray tree frogs are not especially active during the day, at night they wake up and use all of the room they are provided with. A 20 gallon aquarium that measures 24 inches long by 12 inches wide by 16 inches high (61 cm x 30 cm x 41 cm) is large enough for two adult frogs. A tight-fitting screen cover is essential to prevent escapes. It may be helpful to cover all but one side of the aquarium with black poster board or an aquarium background to help the frogs feel secure.
The main components of the cage include a substrate, perches, and hide spots. Coconut husk fiber or other safe soil mixtures work best. You can also use moist paper towels or large river rocks as a substrate. Avoid aquarium gravel, small pieces of bark, or reptile cage carpeting because these substrates can cause health problems if accidentally ingested by the frog while feeding and/or do not hold adequate moisture.
Gray tree frogs are mainly arboreal and need a number of good perches and climbing branches. Driftwood, cork bark tubes, bamboo poles, or PVC pipe segments can be positioned at different angles in the cage for this purpose. Use live or fake plants positioned over perches as cover. Cork bark flats leaned against the side of the cage are also a good way to provide shelter for gray tree frogs.
Temperature and Humidity
Gray tree frogs are tolerant a wide range of temperatures and humidity levels. Healthy frogs will tolerate temperatures as low as 50°F (10°C) and as high as 90°F (32°C) briefly without harm. Ideally you should keep the enclosure between 68°F (20°C) and 78°F (26°C) during the day, with a slight drop in temperature at night. It may be helpful to place a low wattage heat lamp over one side of the cage, especially on cooler days, to offer a range of temperatures within the enclosure. It is also important to mist the terrarium with water. Spray the enclosure lightly several times a week or daily if the humidity level in your home is especially low.
Water
Provide a small water dish for gray tree frogs to soak in. It does not need to be too large but should allow frogs to fully soak in it at night, which they may often do. Chlorinated tap water is not safe for use and should be treated with an aquarium product that removes and neutralizes chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals a day before use.
Diet
Gray tree frogs have a large appetite. They accept most soft-bodied invertebrates including crickets, moths, flies, waxworms, small silkworms and earth worms. The majority of a gray tree frog diet should consist of live crickets. Offer crickets every two or three days. Usually between three and six crickets per frog is enough. Every few feedings, a different type of food can be substituted for crickets. Juvenile frogs should be fed more frequently than adults, as often as every day. Coat crickets and other food items in high quality powder vitamin and mineral supplements designed for reptiles and amphibians. These supplements help ensure nutritional requirements are met. Use them at every other feeding for adult gray tree frogs and at every feeding for juveniles.
Hi. I have a few froglets that I believe are Cope’s Gray or Gray tree froglets. It is October here and the temps are about to dip into the mid 40’s that have just metamophisized from tadpoles. Today is their first day without tails! I am wondering if it is safe to set them free, or if I need to get a terrarium and keep them for the winter. There are six in total. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Gray tree frogs are pretty tough in terms of cold temperatures. I think you can release them (assuming you collected the tadpoles nearby your house and they haven’t been kept with or exposed to other amphibians or fish while in your care). Even if the temperature is freezing or a little below at night, I think there is a good chance they can make it until spring. That said, if they have been at room temperature maybe ease them into it, like put the tank in the garage or cool sun room or basement for a few days first rather than just throw them out in 40F.
I live in a wooded area in northeast Michigan. About 1.5-2months ago, my husband moved all our plants indoors from our deck. Yesterday morning we found a frog in one of the pots. I’m not sure what to do with it. Can it be moved back outside after the winter?
If night temperature are falling below freezing, it is probably too late to put outside, although you could try putting it out on a warmer day and maybe it will survive. Otherwise, you can keep it over winter and then release it in the spring. Or, if your plants are in a plant room you could even just try leaving it in there and provide a dish of water in the room and maybe it will survive well enough over winter in that room. You can put crickets in an open top jar to feed it until spring, then release once warmer.
You can create a large pile of leaves and release them near it. They can freeze up to 80% while hibernating in the winter. They are quite resilient.
I stumbled on this and hoping someone can help. It is Oct 31 in NYS and I have nearly 60 gray tree frog tadpoles, most with at least the back legs. I do not know what to do for them to survive? Bringing them in is not an option. They were in my pool so I moved them to a kiddie pool but this will freeze solid soon. Should I release them to a pond a half a mile away where they can possibly be safer for the winter? I don’t want to shock them and kill them and I do not know what type of predators there may be, up to now, they haven’t had to deal with that. Should I accelerate their growth somehow and hope the tiny frogs survive winter? Help!!!
Yes, I think you could move them to a nearby water source. That said, it is pretty late in the year. They probably won’t make it either way unfortunately.
Hi Devin,
I live in Ontario, no water nearby, but on woodland property. Found a tree Frog sitting on my Adriatic chair under the pillow one morning, caught it and moved it 50 plus meters away from the house and threw it into the bush. The next morning it was back…I repeated the ritual…5x !! question…is it possible that it’s the same frog? If so HOW does it find its way back?? As I move it VERY FAR away? And why does it keep coming back…or is it a new frog each time.? And I am surrounded by frogs…ahhh I’m sorry but they freak me out.
Bizarre. I poked around in the literature and some tree frogs have been recorded moving over 100 meters in a single night with 15-35 meters moved per night pretty normal for many species, so it is very possible it was the same frog returning to the chair. On the other hand, maybe there is something particularly appealing about the chair and its location that attracted frogs. If you have lots of tree frogs around the house, maybe once that spot is vacated another one shows up. That said, I would not be surprised if it is the same frog coming back every night. Thanks for sharing the observation.
Hello, I wanted to thank you for this great article and also your very helpful answers in the comments. Like several of the people writing to you, I have just found a grey tree frog in a large houseplant brought in for the winter, and found this site while trying to find out what to do until March when the snow melts. (I haven’t actually seen it because it is sequestered deep inside a fern but I heard it calling this week and recognized it.) I got my hands on some crickets but didn’t want to just drop them in the fern, so I am going to try your handy idea with the crickets in the 5 gallon bucket.
i just want to share a story with people who will understand. I had a gray tree frog who returned every spring to hang out on the rim of my hot tub, under the cover, on my porch. I always worried he’d fall in the water, which has hot tub chemicals in it, but I came to realize he just liked the warm, humid edge, knew enough not to go into the water, would come and go (no idea how he does it… suppose he climbs straight up the side and into some very small crevice between the cover and the rim. He kept me company whenever I used the tub, seemed unconcerned with my presence, and, once, even brought two friends! He’d disappear every fall and return every spring. I live in Wisconsin.. I’m grateful to find out, here, that they are good with cold, as I used to worry he wasn’t leaving to hibernate early enough, as it would get pretty darn cold before he disappeared for the winter. I was afraid he was fooled by the artificial warmth of the tub and waited too long to find his hibernation spot. A few days ago, I opened the cover to check on the tub (breaker had gone out and the tub was off…easy fix) but, apparently when i closed the cover, though I am soooo careful, he was not all in a depression, allowing room for him between the tub rim and the cover. When I opened the cover the next day to check the temp, his hind legs were caught between the cover and the rim.. he couldn’t move them. He was alive, crawling with his front feet. I can’t begin to tell you how very heart broken and guilty I felt. I tucked him in to a safe depression on the rim, carefully closed the cover and started to do research on how to keep him indoors (thus finding this site)… just hoping that either his legs would be better, now the pressure was off (yeah, I know.. unlikely, but I wanted to hope) or, if his hind legs were forever useless, that he could be kept in a terrarium where I could feed him and look after him. Alas, he died overnight… probably not a good death. I put him in a tree. I’m so sad, and I feel so terrible. He’d been my companion, a delight for 4 or 5 years, and I’d opened and closed that cover many many times. He must have moved just as it came down. Goodbye little guy. I’m so so sorry. I will miss you.
Hi Lynn. I just read your story. We have opened our deck to many (meaning DOZENS of) gray tree frogs who came looking for bugs on the windows and have stayed for the frequent misting and free crickets. Some of them have chosen to stay for years, just as your small friend did. What we found is that they get to know you, have their own habits, their own best friends, etc. So far as habits, one of the two first frogs who stayed with us liked to get out of their plant area, sneak 15 yards across the deck all the way to the gas grill, then wedge himself inside under the controls. We had to take it apart every time we wanted to use it to make sure he wasn’t in there. But it was worth it. Keep in your heart that your buddy came to you and had a wonderful life away from predators and even had you as a friend who acknowledged they were there. Try not to let any misplaced guilt take away from the good experience that you both had. It means a lot that you shared their story. You’ve spread knowledge of his existence further into the world.
Oh my gosh Lynn…. I read your message with such delight and appreciation until I got to the end of your story. I am so sorry. Surely it wasn’t your fault but I know it doesn’t make it any better. We, too, have a little buddy that has been making a home inside of our patio cushion box. We figure he has been coming back for about 4 years. We have no idea how it gets in and out of the box but at least he is safe. There is a ritual virtually every morning peeking in the box… and sometimes we just watch him watching me. He seems content and so are we. I love the natural world. Hope ‘Freddy’ keeps coming home for years to come.
Hi Devin thank you so much for this very informative page.
I have had a grey tree frog in the house over the winter up here in Grand Rapids, MI, USA. Found him in a planting pot a couple months ago, it must have come in when we brought the pot back in after summer.
It has survived so far without having to feed it anything. I have put a dish of water in the pot where he is found sitting sometimes.
My question is, it is April now and since a week or 2 night temps are in the 40s F. However I know that the last frost date is not yet passed. It is usually from may 1st to mid may, and I am growing a bit concerned about it having enoug food around any more. He appears to be somewhat skinnier and dehydrated nowadays and seems to be on the move around the house more frequently. I am afraid he is struggling to find food around the house.
I am wondering if I can release it outside now since the night temps are in the 40s, instead of waiting for another 2-3 weeks when the last frost date has passed?
Thank you so much for providing this valuable page and being helpful in the comments over the years!
Yep, I think you can release it outside now. Gray tree frogs tolerate cool temperatures well. It will find a place to shelter if the nightly lows get down to freezing for one or two more nights. If you want to wait another week or two, no problem either.
Thank you so much for your reply Davin. May you be blessed with great fortune!
Hello: A grey tree frog is living In my watering can. It loves the stem. The funny thing about it is it was there last year and came back. I want to do what is best for the frog so we leave the watering can 1/2 filled with water and added a large stick. Should I put it In a terrarium or just let it be?
Nice. I would just let it be. It clearly likes something about the watering can, so as long as you don’t mind I think you can just let the frog do its thing.
How would I take care of a gray tree frog I live in Florida and I’m 10
You can follow the information on this page. The most important part of their care is to get the environment right (check the temperature in the tank, make sure to provide clean water that is safe for amphibians, etc.) If the tank is set up correctly and kept within the correct temperature range, it is hard to go wrong.
I so get you!
Hi I’m Elle and I’ve always wanted a frog. I keep seeing them in my yard and in the creek by my house, I’m 11 bty. My parents say I can have a frog if I do the research and make a good pitch, plus I have to pay for the stuff. I’m a little stuck In the setup purchasing, Help?!
Hi Devin, I accidently sent this post as a reply to someone else so now I’m sending it to you to make sure you see it.
I have a gray tree frog that’s been alive for a long time. I live in Sedona, AZ. A freind found a gecko inside a gallery and has asked me to care for it. I didn’t know they lived this far north. It’s been in the 30’s at night so my friend is afraid to put it outside. My questions: A. Should the gecko be kept inside till spring? and B. Would it be okay to put it in the terrarium with the gray tree frog which would be much easier for me? Thanks, Kim
Since writing this I picked up the gecko and it is very tiny. Looks like a baby. So my tree frog might eat it. I’m not sure what to feed it because a cricket might be too big.Do you know about geckos or know where to find correct info on care?
You need to buy exo terra terrarium small I have a gecko too exo terra helps a lot with that go to exo terra.com to find out more
Thank you Devin!
Hi Devin, I have a gray tree frog that’s been alive for a long time. I live in Sedona, AZ. A freind found a gecko inside a gallery and has asked me to care for it. I didn’t know they lived this far north. It’s been in the 30’s at night so my friend is afraid to put it outside. My questions: A. Should the gecko be kept inside till spring and B. Would it be okay to put it in the terrarium with the gray tree frog which would be much easier for me. Thanks, Kim
Good day! I rescued treefrog eggs from pool and transferred them to a trough with pond water, cattails and rocks, I feed them pellets and cucumber and they are thriving. It is now September and the nights are getting colder-some have morphed and left, but some are still in varying states…should I take them to a pond or bring them inside? I don’t want them to die…there over 30+ still in the trough-please help!!! Thank you!
Yes, if there is a pond nearby the pool where you collected them you could move the tadpoles to the pond. That is probably the best option.
Hi Devin-
This year, I am raising my grey tree frogs outside. in bins. After they get large back legs, I put them in shallow containers with rocks so they can get out. I have already had one leave, but he still had a tail. Is that too early? Should I put mesh over the container until they lose their tails?
Thanks once again for your help.
Nancy
Sounds great Nancy. No, you can trust the new frogs to know when it is safe to climb out of the water. Often tree frogs will start to climb out of the water even when they have tail left. If you want to add screen to protect them from predators you could, but if it were me, I would just let them climb out and go off on their own (assuming these tadpoles were collected from your backyard or nearby). Enjoy raising the frogs up.
Thanks for the site Devin! So much good information. I am caring for gray tree frog tadpoles that hatched in my pool before we cleaned it this spring. I have been keeping them in 5 gallon buckets and changing the water every few days, but I noticed the big ones have started chewing on some of the runts. I give them plenty of food, so I’m guessing I just have some bullies in the mix. Is it better to separate them out into only 10-20 per container? Also, I’ve been sharing my tadpoles with friends who have kids so they can enjoy the experience too. One was asking if it would be okay if they left their bucket of tadpoles outside. With this heat wave we’ve been having I was wondering if that’s okay or if they would get overheated in a bucket outside? I live in Minnesota and day time temps have been 90+ F for well over a week now, with no end in site in the near future. Thanks so much for the info!
Gray tree frog tadpoles are pretty hardy. They can overheat if they are left outside in the sun, but I bet in a shady location with a large volume of water they would be okay. At warmer temperatures, they will complete metamorphosis more quickly (and also need more food). Yes, I think your idea of separating the aggressive ones out might work. It is kind of a balance between feeding enough and feeding too much that it pollutes the water, but I bet if you feed more they won’t pick on the others. Still, it would be safer and maybe easier to just separate the big aggressive ones out and reduce tadpole density. Good luck,
Devin
I had the cannibalism problem and solved it by reducing density. By the end of the cycle I had six tanks
I feel bad. I’ve had a male grey tree frog living in the yard for a few years. N MI. This spring he made his way to our pool to begin his mating ritual but tonight we had an issue with the pool and my husband had to put a lot of Chemicals in and I was super afraid he would go back to his frog pad and get hurt. He sat next to the pool for 1/2 hour and as the nearly full moon rose I was sure he was going to make a move toward his pad. I also didn’t want him to lure a female in and she would be hurt. So I drove him about 1/4 mile and put him at the base of a tree near a creek. I wish I didn’t have to move him but I know how fragile there skin is. Now, after the task is complete maybe he would have been smart enough not to go in for a few hours..? Missing my buddy and hopeful he will be OK. Kim
A male Grey Tree Frog, whom I’ve named Freddie came to live on my balcony last spring. An unusual call coming from my stack of 8 plastic flower pots revealed his presence to me. He stayed with me until late October and then I couldn’t find him anymore as the weather started to turn cold. Some days he was not around, but would always return after a day or two on the hunt or searching for a mate. Not knowing if he would ever return, a routine check revealed his return about a month ago. I was both amazed and delighted. I try not to interfere with his wild routine, only making sure he has a home of 8 flower pots, where he can stay on any level, and that he always has water on the first two “floors”.. When I check most days, he’s often immersed in the shallow water at the bottom of the pot. If he’s had enough water like when it rains a lot, he’ll move to a drier upper floor. It’s all very low maintenance. I feel good because he’s free to come and go as he pleases and do what instinct requires, and I’m happy because he frequently returns. I strongly sense he enjoys my company, and I love having him as my free and low-maintenance pet. I worry about predators, but he seems to be quite smart. I’ve never fed him, but knowing how well they eat, he’s obviously very see-sufficient. He started calling tonight from somewhere nearby (at least I think it’s him), but only when it was getting dark, and before nocturnal predators like snakes tend to awaken. After a few days in the pot the past few days, today he wasn’t home. I hope he finds a mate tonight and comes home to rest tomorrow. I’m confident he’ll be back within a couple of days. I never thought I’d become attached to a frog. 🙂
Hello, in November last year, I took on a Grey (I think) tree frog. It was found in a friends bathtub and it was too cold to let him back out so I cared for it over the winter. I gave it a tank, mealworms, crickets, and beetles. I gave it a Little Rock to perch on during the day and he/ she ?? Typically does not move at all. It is now spring, and I am wanting to release him. I’ll pick him up to handle him: her (not sure on the gender) and when I go to put him back, he wants to crawl out of the cage. I tried to let him go today but he didn’t go far and I checked after dark, and he was still there crawling around the bench. Is it a good idea to let him go. I just feel as if the home I have for him now is only temporary and he can get back out there and explore the world, but I don’t want to release him if it will kill him. What do I do?
I think it’s up to you. The frog should be fine either way. If you want to keep it and can provide a permanent home, you could have it as a pet. On the other hand, if well-cared for the tree frog might live 5-10+ years, so that is kind of a long-term commitment. If instead, you don’t want to keep it permanently, it is better to release it sooner rather than later. Pick a spot near your friend’s house where it was found and release it there. If you release it later in the day towards evening, that might be even better since they are nocturnal.
I have two gray tree frogs that came in with my plants last winter when I brought the plants in for winter. Well my grand children have named me the Crazy Frog Lady because I spoiled the frogs like I do the kids They will actually eat from a white plastic spoon or from my finger.They eat earthworms, flys,moths, or whatever Texas bug I find for them. So my plants are permanently staying inside this summer. The frogs enjoys when I mist the plants and their little swimming bowl.
You should keep him/her, so they won’t die. If you want to find the gender press its back if it makes a noise it is a boy if it doesn’t it is a girl that is how I found my frogs gender
Dont release a tree frog is caught in the wild and kept captive! Find someone online in a reptile or frog group to rehome and dont mention you found it outside say bgg you got it from a store or they will jump down your throat!!
I have a Grey Tree Frog sitting on a ledge between bricks about 5 feet off the ground all day. Should I try a move the little one to a different location if he’s there tomorrow morning. We don’t even have any kind of pond or water near. I have no idea how he got there. Thank you
Nah, just let it be. If it got there, it probably wants to be there. They can move far away from water but return to it for breeding, so if there is some drainage area near woodlands or even just some farmland nearby with a canal or something that might be good enough. Enjoy your new neighbor!
Hi Devin-
The grey tree frogs are starting to call again, but there is an adult frog on one of my patio chairs, who hasn’t moved for several hours, and does not really respond to a little nudge. have been pouring non chlorinated water on him, and he appears to be perking up, but it’s only going to be 39 (F) tonight. I would take him inside, and let him out in the morning, but I don’t really have a froggy setup, only flat plastic bins with screens, on the top and some rocks. Should I take him inside anyway since its only for the night?
You can safely leave the frog outside. Gray tree frogs are very cold-resistant. They don’t move much during the day, although usually they should hop away if poked, but I guess if it is cold it might not. Even if it gets down to freezing, you can trust the frog to know what to do.
You’re right. He was gone this morning.
Thanks,
Nancy
Thank you for all the amazing information shared here. I’m hoping I can get your thoughts on my situation with my grey tree frog. I live in MN and we have many, many greys that live around our lake cabin and gorge on the bugs attracted by the lights- it’s like a little sanctuary. Last July I found a small frog with one eye and decided to bring it home and care for it… I was worried that he would be limited in his ability to catch food and my softie heart got the better of me. Based on his size/growth, he was most likely a yearling at that time and grew half an inch in just a couple months! I also learned he doesn’t seem to have any trouble at all catching bugs despite only having one eye. He sometimes misses (depth perception?) but overall seems to manage just fine. Now spring is here, and I am struggling with whether it would be better for him to be re-released to live his best froggy life… or if his stay with me has limited his ability to be successful in the wild. I’m really torn. On one hand, I adore him and he seems to be doing well in my care, and don’t want to release him if his ability to survive will be diminished. On the other hand, I feel like he deserves to be wild, meet a nice lady frog, and prosper. I wish I could ask him what he would prefer! I’ve read on here that captive-bred frogs don’t do well in the wild, but do you think this still applies if he lived in the wild for his first year of life? I have handled him very minimally. I know there are no guarantees but curious what you think.
Hi Andrea, if you are enjoying caring for the one-eyed frog and can provide a good home, I think you may as well just keep it. It sounds like it is doing great in your care. Enjoy the pet frog.
Hi Devin,
Nice website. Good info.
I have 3 physically-challenged Gray’s who are now approaching their 4th Summer season since morphing into froglets from the vernal pond that forms on the 20×40 foot outdoor pool cover and is a Gray Tree Frog, American Toad, and Spring Peeper spwning hub. They have a 265 gallon living space founded on a 90 gallon Aquarium tank. It has over 6 feet of vertical real estate filled with climbing branches and a large hollowed-out grapevine log. The lower deck is filled with a 12-18 inch forrest of Aglaonema plants, and the floor is 7 inches of potting soil covered with silica stones, assorted sticks and large, Silver Maple bark slabs. At one end of the 90 gallon tank section is a rectangular, 11x18x5 inch soaking/ovipositing pond with a slate bottom and heated, filtered water. Last summer the female (P-Nut) laid eggs but the males were unable to fertilize her eggs. Bucky couldn’t figure out how to do Amplexus correctly always mounting her at 90 degrees and the other one I call “Z” didn’t get inspired to try until she had no more eggs but he did manage to hop onto her and find exactly the right position. Maybe he’ll be ready to help her out this year. Other features are a thriving colony of Pill Bugs, a very tiny Centipede, and at least 3 very healthy Earthworms. The habitat gets full, morning sun all year long, temps and humiduty are always within healthy limits. What I’d like to know is if you have any antibacterial product you use or would recommend for treatment of their pond as I’m thinking that my little Aqueon submersible filter/pump unit might not be enough to guard against bacteria although I’ve been fotunate so far. I have very deep well water with a near perfect mineral balance but it’s a little on the high side of sulfer content which our home filtration system does fine with but there are bacteria associated with that which although they aren’t present in humanly harmful levels at all, may not be great for the little ones. Any suggestions for an antibacterial Amphibian/Terrarium product would be very helpful. Thanks, and compliments on this page.
KP
Sounds like a great setup KP. Actually, what you want in the pond area of the enclosure is lots and lots of bacteria. The beneficial bacteria help maintain water quality. To maintain water quality, do partial water changes (25-50% or so) every week or two. If you change all of the water at a time and really scrub it clean you will lose a lot of the helpful bacteria that are keeping things clean. There are products you can buy for aquariums to help boost the bacteria in the water, but really since the water area has been established for years, I think all you should need to do is frequent partial water changes, especially since it is filtered.
Thanks Devin.
Yes, I’m aware that there’s a mindboggling complexity to the many factors to balance in order to simulate a healthy indoor biome for these highly sensitive and delicate little critters. Not sure I quite got it right lately as I noticed a foul smell and some yellowish brown muck on the last little blue, triangular filter I changed in my Aqueon A10 pump/filter unit that I hadn’t noticed before. I didn’t notice the odor until after I had the cleaned the pond and replaced the filter so I took it apart again, cleaned it again, replaced the filter again and now it’s been clear with no odor at all for a few days. The persitance of the bad smell and the yellow sludge on the first fresh filter made me uneasy. So today, after a little research, I went to the pet supply store and bought some API “Sludge Destroyer” but before I try using it I wanted to get the benefit of anyone else’s experience or other knowledge as to whether it might not be safe for Grays. It says it’s good for maintaining the water for Turtles, Salamnders, and Aquatic Frogs but of course no retail products mention anything about their safety for Grays.
Also, the filter/pump unit has a chamber inside that’s supposed to promote the friendlies and the API Sludge Destroyer claims to have those little buggers in it.
Thanks again Devin.
In addition, I thoroughly clean all parts of the filter/pump unit, inside and out each time and all of the slate pieces I use to adjust the contours of the pond. The filters say they’re good for up to 3 months and they seemed to have been working well for about that time but yes, from now on I’ll do the 50% water change every week as you said.
KP
LOL, of course by “anyone else’s” experience or other knowledge I meant you since you seem to have been at this for quite a few years but I see others who read you posts can give their advice as well, correct?
Thanks again, Devin
KP
Sounds like you have it figured out. Yes, the aquarium product you got should be fine. Often the brown sludge and gunk in aquariums though is beneficial bacteria that you want to keep going strong to maintain your water quality. It is counter-intuitive–you would think it is bad, but often the slime that grows is nothing to worry about.
Hi Devin,
Everything about my Gray Tree Frog habitat is figured out and it’s now been a self-maintining micro ecosystem since Fall of 2018. It houses 2 adult Grays, who’ve both had their 4th Summer since being eggs. It also has self-perpetuating Banded Cricket, Dubia Roach, and Pill Bug populations which the Frogs eat of whenever they’re hungry. There are also Earthworms and a very tiny red Centipede who seems to stay down in the soil all the time. The heated/filtered pond has stayed fresh since getting it cleaned and re-started following your suggestions. I never did use the sludge remover and now as you recommended, I only change 50% or less of the water every week and it’s working perfectly.
This Spring one of the newly morphed ones in my outside pool/Tree Frog, Toad, Spring Peeper, and occasional Salamander spawning compound was attacked by a very large Dragonfly Naiad which ate one of the morph’s legs off, leaving only the femur. I just happened to stumble on it soon after, as it was trying to climb out of the water. I noticed a trail of blood from it’s leg and realized what happened and took it in as a rescue. I treated the leg with triple antibiotic (Neosporin). Long story short, it healed perfectly and the baby frog is doing great. Next Spring it’ll be large enough to be added to the big habitat.
Now for a question if you can help me out again. What do you recommend for healthy artificial lighting for my Grays?
Thanks for the update, sounds like everything is going well. A standard/basic LED aquarium strip light that you would use for a freshwater aquarium and plugged into a time for 11-12 hours/day should work fine. If you want, you can also offer low-moderate amount of UVB radiation by placing a UVB bulb over a screen section of the cover. Enjoy the frogs.
We brought our peace plants and spider plants in from an upstairs deck 6 months ago and have kept them in a cluster in front of south facing glass doors. Today my wife saw some movement and we discovered two tree frogs had wintered in our house. It’s still to cold for them to have come in from outside. One is a full sized adult and the other is a little over an inch long. There may be more. They are very difficult to see among the greenery. They haven’t bothered us all winter so I’m going to let them live in our plants until we put them out on the deck in a few weeks. I’m not sure what they’ve been eating, but the look healthy. We keep the plants well watered with some standing water in the trays under each plant pot. That’s all. just thought some of you would find this interesting.
Thanks for sharing. It’s interesting that another person just wrote a comment saying they also noticed a gray tree frog in their plant. It must be the time of year. Yes, if they made it all winter and you don’t mind having them for a bit longer, I would just leave them as is. Once it is above freezing you can let them out (if you want).
Devin
I just found one in my outdoor plans that were taken in last fall, It’s March 29th. It must have been buried and just came up. Hope it makes it a few more months. Will put some water in planter for it, but no intention of purchasing crickets…
My family and I are so grateful for this thread!
Last October I bought a large Snake Plant from an elderly lady that had moved the plant outside and didn’t want to move the large heavy plant back inside for the winter-so she sold it to me. In January I decided I was going to prune the plant and try to root some cuttings to grow new plants. To my surprise something moved!
There is gray tree frog living happily in this large plant. We have never touched him. We have put a little bowl of spring water in the pot. And have started feeding him a few waxworms a couple times a week. Which we have actually been able to watch him eat.
Should we keep him? We have been feeding him since we found him. There is no evidence that he has left his giant plant. And he has mad a long Iowa winter very interesting for us! We have grown quite fond of him.
What a fun surprise. Probably, the best thing to do is to take the frog back over to the elderly lady’s house and release it outside. Once night temperatures are above freezing and there is open water it should be safe to release the frog. In the meantime, I think you have the right idea to just provide access to water and make sure there is enough food around for it to eat. If you would like to keep it instead as a pet, that is fine, although it’s best to check with local regulations to make sure you don’t need a permit or something to remove the frog from the wild (it depends on the state). Gray tree frogs are fun and easy to keep, but they also live a long time, so I guess before deciding what to do make sure you want to have a frog around for the next 5-10 years or if you would rather just observe it now for a little bit and then let it go.
Devin
hi im having some real problems with one of my 2 grey tree frogs i could use some advice!
Sure, what is the problem?
Hello. I found a gray tree frog in my basement tonight. It appears to be healthy and alert. It is winter so I assume the frog is hibernating? Or maybe it found its way to the basement and has been surviving on the insects in our house. I put it inside of a small ventilated plastic terrarium, added coco bark, a small orchid and a piece of wood. All chemical free as I use to have reptiles and had these items readily available. I misted the enclosure with RO water and set it in a spot amoungst my house plants that remains a consistent 70 degrees. I plan to purchase some crickets tomorrow. Any other advice? Do you think it can go back out side when the weather is warm or will I need to plan to take care of it from now on? Thank you.
It sounds like you have everything set up well. Ideally, you should put some sort of light over the tank so there is a warmer area during the day for the frog to go to. But, if you are just keeping it for a few more weeks until you can release it I bet it will do okay at room temperature. On the other hand, if you live somewhere further north where the temperature will be cold until late April or May, then you should get a light. You can release it once there are a few days or a week coming up where nightly lows are above freezing.
Thank you. I plan to put it in a larger enclosure with a light. I live in NE Ohio so it will be cold for awhile.
Will the frog become more active now that it has heat or will it continue to brumate for awhile? Will it move at all while brumating? So far it hasn’t moved. It is alive. I checked this morning thinking it had passed and it perked up and moved when I touched it. Just wondering how long to expect before it starts to move around the enclosure.
It might become more active with the addition of the light. I guess one thing to consider is that they are nocturnal and during the day they shouldn’t move much, or at all. You could try checking at night say a half hour after the light is off and look in the tank with a flashlight and I bet it will be active and moving around.
Thanks Devin. It is moving around now and ate a couple of wax worms. I have a light on and an under tank heat source. Temperature is staying in the mid seventies. I think the frog is going to be okay.
Hello and Happy New Year! I’ve posted here in the past and could use a little help again with one of my grey tree frogs. I have 3 GTF that I’ve raised since they were tiny tadpoles. They are now about 2.5 years since morphing into froglets. One of them suddenly went to the bottom of the tank and stopped eating. I moved them back up to the top after their fourth day of refusing live crickets and not moving at the bottom of their terrarium. The same frog went back to the bottom the next day and again is not moving and refusing food. Today is about a week since the little guy last ate. This one in particular has always been very lazy. Moving only to take a dip in their little pond at night. Always had a good appetite and would normally eat 6-8 crickets every 3 days.
It’s noticeably colder at the bottom of the terrarium. Is it possible that he’s going into a hibernation type mode? He looks catatonic, eyes closed, almost leaning against a piece of wood. I’m definitely concerned.
Thank you,
Kate
Happy New Year to you too Kate. Yes, your frog might be changing its behavior with the seasons. Frogs respond to even small changes in the environment, even ones that might not be that noticeable to us, so if the room temperature is now cooler by a few degrees, the humidity is lower, and the photoperiod from ambient light through a window is reduced, that might be enough to kind of trigger a frog to slow down and go off feed. Another option might be if the enclosure is either too dry (sometimes tree frogs go down to a moist substrate if there is not a water source available or if humidity is low) or too hot (for example, if you added a heat lamp in winter but it is getting too hot near it, the frog might move down low to escape the heat). Or, worst case, the frog is sick and has some health problem going on.
If you notice any other symptoms of poor health, for example, discoloration or reddening on its ventral side, uncoordinated movements, inability to right itself after flipping on its back, trouble shedding skin, tremors/shakes, paralysis of limbs, etc. then you should isolate the frog to a different enclosure away from the others. On the other hand, if everything else seems fine and the frog is just spending time near the bottom of the tank rather than up top, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
Either way, double-check the temperature in the enclosure. Move a thermometer up near the top close to the light and make sure it is reaching the low to mid 80’s near the light source, then down low near the substrate to make sure it is in the high 60’s or low 70’s. If there is not a warm area up high or if it is not warm enough, add a heat source like a low wattage heat lamp that stays on for 10-12 hours/day.
Hello. Sorry for replying to a random comment, I didn’t know how to comment on my own. My dear pet tree frog passed away last night. She was wild-caught but healthy and we’d had her for about a year. I did extensive research and her care seemed completely good. We just found her passed away by her pond with no signs of illness or what happened., just spontaneous death. The temperature in the tank was completely normal, so hibernation is ruled out too. Any idea of why she passed?
Sorry to hear about the frog. I have no idea why it died. Frogs die for many reasons, sometimes without much of a warning. Gray tree frogs should be able to live for 5-10+ years in captivity as long as conditions are suitable. Something subtle but important probably went wrong that you didn’t catch. When a frog dies in captivity it is usually due to some underlying problem in its environment. Temperature and water quality are some of the most important. When these two are off, frogs become more susceptible to disease, which you might not detect until it is too late. Contaminants are also an often-overlooked risk, for example, if somebody in your house has been using a lot of aerosol disinfectants around the terrarium because of the ongoing pandemic, the exposure could have caused problems. If you think the environment was perfect, the other area to think back on is diet. Nutritional problems might develop when frogs are fed the wrong kind of food, for example, if you fed only mealworms for the last few months, or if you don’t use a quality nutritional supplement on the food before feeding (although usually if there is a nutritional deficiency there were will be some serious symptoms of it before the frog eventually passes). And weird unexpected things can happen too that you can’t predict. Again, sorry to hear about the frog.
Devin;
Thank you for all of this great information. We live in northern NH in the woods where we have always had a consistent tree frog population. They are often on our large houseplants that we have on custom built caster trays that we wheel out of the house in June and wheel back into the house is September, For the first time, apparently one of the frogs rode in on the plant (while sleeping during the day) and has been in the house ever since. It moves around every night, as we see some of the non-roosting plants move in the evening, but it has a particular rubber tree that it lives in every night, and we go looking for it each night resting on a different leaf. We recently put out a water dish for it after reading about their needs. We have not fed it one bit of food, though, but we know it is eating something as there is occasionally frog poop on the windowsill right next to the rubber tree (and it hasn’t croaked……..pun intended). We heat with firewood, and bring in approx. 1/5 of a cord of wood once a week for the wood stove, and often have flying things around the house that hatch from that wood (lethargic mosquitos, etc.) and we have both noticed a reduction in the insects etc. in the house this winter. The bottom line is this is not a pet, and don’t particularly want to spend the next 5 years nurturing it indoors, even though we love having it around. Knowing that it has been in the house now for around 4 months, and in another 5 months will be hitching a ride outside with the plants, what is your thought on whether it is just taking care of it’s own needs and would likely continue to do so?
One issue is the local pet store has only crickets and mealworms. I read one post that mealworms are not ideal due to their consistency. On the other hand, not particularly keen on crickets taking over the house either. Remember this is a free-range frog and has the run of an 1,100 sf house. If we let a few crickets go, do you assume that it will find and eat them? Any other thoughts?
Thank you.
I bet the frog will make it until spring on its own since it has been doing okay so far. As long as there is a source of water for it somewhere in the room and enough insects in the house for it to find I bet it will survive. I understand not wanting to release a dozen crickets into your house (I wouldn’t either), but you also might not need to feed it if it has already been inside for several months and does not look skinny. On the other hand, if it starts to look skinny or thin you could put a 5-gallon bucket in the room near where the frog spends its time with a dozen small or medium size crickets inside of it (they shouldn’t be able to jump out of the bucket) and the frog will likely find them at night. Or, you could try earthworms or waxworms in a small dish/bowl next to the plant where the frog spends its time, which you might be able to get at a store that sells fishing bait. Enjoy the new roommate. Once temperatures outside are at or above freezing at night you can put it outside again, probably sometime in April or maybe even March if there is a warm week.
Hi Devin-
Thanks for all your help over the summer.
My question now is about cicadas and tree frogs. This summer, my area will have a massive invasion of 17 year cicadas, coming out of the ground and climbing into the trees starting in approximately mid may. Their noise is so loud it sounds industrial and will definitely drown out frog calls, and because of the sheer volume of them, I can’t imagine how the tree frogs can coexist with them. They will be here for about 6 weeks, and we are not planning to open our water feature (where they lay eggs) until the bugs are gone. I was thinking about doing a small temporary pool, but it will probably fill with cicada shells.
Will the frogs adapt their usual mating season to a time that is more hospitable, or should we not expect our frog songs next year?
Thanks,
Nancy
Good question. I honestly have no idea. I imagine the frogs will get on just fine but it will be interesting to see if anything is different this summer.
Hey, I found a grey tree frog and put it into a tank with milch, bole of water, and a couple leafs and a big stick but i have to find food will it live through the night without food
Yes, it will be fine for several days or even a week without food. Before setting everything up and deciding to keep it, make sure you can care for it for its full lifespan of 5-10 years. You could also just keep it for a few days to watch and observe it, and then release it where you found it afterward. Enjoy
hi Devin, I brought some frog spawn inside from our backyard pond and we ended up with Cope’s Gray Tree Frog tadpoles. Once they had front and back legs, I lowered the water level and provide a rocky area. All but one froglet managed to climb up on the rocks and then scale the side of the tank. At that point, I removed them to a froglet-friendly tank and released them into the woods behind the pond a day later. At this point I have one last froglet whose metamorphosis took longer than the others. One morning, I checked the tank and found the froglet upside down in the water, apparently drowned. However, when I removed him (her?) from the water, he revived. He was quite limp and waterlogged, so I removed him to the froglet-friendly tank and have been keeping him there for a few days to make sure he’s okay. At this point, it is becoming cold (though still above freezing at night) and I’m wondering if I should release him or if it’s too late in the season for him to adjust from indoor temperatures to outdoors. If it’s too cold to release him now and I keep him until Spring, will being a “house frog” leave him not knowing how to catch his own food when I release him in the Spring? Also, what should I feed him? He’s too tiny for crickets and has shown zero interest in the wingless fruit flies that I bought. Thanks for your help!
It should still be okay to release the last frog if temperatures are above freezing at night. Frogs won’t adapt to captivity and have trouble adjusting to nature on release like some birds or mammals. If you want to keep it, stick with the flightless fruit flies but try feeding at night since tree frogs are nocturnal. You can put a small piece of fruit (washed/organic) to attract the flies to one spot and prevent them from climbing up and out of the top, if that has been a problem. This last frog might just be kind of weak. Sometimes all frogs that complete metamorphosis don’t make it. Good luck.
Thanks so much!
I’m so glad I found this site! We found a cold, sluggish, one-eyed grey tree frog right after quarantine in late March. He definitely appreciated the warmth of my hand and after realizing he was disabled, we decided to keep him. All has been well until now, when he would normally be preparing to freeze over.
After hiding inside of his tree sculpture for many days, he has spent the last 4 days in his water bowl He won’t eat- another big concern. I realize that perhaps the heat pad attached to the terrarium is too warm for night time. I’m going to start turning it off at night to see if that helps him adjust.
I”m in Maryland and it has been very mild this fall but since we’ve been spoiling him for 8 months, I don’t think it’s a good idea to release him (plus he’s disabled).
I’m glad the site was helpful. What’s the temperature inside the enclosure? If you don’t have a thermometer inside yet, get one and move it around up near the top of the tank and down low to make sure it is getting into the mid-high 70’s during the day. You might try switching out the heat pad for a low-wattage heat light (think about in the wild, heat comes from above not from below). The temperature up near the top by the lamp should be in the low or even mid 80’s and down near the substrate in the low to mid 70’s during the day. At night, turn the light off and let the tank cool. My guess is that with the heat pad and change in seasons (and probably your ambient household temperature) something funky is going on with the temperature in the tank, causing the frog to change its behavior. If all the parameters inside the enclosure are fine, then it could be a health issue, but first, check the temperature.
I did buy a heat lamp but because I’m using an arboreal terrarium, it melted the plastic at the top. The pad is on the side and averages about 81. The room is full of windows and gets morning sun so the temperature does fluctuate according to the season. He still very responsive, just not eating and spending a lot of time in that water bowl.
I usually hand or tong feed him but always leave a few in the enclosure for him to get on his own..
I’m going to purchase the led fixture specifically made for the tank and give the pad to the hermit crab. I’ll keep you posted!
Sounds good. One other thought I just had–if the enclosure is mainly lit from the room the tank is in like from a window, the shorter days and reduced photoperiod might affect the frog’s activity level too. The difference between 12-14 hours of light per day and 8-10 might affect behavior. Good luck.
Hi Devon. Great article on tree frogs. I brought some flowering plants inside approximately 2 weeks ago to over winter them and a tree frog came in on a plant. I just discovered the frog today. Is it possible for the frog to live if I put it back outside under some leaves?
Yes, you can still release the frog on a day when the nightly lows are above freezing. If the temperature outside at night is already pretty far below freezing, though, it might not make it.
i started raising grey tree frogs last year i had 3 but only 2 survived i have them in a small 5 gallon tank is this big enough
A 5-gallon tank is probably large enough for the first few months after the frogs finish metamorphosis. The small space can even be beneficial because it helps them find food more easily than if they were in a large enclosure. But, once the frogs are approaching 3/4-1 inch or a little larger you should move them to a bigger enclosure. For permanently keeping two gray tree frogs, go with a 15 or 20-gallon tank.
thank you, also i was wondering how many pill bugs a frog needs in a day
I bet you could feed 5-10 pill bugs at a time. They shouldn’t make up most of the diet though. Instead, feed crickets and other soft-bodied food items most of the time. Rotate in pill bugs maybe 2-3 times a month if you have a good source for them. Remember to coat food items in a quality nutritional supplement like Repashy Calcium Plus before feeding.
yesterday one of my frogs died
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this is mo new tank for mo surviving frog from april but recently i got a new one and changed the setup
I accidentally unearthed a beautiful small to medium sized female grey tree frog. This happened on a cold day in the beginning of November. I’m pretty sure she has started her hibernation already. I tried to put her back several times, but she only wanted to stay in my hand. So now I am housing her. My only issue is shes not eating. Is this because she was ready to hibernate? She doesnt want meal worms or cut up earth worms. On my way to go get crickets now. How can I encourage her to eat?
Yes, it might not be eating because it was already hibernating. Honestly, though, probably the best thing for the frog is to release it where you found it on a day when temps are above freezing. On the other hand, if you want a pet tree frog and are interested to care for it then the first thing to do is check the environmental conditions you are keeping it in. So, for example, check the temperature and make sure it is warm enough. It might take a few days or even a week for the frog to come around. Also, remember they are nocturnal so it isn’t going to eat while you are watching during the day. Instead, try feeding at night and if you want to watch, use a small flashlight to periodically check in on it. Good luck.
Thank you so much for your reply I originally tried to leave her where I found her, but she never made a move in over 8 hours. She was pure white. If I offered my hand she was more than happy to sit. I decided since I was responsible that I would keep her. I have researched nonstop, and everything you say is true. But no worries, she is in the best habitat now, and spoiled rotten. I am smitten with her, enchanted really. It did take a bit for her to fully wake up, and now she is hungry. I tried to leave some live food in her enclosure, so she could hunt. But she seems to prefer me to hand feed her. So there are 2 crickets in there, and I hand feed her meal worms. She seems to want a lot, but I read to make sure not to over feed. I am purchasing a small heat mat that adheres to the outside of the glass, and putting that in the corner I have a light on. Opposite corner is all leaves and shade. She is lovely. Originally was going to release in spring, but read they dont do well after captivity. So now shes my baby, and I’ll invest in a better enclosure soon and maybe someone to keep her company. I love this sweet little creature already
Devin, are mealworms okay to feed gray tree frogs? You’ve never suggested them and someone at the pet store said they weren’t soft enough? I’ve been feeding mine mostly crickets and occasionally wax worms. If mealworms are okay I’ll use them occasionally
Yes, mealworms are not really a good food to use. Tree frogs will eat them but, like you mention, they are hard. Mealworms also don’t offer much nutritionally compared to other kinds of live food. Personally, I wouldn’t use them since there are many other types of feeders available that work better. Waxworms are good, small earthworms or larger ones cut in half, houseflies, Pheonix worms, etc. are all better options to rotate into a frog’s diet on top of crickets.
We have two grey tree frogs. One is definitely a male as he loves to call he seems to be full grown the other came to us from someone and is much smaller they kept their distance at first but don’t seem to mind each other I believe the small one is a little girl as under her head is white in color but she is pretty small yet so maybe just not mature enough to tell. The small one definitely doesn’t call like the bigger one. So my question is the big one is acting pretty much the same as he always did but the small one recently started disappearing I got super worried when I hadn’t seen her in a few days so I cleaned their home and found her very much alive but borrowed under the moss. I have seen he come out on a rare occasion but now haven’t seen her again in days I don’t want to keep moving everything out to dig for her but I’m worried. When I do find “her” she seems fine active and healthy. Why would she be doing this and the other one doesn’t seemed phased by the change in season? Should I be adding some source of heat? The house is set at about 70 to 72 degrees in the cold month but maybe that’s still to chilly. Any advice would be great I just worry she isn’t eating but I honestly don’t know because she might come out at night while we are sleeping
A few ideas come to my mind. The first is humidity/moisture. Often tree frogs spend time down burrowed in the substrate to conserve moisture. You could try misting the enclosure once a day if you aren’t already and see if that changes things. Also, pay attention to the moisture content of the moss. If most of the substrate is dry but the moss is still retaining moisture, that is probably why the frog is spending time under it. Second thought–your idea about temperature might be right on. Ideally, you want a warm area up near a light source in the low to mid 80’s during the day, then down near the substrate, it can stay cooler in the 60’s or 70’s. So, you could try adding a small heat lamp (probably just a 25-watt incandescent bulb would be enough but use a thermometer to measure the temperature directly under it) and see if the frog’s behavior changes. Third, because it is fall and seasons are changing, if there was a slight reduction in temperature coupled with reduced daylight, that might cause a change in behavior as well. If you don’t have a light source on the tank then the photoperiod from indirect light in the room might be getting shorter each day and that could sort of hint to the frog that it is time to slow things down and find a place to hide. Those are just a few ideas. Hope it helps.
Hi Devin-
I have a 4 and a half month old Grays Tree Frog tadpole, the last out of about 150 that I scooped up at the end of May. There were two left until about a week ago and when let one go last week, he looked pretty weak…like he wasn’t going to make it. Didn’t jump away when touched, The one I have left is getting legs very slowly…still at the the little spindly brown stage. I’m concerned that that it will be too cold to release him, or that there is something wrong with it (because it grew so slowly) that it cant survive even if it is not too cold. It was in the mid 40’s last night. I can’t feed live food when it grows up, and I wouldn’t have a place to leave it when we travel.
Thank you for any suggestions
Hmmm… that is a tricky situation. I guess you can still release it now and hope for the best. If there is a month or two left before nightly temperature lows are below freezing maybe it will somehow morph in time and be able to make it through winter and hibernate. Some types of frogs also have tadpoles that can overwinter in water and morph in spring (or even stay tadpoles for multiple years). I don’t know if gray tree frogs do this. I suspect not. I feel like they are more of the type of frog that tries to breed in warm temporary water bodies in summer so tadpoles finish metamorphosis as quickly as possible (but I honestly don’t know if maybe they can overwinter too if the water is permanent?) The other option is to keep it over winter and, if/when it finishes metamorphosis, take care of the frog or find someone who can. Once it is a frog it will need live food. It is up to you what to do.
Devin, with temps in the mid 70’s today we had a guest in our garage. Temps expected below freezing tomorrow with snow. I put this little critter in a 10 gal aquarium with one side having a UTH on a thermostat set at 80. Three small water sources available with eco earth substrate. I feel he reemerged after two weeks of freezing temps followed by a week of 70+ degrees. Can’t set him free with a clear conscience without getting an expert opinion. The local gas station has wax worms and red wigglers readily available. Am I doing the right thing in not releasing it into the temperature dump that is forecast? I am a snake guy with a black milk snake who is 7+’ long, so I know reptile husbandry. Am I doing the right thing for this little critter?
Gray tree frogs tolerate cold temperatures well. You can trust the tree frog to know what to do. On the other hand, if you think it somehow came into your garage on a warm day, got trapped inside, and now it is too cold to release it that is a different issue than if you found the tree in the garage but it can come and go as it pleases. Probably the best thing for the frog is to release near where you found it outside the garage on a day when the nightly low is above freezing or ideally warmer. If it is already too cold, you can keep it but I would suggest a low-wattage heat lamp instead of a heating pad (they can work great for snakes but not so good for frogs). Feed it crickets with those earthworms and waxworms as occasional treats to vary its diet.
How do I care for my tree frogs through the winter? Will they need to hibernate to survive? My house is too warm for them to go into hibernation in my opinion. Do they need to move outside or to the garage?
Thanks
Sara
Good question. No, they do not need to hibernate. In the winter, take care of the tree frog the same way you would any other time of the year. You might want to keep an eye on the temperature inside the enclosure, though. If the room the frog is in is colder than during other times of the year you might need to add a light or otherwise change what heat source you have. So long as the tank is getting into the mid 70’s during the day with a warm spot up near the light around the low 80’s you should be good.
I currently have Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs that are morphing from tadpoles to froglets right now. I’m using a 15 gallon aquarium. I currently have the bottom covered in the loose coconut fiber. But when I put my first froglet into the tank he was dead the next morning. Finding out the cause is the problem. Was it too soon to transition? How damp should the substrate be for suitable living? Should I leave the bottom bare with no substrate and leave it open for just climbing materials?
When frogs first leave the water they can be pretty sensitive. Sometimes coconut husk fiber will stick to frogs, especially if it is from a brick that is newly expanded, so if you suspect the substrate was the problem and you found the frog covered in it then maybe that was the issue. In this case, you could change to a different substrate like moist paper towels or moist sphagnum moss padded down into a sponge-like substrate, or you could just put something over the coco fiber like a bunch of leaf litter or maybe some big river rocks. Sometimes you can get away with just bare glass with a potted plant in the corner and a water dish too. If the frog still had a lot of tail when you moved it that also could have contributed. Make sure the tail is half gone or more before moving them to the terrestrial setup. If you put some cage items emerging from the water in the tadpole aquarium, like aquatic plants or pieces of driftwood or floating cork bark, you can wait for most of the tail to be absorbed before moving the frogs without little risk of them drowning (sometimes they will just climb up and out of the water onto the glass too). Good luck with the rest, I hope they make it.
Hi Devin,
I just found an Eastern Gray tree frog at our property just south of Algonquin Park in Ontario. We have construction happening and suspect he may have been disturbed in his hibernation spot. He was clinging to a sapling and was fairly flat and inactive. I brought him into the cottage and he soon perked up. I am happy to keep him in a tank for the winter or longer term but would release him if it’s better for him. What do you think?
Karin
If nighttime temperatures are still at or above freezing, you can release it. If temperatures are already down into the 20’s at night then it might be better to keep it either over the winter or until there are a few warm days where the night temperature stays above freezing.
Do you have particular vitamin/mineral supplements you recommend for tree frogs to put on or feed to their crickets? All I have found so far are for reptiles, not amphibians. Is it possible to raise crickets? We have bought some and just found a bunch of small ones in a nearby field. Wondering why the crickets at the store are a tan or light brown and the wild ones are all black (even tiny ones). They had cricket food for sale at the pet store… worth trying to raise our own crickets for frog food?
Repashy Calcium Plus is the best overall nutritional supplement in most situations. You can also add Repashy Super Pig a few times a month if you have it. The crickets for sale at most pet stores are house crickets (Acheta domesticus) native to Asia, though they now are introduced to many areas of the world as well. You can raise them but might produce too many if you only have a few frogs to feed. See https://amphibiancare.com/2005/06/27/crickets-care-breeding/
Thanks!
Hi, Devin. We are in Northern Virginia and we have a gray tree frog or Cope’s gray tree frog who we call Desmond living on our balcony since at least June. We are honored to have him as our guest in our container garden 4 floors up — we’ve seen a him venture off for trips but he keeps returning.
With the cooler weather coming in, he’s moved his favorite “home” place from an elephant-shaped flower pot (the head created a little dome arch to live under), to the underside handle of our faux wicker outdoor ottoman. He comes out to sit with us and sunbathe on the top of the ottoman when it’s a bit warm. It seems awfully snug in his new home. It’s about 65°F, not too sunny right now and he’s in there now. Is there anything we can do to give him a better home for the winter? Perhaps a terracotta pot with little archway partially buried in the soil of a large wide flowerpot?
It sounds perfect for the frog. No, I don’t think there is anything you need to add to make it more comfortable. Enjoy your amphibian neighbor,
Thank you. You must be right as Desmond was lounging out on the ottoman again today and is now back in the handle hidey hole as the wind starts to kick up.
Hello! I have had a grey tree frog take up residence in my outdoor furniture cushion cabinet, one of those standing ones. He refuses to leave. I have put him out and he finds his way back it. It’s highly amusing actually. My question, with the weather about to change for the worse, (I live in Chicago area.) will the little guy survive the winter in my cabinet? It is enclosed. (No idea how he gets in and out.) Also packed with many cushions to hide between. I appreciate your opinion! Cordially, Bill
Good question! You can trust the frog to find a good place to overwinter. My guess is that in another couple of weeks once nighttime temperatures are below freezing you won’t find the tree frog there anymore.
Devin
Great, thanks! I jut think they are so cool and want him to survive!!!
Hi Bill I also found a gray tree frog in my hanging basket that is half dead now and this cute little guy goes in there and during the day suntans on the fence next to the flower basket. He is the cutest little thing and not afraid of us at all. I’m also very concerned about the weather getting colder and want him/ her to survive the weather. Anybody have any suggestions on how I can make the hanging basket cozier and weather proof, I would appreciate any advice. I love animals of any kind and want this little guy to survive.
Okay so I found a while back a tub at the bottom of our driveway where my dad puts his motor oil bottles, it was full of water from the rain. My little brother and I looked inside of the tub and found tons of tadpoles. So I got some jars and filled it up with the water they lived in. The water had a rainbow film over it and i thought to my self there would be no way that they would survive in that, I scoop them up and put them in the jar. I was talking to my brother telling him these are probably tree frog tadpoles because our neighbor installed a new pool and frogs love pools. Five seconds later we see the mother on a bottle and sloped her up and put her in a jar. Long time later I got a 50$ 10 gal glass aquarium I filled it with rocks and put a heat lamp on top put a tiny tub with dirt in and filled the rest of the tank with water and put a filter in it. She loves it. Even longer. 75% of the tadpoles died I guess that was natural I cleaned the tadpoles jars every once and a while. Then I saw there Was one with its arms and legs. Once it lost its tail I put it in a separate thing a pet carrier with dirt and and a tiny pet dish filled it with water and put mini krill in the water. A week later it died it probably died because it wasn’t eating. So i put the rest of the tadpoles in the same tank with the mother. One grew arms and legs crawled on a rock and chilled with his mom it was so cute I thought the mom would eat him but she didn’t, a couple days later I was worried because I don’t have any money I’m 16 and I couldn’t buy food for them I go outside and catch crickets for mossy which is the name of the mother. And I when to the grass and scooped a jar in the grass and looked what tiny bugs would I catch there was this tiny beetle I saw him eat and I was so happy a couple days later I went to catch more which is harder everyday and he wouldn’t eat he’s the size of an sunflower seed the next day today he went missing and so did his mom i dig around in the dirt and found the mom which was unusual because she’s always around the filter and my heat lamp broke so I’m guessing she was in hibernation mode. I finally found a light bulb that would produce enough heat. She more active now. But I looked EVERYWHERE for the tiny froglet and I can’t find him.
So I have so many questions
1. Where might my froglet be? I’m guessing he’s dead.
2. What time of month do grey tree frogs go to hibernation in southern Indiana?
3. What do I do when she hibernates? Do I keep misting her cage? Do I still need a heat lamp on? Do I feed her when she’s hibernating? How I’m i going to find food during winter without buying anything because I’m young and I don’t have any money?
4. Why do my froglets always die?
5. How do I come up with food for the froglets?
Note I live on a hill so their is no water puddles or lakes near by I can’t let them go
6. I love my frog so much, what do I do if I can’t take care of her babies?
7. I need to know everything to do and to prepare for hibernation
8. What does each color they change mean?
9. Do the parents of the froglets leave them? who protects them? The mom or dad? when do they leave?
10. Do adult grey tree frogs eat their own young?
Sorry if it is confusing to read this is me typing very fast.
It sounds like it has been an adventure with these new tadpoles/frogs. Importantly, if you can’t keep them (or you are unable to purchase live food for them in winter) then you should release them now in the same spot where you found them before it gets too cold. In a few weeks, it will probably be too cold to release them safely.
1. Where might my froglet be? I’m guessing he’s dead.
It could have died but also they are good at hiding. If there was no food small enough for it to eat then it probably died. Try taking the tank apart piece by piece and going through the substrate to see if you can find it. Or, try looking in the tank a half hour after the lights go out. Use a flashlight. The frogs will be active at night and easier to find.
2. What time of month do grey tree frogs go to hibernation in southern Indiana?
Once nighttime temperatures approach freezing they will start to hibernate, but if the frogs are inside in captivity in a normal house (not in the garage or something where it gets cold) then they won’t hibernate. Instead, they will stay active all year long and you will need to feed them in winter.
3. What do I do when she hibernates? Do I keep misting her cage? Do I still need a heat lamp on? Do I feed her when she’s hibernating? How I’m i going to find food during winter without buying anything because I’m young and I don’t have any money?
Try to keep the temperature warm enough to prevent it. Make sure during the day it is staying gin the high 70’s with a warm area closer to the low-mid 80’s. If it is getting this warm during the day the frog won’t hibernate. Do you have a water dish for the frog? If not or if the enclosure is too dry, the frog might be burrowing in the substrate to conserve moisture rather than actually “hibernating.”
4. Why do my froglets always die?
It sounds like a lot of things might have been going on. The first is water quality. Filtered aquariums are really what you need to keep them going long-term unless you can change the water every day. Also, the water needs to be prepped and safe for amphibians. You can add aquarium water conditioners to tap water to mix up water and keep it in a bucket or jug and that is your water that is safe for your frogs. If it is tap water it probably is not ideal. But, also if you feed a lot (especially big things like krill) that will quickly foul tadpole water and cause them to die, especially if it is not filtered in a large aquarium. My other thought is that maybe the young frogs don’t have enough food. Once their tail is gone they need lots of little live insects to eat and if there aren’t enough they will quickly die.
5. How do I come up with food for the froglets?
The only way to get enough food in winter is to buy crickets, flightless fruit flies, and other live foods from pet stores.
Note I live on a hill so their is no water puddles or lakes near by I can’t let them go
You can let them go near where you found them. If there was a frog around to breed there then it is suitable habitat. It might not seem like it but gray tree frogs often live fine around houses or in residential areas. If the two options are 1) keep the frogs but you can’t feed them and 2) let them go in habitat that is maybe not ideal but is where you found them then I would go with option #2. But, never release frogs in a different place than where you found them and never release them if they have been in captivity with other amphibians from elsewhere.
6. I love my frog so much, what do I do if I can’t take care of her babies?
See above.
7. I need to know everything to do and to prepare for hibernation
See above.
8. What does each color they change mean?
They change colors depending on temperature, light intensity, and other environmental conditions.
9. Do the parents of the froglets leave them? who protects them? The mom or dad? when do they leave?
Yes, exactly, after gray tree frogs lay eggs they leave. The mother does not stick around. This kind of frog doesn’t provide any care for the tadpoles or baby frogs.
10. Do adult grey tree frogs eat their own young?
I don’t know. If one was really hungry it might try, or if you feed the adult frog and the baby frog hops past it the adult frog might try, to but my guess is probably not.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
Tag k you so much for the quick response
I think it’s super sweet your taking care of mama and trying to take care of her babies good luck… my husband is a manger at a grocery store here in tn and one night recently after a big rain he found a lil frog jumping around the back he was afraid she was gonna get smashed bc of pallet Jack’s and what not so he put her in a water bottle and brought her home i was gonna release her but decided to keep her I researched everything I could and I made her a tank i put some big river rock in the bottle with some wet paper towels Nd and i have her a water dish (filled with bottle spring water) to jump into i also read they love peace lilies because that type retains water I also put in some wandering jew plants bc they grow in water or just about anything and they vine I got quite a few things for her to climb onto and hide in and your question about food I literally have been feeding her flies I knock them out lol and catch them and she hunts them and eats them just until I can get her some wingless fruit flies or crickets shes awesome to watch (I’m assuming it’s a she bc she has a white throat and makes no noise or calls)
Yet another question…Some of my tadpoles have not yet started morphing. and some are only just starting to grow legs. I can’t keep them over the winter, so my plan was to start acclimating them to pond water and let them go in the pond about three miles from here.
I would like to keep them as long as possible to give them a chance to grow up and hibernate. When do I need to start the process? We have another 4-6 weeks of temperate weather. Thanks
Can a plastic enclosure suffice or does it need to be glass I have recently obtained a gray tree frog and the habitat is one with a lot of moss and stuff to climb on but its in a plastic tank. Will this be ok or should I return it and get a glass one for better heating and keeping the enclosure moist.
Plastic is just fine. The size of the enclosure is what is most important. Be careful, though, if you use plastic because it will melt if it touches certain types of heating elements.
i have two copes gray tree frogs In one tank and usually they act normal and they are usually active at certain times and they just act like any normal frog but once in a while I take them out clean out their tank put new soil and put new like branches and plants and stuff like that and today I did that and I decided to put a few rollie pollies in there so they can just walk around and they can eat whenever and then I just found this centipede type looking thing and I put it in there because usually they eat stuff like that and now they’re acting really weird I don’t know if it’s because of that centipede or what And I’m scared that maybe it’s poisonous and it’s going to harm my frogs because I’ve had them for a few months now and they never acted like this right now theyre jumping around and they are really really active. i know they are supposed to be active at night but they don’t usually jump on this Much and then one of my frogs has like a bump on their throat which I know they’re supposed to do that like when they croak al but my frog doesn’t do that cause i’m pretty sure they’re females and like I don’t know what to do
I guess if the frogs tried to eat the centipede but somehow the centipede bit the frog maybe that would be a problem? I don’t know. Definitely, in the future, don’t put centipedes in with your frogs. More likely (I would guess) is that the bump is some other problem not related to the centipede. That said, it is worth taking apart their tank and removing the centipede just in case.
I need to know what to Feed My baby tree frogs they are the size of a finger tip
Any live insect that is about as long as the width of the baby frog’s head. The easiest to get ahold of is probably crickets but if the small size crickets at the pet stores in your area are too large then you can do flightless fruit flies, see https://amphibiancare.com/2005/06/28/fruit-flies/ Sometimes pet stores can special order 1/8″ crickets if the 1/4″ size ones are too big. Don’t forget to use a powdered nutritional supplement on the insects before feeding them to the frogs.
My son found a baby tree frog in a garden in Maryland. It’s about 1/2 to 3/4 inches long from nose to behind. We think that it’s a female Gray tree frog because it can climb glass and because of its appearance. Around the eyes it sometimes has a small white spot with a dark colored stripe from its nostrils all the way to the side of its belly. It also has a whitish, light colored under belly/chin and it also has some small black markings on its back, but they are not spots, they look more like small lines that go in different directions on its back. It can change color by using camouflage from almost white to an almost black color, however, it does NOT have the yellow marking on the inner side of its hind legs, so I’m not sure what type of free it is now. Do baby gray tree frogs also have the yellow marking or do they develop it later as they mature? On all points it definitely seems like a Gray tree frog, absent of the yellow marking on the inside of its hind legs, which is what has us confused as to its species. Can you help please??
If it has toepads it is probably a gray tree frog. There are also barking tree frogs in Maryland, though, so that would be the other option. I’m not sure about the yellow flash marks, they might develop as the frog matures. Many frogs complete metamorphosis with juvenile coloration that changes as they grow.
Hello Devin,
Thank you for the information. We currently (inadvertently) are raising over 500 tadpoles in our daughter’s pool in our backyard. We have been feeding them spinach leaves every night. They are now sprouting hind legs. We brought in two to an aquarium inside. One’s body shaped has changed, he has hind and front legs, and his mouth moves like a frog’s does. He still has his tail and is still swimming in the water. When do we switch from feeding him spinach to crickets and mealworms? I want to make sure I’m not starving him. I’m pretty sure they’re grey or green tree frogs judging by the calls we heard from the male daddy. Will crickets and mealworms be a sufficient diet for them? The food has to be alive, correct? These are my three year old daughter’s first pets and she’s absolutely loved watching them develop from eggs to tadpoles and she feeds them as well. I want to make sure I do everything correct. Thank you in advance for your time.
-Shaina
Once the tail is fully absorbed they will start feeding. Sometimes it takes a day or two after. Yes, the food should be alive. Go with crickets or flightless fruit flies for newly morphed tree frogs. The live food should be about as long as the width of the frog’s head or a little smaller. Use a quality amphibian nutritional supplement on food before feeding. You might also try feeding at night or just before the light goes out since they are nocturnal. Sometimes in large enclosures they can have trouble finding food when small too so count how many you put in at night and then look in the morning to see how many were eating. Good luck with them.
I just found one today. Normally I wouldn’t take a frog into my home but this one has a broken leg. Part of its leg bone is sticking out of the body. Should I do something about it or will it naturally heal and not affect it?
I would probably let it go where you found it. A predator might eat or, or it might survive, but either way I think that is best. If you are already keeping, though, that’s okay. Just make sure to let it go in the same place where you found it once it has healed and don’t put it in contact with any other amphibian pets.
Devin
I have two wild caught gray tree frogs. They seemed fine for several weeks, eating and climbing. But now they don’t seem to be eating and they are borrowed under the dirt. What is wrong with them? What should I do?
Check the temperature. Sometimes it might not feel very hot to us but the difference between 75F and 85F is a big one for a frog. If the ambient temperature in your home is in the 80’s (or hotter) this is probably why they are burrowing into the dirt. Don’t guess the temperature but instead use a thermometer and move the thermometer around the enclosure, up high near the light and down low where the frogs are spending time. Another option is that it is too dry, although usually, humidity is more of a problem in the winter. Mist down the enclosure with amphibian-safe water once a day using a spray bottle. Don’t let the substrate get waterlogged but keep it just a little moist. My guess, though, is that it is getting too hot. Good luck.
Me and my 5 year old rescued around 50 tiny tadpoles from a puddle that was drying up. We have been keeping them in a 10 gallon aquarium and feeding aquatic vegetation/algae and tadpole food. As they have grown I believe they are gray tree frogs. Back legs are just starting to form under the skin in the larger ones. Obviously we aren’t going to be keeping 50 frogs after metamorphosis. When is the proper time to release them in the wild? What type of habitat is best? Should we release all in the same place or use multiple locations?
Release them in the same place where you found them. If the puddle is now completely dry, probably the best option is to look for a more permanent water body that is near where the puddle was. The closer to where the puddle was the better. When you release them, be careful not to just dump all of them back into the water. Instead, mix water from the pond or wetland slowly into the bucket over the course of 15-30 minutes. This way, the tadpoles can acclimate to the new water and won’t be shocked if the temperature is different or if the water quality varies otherwise.
You could also wait until the tadpoles grow front arms and start to climb up the side of the aquarium, then release them one by one as they emerge from the water, again, putting the new small treefrogs back near where the puddle used to be. If the dry puddle is not in your backyard, though, it might be a lot of work to make daily trips until all tadpoles finish metamorphosis.
Most important, though, is to not release the tadpoles or frogs in a new place, and do not release them if they have been in contact with other aquatic animals from a pet store. For example, if they were in an aquarium and you bought some snails or fish to go with them, it is probably better to euthanize them all rather than release them and risk introducing either foreign pathogens or invasive species into your local environment. The same goes for if you used materials from another frog tank for the tadpoles, for example, if you put in a clump of aquatic plants from your other aquarium with dwarf water frogs. In that case, again, you probably should not release the tadpoles.
Good luck.
I rescued probably over 150 gray tree frog eggs from my pool on 5/23. When they get arms, I let them go in a wetlands park with a reliable water source about 3 miles from my house. So far I have let about 60 of them. A local naturalist advised me to let them go at this park because their native water source is my pool, which is chlorinated, and the closest foliage is my garden which is sprayed with vinegar against thistles, and another herbicide for crabgrass. I have heard tree frogs calling across the street from the wetlands park. Do you agree with this advice, or should I be letting them out at home?
Also, some of my froglets have started dying, and I want some advice, but can’t find anywhere here to start a topic.
Thanks,
Yes, that is probably okay to release them within 3 miles of where they were found. That said, you could also just let them go next to the pool. If there are frogs breeding there in the residential area, something about the place is working for them. So, you could also just let them go around your house outside in your yard/garden.
Devin
Your page is extremely helpful thank you so much for posting this. I am curious though if a gray tree frog can live with a green tree frog since they are similar but different.
Yes, that can work in a large enclosure. Keep a close eye on both to make sure one isn’t out-competing the other for food.
Thanks for the great info. I know they are nocturnal but wouldn’t it still be necessary to provide a UVB source?
Amphibians don’t always require UVB to process calcium from their diet as many reptiles do. That said, there is increasing evidence UVB can be beneficial for some kinds of frogs, especially ones like gray tree frogs that you often find asleep in open areas exposed to the sun in nature. Is UVB necessary for gray tree frogs? No. Would providing low levels in the upper part of the enclosure be beneficial? Probably, and certainly, it wouldn’t hurt as long as it is not too strong.
Thank you so much!
~Beth
Hi Devin,
I adopted 3 gray tree frogs that needed a home in 2017. Two of them died but the one that’s left is still doing well (perhaps they do better alone?). I have never fed her anything but crickets. You mention that their diet should consist MAINLY of crickets, but is it important that I switch up her diet or are crickets only okay?
Thanks!
It’s always good to vary a frog’s diet. One healthy food to try is earthworms. You can cut them into pieces if they are too big and put them in a dish at night. As long as the worm pieces are still moving treefrogs will notice them and eat. Another option is phoenix worms, or less nutrition but kind of similar in appearance, waxworms, which you can also put in a dish at night to feed. A final alternative to mix into a treefrog’s diet is flies. People usually buy them in maggot form as “spikes” (see https://www.joshsfrogs.com/blue-bottle-fly-spikes-200-count.html) and then allow them to pupate into flies in an escape-proof container. You can then keep the flies immobilized in a refrigerator for as long as a month or even more sometimes, and tap a few into the terrarium at night as you would with crickets. Really, though, if you only have one frog you might not want to order hundreds of spikes. Some people also catch moths and other small flying insects to feed to their treefrogs, but you have to be careful because there is a (small) risk they could introduce something unhealthy or even dangerous to your pet.
As long as you are coating the crickets in a high-quality vitamin and mineral supplement at most feedings (I use Repashy Calcium Plus), your frog will probably be okay. Mixing in a few other kinds of food a few times a month into the feeding rotation can only help.
Thanks Devin. I live in a dry climate so earthworms can be hard to find. Are wax worms small? I should be able to get them at Pet Smart I would think.
Yes, I think Pet Smart or another local pet shop will have wax worms. They might also have earthworms and phoenix worms. Waxworms are pretty small, maybe a half-inch long or a little less. They are the larvae of a moth. Put them in a smooth-sided dish they can’t crawl out of at night in an area of the frog’s enclosure where they will be easily noticed.
This page has been so helpful to me! I have a couple questions I haven’t found answers for in the comments… I found a small gray treefrog with only one eye outside on our deck, we have many of them every summer but I couldn’t help but worry about how this little one would fare and took him in. He seems like he’s adjusted well based on the fact that he’s eating voraciously and has grown at least 1/4 inch in 2 weeks. I’m trying to figure out if it’s male or female- it was only 1″ when I found it so probably too young to call? Could a froglet get that big in its first summer or is it likely a year old at that size? A few times during the day it has made these adorable little squeaky noises. Nothing like the mating call, more like a tiny squeaky toy and only for a few seconds and then it stops. Could this be a male practicing for when he’s older? Is that a thing? Second question, the frog was bright green when I found it and remained so for the first day, now it has changed to the mottled gray color and remains so even when sitting on green leaves. I am worrying, perhaps unnecessarily, that this means it is unhappy/stressed?
Interesting, yes, so long as the frog can locate food then I would not worry about it having only one eye. My guess is it probably completed metamorphosis last year, although if you live towards the southern end of their range it might have morphed early enough this year to put on size and grow to one inch. I don’t know about the sounds. Sometimes subadult male frogs will start calling but calls will sound a little strange until they get the hang of it, so it could be an immature male trying to call. Alternatively, some frogs have distress calls that are different from the typical advertisement call, and they emit these noises when they feel threatened, for example when handled by a human or startled all of a sudden. I don’t actually know if gray tree frogs make distress calls.
About the color, there are many reasons tree frogs change colors. Light intensity and temperature are two of the biggest reasons. Ideally, your terrarium will have a hot warm bright spot near the top somewhere and cooler darker areas down low. Your frog will probably be a lighter color towards the top under the bright light. Juveniles might also more often be green than adults (I don’t if this is actually true but a lot of the young gray tree frogs I have come across are light green) so maybe the color change has something to do with maturity too?
Enjoy keeping the frog.
So we drove 30 minutes from our house to my moms and when we got there we noticed we had a hitch hiker! He rode 70mph on the highway and didn’t budge. I wanted to bring him back to our house since that’s where he’s familiar but my 4 year olds birthday is in a few days and she desperately wants to keep it. I know it’s technically always best to leave an animal in the wild but just wanted someone else’s opinion? Do you think we would really be hurting it if we kept it? We are a very big animal loving family so he would have everything he needed but just don’t want him to be sad that he’s in captivity.
Wow, you had a hidden hitchhiker! Yes, I think in this situation it is okay to keep the tree frog as a pet. I guess one consideration is they can live a long time in captivity so make sure you are okay to commit to the 5-10+ years in your care (or to find someone else who will keep it if you no longer want it as a pet later on). Enjoy your new tree frog,
Devin
Hello! I am seeking some advice, any would be greatly appreciated! I am in a similar situation to several of the other comments I have read through. My mother works in a florist shop and during the middle of winter she found an adult female gray tree frog in their plant shipments. We decided to hold onto her with the goal to release her once it became warm. We were able to provide an appropriate habitat and diet, and she is doing well. Now that there is a lot of frog and insect activity here in the Saint Louis County area of Missouri, I would like to transition her to be released. In the area there are plenty of fresh water resources and secluded wooded areas, and lately it has been very warm and humid with heavier showers to come in the next few days. My question is, what is the ideal way to release her? Is it as simple as putting her out at night or are there any specifics I should be concerned about? Thank you!
Great question. Where did the plant shipment come from? If it was not from some nearby local flower farm, the best thing to do is to actually continue keeping the tree frog in captivity yourself or find a home for it with someone else who will keep it permanently. The problem is not that your gray tree frog will have trouble adjusting, I think it would do just fine if you let it go, but that it might introduce something foreign to your local amphibians. Amphibian populations are declining and some kinds are even going extinct, and one of the main causes of the problem is introduced diseases (for example, the amphibian chytrid fungus). So, maybe the population of frogs at the plant nursery where the order came from has some sort of foreign pathogen your local frogs have not been exposed to and releasing the frog from your care could introduce that new disease. Another reason I recommend keeping it is the risk of invasive species, another big problem that releasing a frog from a plant shipment could cause. For example, what if the plant shipment was from Florida and it is actually not a gray tree frog but a Cuban tree frog, a species that can cause big problems for native wildlife when introduced (though it wouldn’t tolerate St. Louis winters, so maybe not a good example, but still…) The risk of both introducing a foreign pathogen to your native wildlife or an invasive species is small, but on principle, I always recommend that if you end up with a frog in your care and you don’t know where it came from, or that place is far away, or if it has been in captivity with other frogs from other places, then it is best to keep that frog permanently. I hope this helps.
Hi there, I see you don’t have an article for green tree frogs, and when I type that into the search bar it just takes me to this page.
I live in Toronto Canada and my mom is a florist. In January, she found a teeny tiny frog in a shipment of greens/leaves. I went to the local aquarium/reptile store and when showed them a blurry photo, they said she is most likely a green tree frog. That shipment did come in from Florida so it makes sense.
Flash forward to now, we, knowing nothing about frogs or reptiles, have kept her/him alive and she has made much progress. A few times we thought she was going to die (we didn’t know how to keep her warm, how moist to keep her vase, etc), and, one time she escaped when the elastic holding her mesh snapped and she followed her flightless fruit flies out. I didn’t think we would find her, since she’s small, our home is carpeted, etc…
Anyway, we’ve been feeding her crickets and flightless fruit flies only.
We’ve upgraded her vase/glass tank three times, with the one she has now being the tallest. It’s not very wide, but tall. She’s always had fresh leaves, some moss, woody curvy dead vine and sticks, a small spice lid with water, and a fake moss “carpet”. This fake moss is attached to a plastic netting and is quite thin. Luckily because my mom’s a florist we have access to all of these things that are perfect for the frog. Just unsure about the moss, as, it doesn’t air out and often gets soaked (from her splashing her water out of her lid, or soaking from our spray bottle mists – we don’t do it TOO often, it’s simply that the carpet does not air out as it is stuck to the bottom of the glass.)
We’ve switched it out before, putting a fresh carpet in.
The on she has now she hasn’t had for long, but, we are maybe spraying her a little more often as there has been a heat wave + it is summer.
Starting two days ago, my mom commented that she seems to be more jumpy than usual, as in, spending more time and scanning the glass walls in a frantic sort of way.
Tonight, after feeding the fruit flies (we have a culture container of them), I noticed she hadn’t eaten many, and this frantic crawling of the walls was her trying to find a way out. She was coming up to the top and trying to get out, She would nudge the mesh covering either with her hand or nose, then dart around to another spot, always crawling to the top. Frantically. She has never ever done anything like this before.
I took a good look at the carpet and noticed that, at the places where the edges curled up a bit, there was a bit of what I assumed to be mold.
With my mom’s help, and after lots of time, we got her and the leaves and the flies out of that vase, and into her old smaller one. This took a long time because she will NOT be handled, and is a PAIN to catch/it’s impossible to catch her. Anyway, the old carpet is not in with her right now, and any twigs that were resting on the ground I looked over, and cut the bottom few inches off as they too were wet and slightly moldy.
I have NO IDEA if this is why she wanted out.
I can’t think of anything else nor do I think I will necessarily know the reason, as it’s a frog not a dog for example.
I’ve checked on her multiple times tonight, two of the three times she was resting her bum in her water lid as she likes to do, but the other time she was, once again, darting around the glass walls and nudging at the top.
It’s making my heart hurt to be honest, as I thought we were doing such a great job at keeping this little life alive, and, I have no idea why all of a sudden, she is doing this.
The only other change is starting in the last few days we have put the air conditioning on a few times. Each time only for about 30 mins – 2 hours at a time. Maybe once a day.
But not really ever in the night so this trying to escape her enclosure nighttime behaviour doesn’t really make sense with that.
Do you have ANY idea what’s going on?
Thanks so much.
It sounds like maybe the tree frog is in too small of an enclosure. If it is a juvenile and only a half-long or so, a small glass container like a large vase might work for a few weeks until it starts to grow, but for long-term care, I would upgrade to something larger. You can keep an adult in something like a standard 10- or 20-gallon aquarium, or one of those front-opening terrariums they sell at pet stores that is 12″ long x 12″ wide x 18″ high (bigger is even better). For the substrate, try wetted moist sphagnum moss patted down into a sponge-like substrate. You could also go with moist paper towels, but they will need to be changed every couple of days. The moss you have now might work too, but it sounds like it will need to be cleaned often. The most important part of their environment, though, is temperature. Make sure it doesn’t get too hot (above 85F or so) or that if it does get hot there is a cooler area for the frog to retreat to inside the tank. Also, remember to use amphibian-safe water, so not straight tap water if there is chlorine or chloramines added by your municipality. Instead, treat chlorinated water with an aquarium water condition to make it safe for amphibians. Good luck.
Thank you so much for getting back to me – I know that was a LONG inquiry!!
By the way she (probably he to be honest) is an AMERICAN green tree frog (I now know there are others).
I went to the aquarium store the other day to see about the coconut husk substrate for the bottom of her vase. I brought some home – it’s mixed with soil – and I’m thinking it would just be too messy for the frog. The front of the bag also shows burrowing insects and wings, which makes sense, but our frog sometimes gets moss stuck to her and dislikes it, so I will probably return the bag, and, just keep using the fake moss attached to the plastic grid carpet thing. But as you said, be more vigilant with swapping them, to let them dry out,
I told the person working the reptile section about my escapee situation. They said that their best guess, is actually that the frog’s hormones have taken over! He is trying to escape because of his intense urge to mate!
The vase is 13 inches tall. Froggie is 1.5 inches from butt to nose.
front of the bag shows burying insects and critters***
Hello!
I live in NYC, about an 8 minute walk to both central and riverside parks. This evening I found what I believe to be a grey tree frog on my front stoop. I felt pretty terrified for the sweet little thing, which is maybe an inch long. Right now I have him (her) in a container with air and leaves and water and sticks and a hiding place. I plan to get some small crickets in the morning. Should I just release him into the wild? Do they live in NYC, Central Park? I’m happy to keep him and take care of him if that is best for him, or set him free by the local pond in Central Park if that is best. He’s just adorable. Please let me know how to help him. Thank you so much!
Warmly,
Lisa
Yes, they are native to New York and I guess they are even found in the city (as you observed). I think the best thing to do is to release it where you found it. They are pretty adaptable and as long as there is some water source nearby they are often found on the sides of houses/in residential areas. If for some reason there is no source of water (pond, drainage area, creek) near your house then maybe move it near the closest one in the park since it is only a short walk away. It’s nice when nature shows up on your front stoop!
Devin
Yes it was a very nice doorstep surprise! Thank you so much for your time.
Hello we recently purchased a lily and a cops gray tree frog was on it when we got home. We live in northeastern Pennsylvania and he has been hanging out around our goldfish pond for the last week seeming to do perfectly fine has his own hiding spot during the day which we check in on him regularly. We know he’s a he because he’s very vocal during the day and in the evening!
Our concern is probably overblown but we are wondering if it would be better for us to leave him outside to the elements which can get extremely cold in northeastern Pennsylvania or if we should start planning on bringing him in to a nice terrarium in the early fall. Your advice seems pretty solid so any advice would be appreciated.
That must have been a surprise. Since they are native to your area and it probably hitchhiked in from the garden center to your yard, I think it is okay to just leave it outside. If instead, you were in California or something where they are not native then I would suggest keeping it. Gray tree frogs tolerate cold very well and hibernate in winter. On the other hand, since it kind of accidentally showed up, you could keep it in a terrarium if you want a pet frog. They are not difficult to keep but can live a long time so it would be a commitment. Enjoy your new neighbor,
Devin
My gray tree frog seems to have something wrong with her eye. It looks a little more bulged than the other one. Also it seems to have a little color in it while the other is black. I asked a vet about it they recommended flushing it with saline. I’m not sure about that. She seems normal other than that eye but I haven’t been able to tell if the eye is blind or not. She eats like normal and seems to behave normal. Thank you for your time.
I’m not a vet so I don’t think I can advise. One thing, though, is to check environmental conditions. Often health issues are related to some underlying problem with husbandry, especially environment, so make sure it isn’t too hot/too cold, water is clean, the substrate is not dirty, etc. Eye problems are not uncommon with tree frogs. If the frog is behaving normally it might be able to handle it on its own. Good luck,
Devin
Yesterday I found a gray tree frog next to my garage and put it in a small terrarium with gravel/pebbles on the bottom, a larger rock and some sticks for climbing, a water dish and some live moss. I don’t know how to tell the age of it but from what I’ve read and it’s size I think It’s a juvenile. Today I fed it two small crickets and not too long after the feeding it pooped out what looked like a whole cricket. Is this normal? If not, what could cause it? Also, is there anything I’ve done wrong with the tank setup or anything I should change? What size tank should I keep it in? What should I be feeding it and how often?Also, is there a way to determine the gender? I’ve never owned a frog before so any tips are appreciated.
The frog might have pooped what it had eaten earlier before being captured, but also frog poop generally won’t be like individual turds for each cricket the frog eats, so if it eats five crickets you might only notice one poop.
For the enclosure, it sounds okay but instead of gravel/pebbles, you should change to a different substrate. The problem with gravel is that 1) it doesn’t hold moisture and 2) it can accidentally be ingested when tree frogs feed, causing blockages, prolapses, or even death. For a substrate, the easiest is to use moist paper towels and change them every couple of days. Alternatively, you could use moist sphagnum moss that is padded down into a soft absorbent substrate that feels kind of like a moist sponge. If you go with sphagnum moss you might not need to change it more than once every month or two as long as it smells fresh and doesn’t become waterlogged. Remember to use amphibian-safe water (not just straight tap water, treat it with a water conditioner first).
A recently metamorphosed tree frogs or juvenile that is a half-inch or inch long can be kept in an aquarium as small as a 5-gallon tank (use a screen cover though, not glass). As it grows, you can move it up to a 10-20 gallon aquarium or one of those front-opening terrariums of a similar size. If you read the article on this page you can learn how often to feed it and the best way to set up the tank.
Male frogs call, female frogs do not. But juveniles won’t call so you will have to wait until it is adult, probably next year this time.
Enjoy the new frog,
Devin
Hi! So I have two questions…
One, I’m wondering if it is normal for a grey free frog to shed its skin. I was looking in my frogs’s tank today and noticed something on one my frog’s leg. I thought it was a piece of grass stuck on her leg, but when I touched it, I realized it was her skin, peeling. Is this normal/okay? Or am I doing something wrong.
Second, I have two frogs. One who I’ve had for about 9-10 months now, and one I’ve only had for a month/a few weeks. They get along fine, I am just unsure of my new frog’s gender. The one I’ve had for a while is definitely a male, and I know because he chirps sometimes. The other frog never chirps yet is smaller that my male frog. I have assumed it’s a she and that she’s just younger than the male, there for smaller. But, I want to confirm that that’s actually true.
Frogs shed their skin but they eat it as it comes off so usually you don’t get to observe the process. Sometimes it looks like a frog is yawning when they are shedding because their mouth opens and closes as they pull the skin off and ingest it. However, bits and pieces of skin don’t always come off all the way and I think this is what you are seeing. Trouble shedding can be a sign of a health problem, for example, amphibians suffering from chytridiomycosis caused but the chytrid fungus may have difficulty shedding their skin. They also often spend more time than usual soaking in their water dish. But it also isn’t unusual for healthy amphibians to occasionally have a bit of shed leftover on them that didn’t come off all the way.
About the sex of your second frog, it might not be possible to know if it is male or female until it is full-grown. By this time next year, if it is a male you will probably hear calling. If you haven’t heard two frogs calling then it might be a female. I’m not sure if there is a size difference between male and female gray tree frogs, but in many kinds of tree frogs, females are larger than males. But, of course, there won’t be a size difference until it is full-grown (and also I don’t remember if there is a size difference between sexes in gray tree frogs).
Thank you so very much! Very helpful response!
We have a small gray tree frog that landed on the deck at our house. It has been here for 3 days now and is not moving much. The deck is in full sun during the day, so I placed a small shelter next to it and it moves back and forth between sun and shade. It doesn’t seem to be eating anything as there are no crickets or worms around. Should we try to feed the frog? and with what? Or will it find its way back to its normal environment?
Gray tree frogs are nocturnal and during the day they sit in one spot, not moving. They often return to the same spot day after day even though they move around and hunt at night. Try checking the spot where the frog usually is with a flashlight an hour after sunset. My guess is the frog will be gone or at least active, awake, and waiting for an insect to come by. There is no need to feed the frog. If you want, you could put a small light in the area that stays on at night say 5-10 ft or more away from where the frog is spending its days. The light will attract insects that the frog will eat. Enjoy your new neighbor.
Devin
Thank you so much for your reply. We are delighted to have a new neighbour!!
Hi…I live in upstate NY, and this morning I found a grey tree frog with a large egg mass still stuck to her….she is on a ledge which was cool and in the rain this morning, but now the sun is out and the spot where she is can get very very hot. There is a pond about 40 feet away, but not near this egg mass…..do you think I should move her and the eggs to a place closer to the water….I’m afraid the eggs will cook in the sun.
Hi Laurie, that is an interesting situation. Gray tree frogs lay their eggs in the water and they look like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/sPeYzXPpASv3Wdvv5 When eggs are first laid they will be smaller and more whitish than black. Do you think it is possible the thing that is stuck to the frog is actually something other than eggs? The good news is that the eggs won’t be fertile if the female was on its own so there won’t be any loss, if they are in fact eggs, because males fertilize the eggs as they are coming out, not internally before they are laid. So, if there was only one frog and not two frogs in amplexus (the word for the mating embrace in amphibians) then the eggs wouldn’t have been fertile anyway. I wonder if maybe the night before the female starting laying but then the pair got disturbed by a predator or something and the female escaped to your property nearby though she was already in the process of laying when interrupted? Something like that would make sense, but really, it is a strange situation and in that case the eggs aren’t fertile so there isn’t much to do.
Devin
I have an Eastern gray tree frog living on a window sill for the last 2 days that I know of. The window sill gets some direct sunlight. Today it was about 90 °F. It looked miserable, sweating, and instead of resting like a rock, it was trying to stand braced against the brick wall. I poured water on the bricks to cool them down, and put some shade over him. She went back to looking like a rock. I don’t know if it was because I cooled down the bricks or if she is scared of the shade which is flapping in the breeze. Should I move her to the nearby pine trees, the ground under the shrubs, over to the pond, or leave her alone? She is on the window ledge under my door light so I assume she is catching bugs at night and leaving me pile of poop.
Great observation. The best thing to do is to leave the tree frog alone. Frogs know what conditions they need. There might be many reasons that particular spot near the window is the best place for the frog to be. It might even be choosing the sunny spot because of the direct sun that hits it during a certain time of day. Some frogs have even been shown to use hot sunny basking sites to help them fight off diseases like chytrid which can’t tolerate hot temperatures. As long as the frog is able to move to other places and isn’t physically trapped, the best thing to do is just to watch it. Even pouring water on it or adding shade might not be a good idea even though it looks like it is really hot. Instead, trust the frog to know the best place for it to be and enjoy watching it out the window.
Devin
Hi there, I have a grey tree frog that I have raised from a tadpole. I have had her for about a year now. She eats well, I actually feed her crickets by hand. Whe she sees me open the tank lid she gets in position to eat. My question is, I recently bought her a new tank, and she has gotten to where she gets down in the substrate and gets dirty. Will that hurt her or do I need to clean her off. Thanks
It probably won’t be an issue. Soil-type substrates like coco fiber or commercial amphibian substrates at pet stores often stick to frogs at first. It is not ideal but probably won’t cause any serious harm as long as the substrate isn’t sticking because it is dry. To see if it is moist enough, take a handful and squeeze it. If it holds its form, it is wet enough but if water drips out like a sponge the substrate is too wet. If the coco fiber/soil type substrate doesn’t hold its form after being squeezed it might be sticking because it is too dry. One way to help prevent new substrates from sticking to frogs in the future is to wet the substrate in a bucket for a day or two first to let it fully absorb water. For tree frogs and many other kinds of amphibians, it also often helps to put down some leaf litter on top of it. The other option is going with a simple substrate like moist paper towels or moist foam rubber that you replace or rinse every few days. These types of simple substrates won’t stick to amphibians.
Hello!
So we have a tiny, I’m guessing juvenile, grey tree frog. Hes in a 10 gallon tank with a bunch of live plants, things to climb on and hide in. We fed him crickets but I dont know that he ate any, so we switched up to mealworms, and I dont think hes eating those either. Hes not very active, much of the time just sitting in a plant. Is he okay? And am I feeding him the right stuff?
Thanks!
Yes, crickets should work for gray tree frogs. Make sure the crickets are the right size. They should be about as long as the width of the frog’s head. If they are too large the juvenile tree frog might not be able to eat them, or on the other hand, if it was an adult frog and you were feeding very tiny crickets the frog might not notice. The other thing to consider is that gray tree frogs are nocturnal, so they often won’t feed during the day when people are watching, at least not until they get used to it. So, the best way to figure out if the frog is actually eating is to either 1) count how many crickets you put in and see if that many are still crawling around in the morning, or if that doesn’t seem to be working because the crickets are hard to find in the morning then, 2) try container feeding where you put some crickets in a tall smooth-sided cup that they can’t crawl out of and then check and see how many are left in there the next day. Either way, the idea is to count how many go in and see how many are leftover after night when the frog is active. Mealworms are an okay food to use infrequently but don’t feed them often because they are not healthy. If you can find waxworms or even small regular old earthworms cut into smaller pieces (but still moving around so the frog notices them), those are better than mealworms.
Thank you so much, Devin! I hadn’t considered the fact that the frogs are nocturnal. Every morning when I check on him he is at the same place in his plant; perhaps he is happy but just has this spot picked out? I also didn’t realize mealworms weren’t healthy. They also just burrow into the substrate. I’ll specifically get some small crickets and see if he eats those as I don’t see cricket bodies from the last feed.
I have find three Gray Tree Frog inside my apartment.is there anything I can do so they will stop coming in my apartment.
That is an interesting problem. Do you know how they came in? Do you have potted plants you put outside but then bring in when weather is bad? Or, maybe an unscreened window you keep open at night? The tree frogs are nocturnal so they probably came in at night somehow unless they hitched a ride in on something you brought in from outside. Sometimes frogs and toads learn to hang around lights that are on at night because the lights attract insects (which they eat). Think about how they are coming into your house and then try to change that.
Good luck,
Devin
Last summer I rescued more than fifty tadpoles getting cooked in a puddle on my pool cover. Miraculously in the time it took to get a tank set up for these impromptu pets, only two had died. They all grew legs so slowly, and then we went on vacation for a weekend and when we came back there were frogs EVERYWHERE. We saved most of them, I can only assume the rest were eaten by the cat. We released them into the wild immediately, all except two. It’s illegal in my state to have more than five frogs of the same native species, and we figured they’d be better off outdoors anyways now that we’d raised them up. The two I have now are doing decently, one eats like it’s never eaten before and sometimes sings me songs, the other hardly ever takes food and seems to have no depth perception. I feel bad for him, maybe his brain got fried on the pool cover. I hope he pulls through.
Hello Devin! Your dedication inspires me! I work at a UPS hub by a river and marsh in N. Illinois where grey tree frogs do occur. However he was found amongst packages from multiple states so he could have hitched a ride in a truck as well. It was 20-30 degrees in the hub and he was active and hard to catch. I’ve had him for a few weeks and he’s thriving. Given his unknown origins and the fact that I keep dwarf African frogs I’ve decided to keep him. Can I get him a tank mate? Is he OK alone? Greys are available online. On that note what are your thoughts on shipping amphibians?
Keeping it on its own is probably best. They will do just fine without any other tank mates. The gray tree frogs for sale online are all wild-caught. I feel like collecting one yourself from a local population at the marsh (assuming it is legal to do so and they are not a threatened species in your state, I think in Illinois you at least need a fishing license) is probably better in this situation than buying one from an animal dealer. Even better, if you could net some tadpoles out of the water this spring and raise them up it almost certainly wouldn’t have any real impact. That said, there are no real problems shipping amphibians, at least to the individual frogs being sent, as long as the seller does it correctly. Working at UPS, you might even come across boxes of live reptiles or amphibians sometimes. Enjoy the new frog,
Devin
Hi All, our family has had Hardy (grey tree frog) since he was a tadpole. We have had him for 4 years. He enjoys crickets! I haven’t ever had much luck with him eating worms. If I could upload photos I would
Hello!
My workplace found a gray tree frog living on a potted plant in late October. I read a lot of comments here and saw that we shouldn’t release him if the temps were below freezing at night, which they definitely were here in Wisconsin, so I took him home. I feed him crickets in a separate container from his tank every few days (to track how much he is eating) and he seems to be doing well as he calls all of the time! As much as I enjoy having him around, I was hoping to release him in the spring. I noticed that you don’t recommend releasing frogs if there are other aquatic species in the home, but does that apply to reptiles as well? I have three different species of snakes in my house and no other amphibians or aquatic animals.
Thank you!
Hi Laina,
It is probably okay to release the frog in the spring but use your own judgment. What you don’t want to do is accidentally release some foreign disease or something along with it (which has happened when people released pet amphibians previously, harming wild populations), so for example, if you put the frog in a terrarium with some newts you bought at the pet store (not recommended), I would say keep the frog permanently. Or, if you have a large collection of amphibians at home and there are many different species coming and going often, even if the frog is in its own enclosure there might be a risk. Or, if you caught the frog in some other state or part of the country while you were on a vacation, then definitely don’t release it. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about with your reptiles, though, so I think you are good to go in spring once it starts to warm up. Good question.
Devin
Devon- We found Fred chirping one day late October in the soil of a Christmas cactus that had been brought inside late September. We’ve done nothing other than water the plant every 4-5 days, for which he chirps his thanks every now and again. Temps in the house are 60-70 degrees. He has stayed hidden until tonight when he crawled out near the top of the pot. He looks healthy, moist and bright eyed. We dangled a small piece of cooked chicken in front of him. He showed interest but did not bite. We do not live anyplace close to a pet store and mail order may take up to 2 weeks. We don’t have any spiders or other live insects around, though there was a ladybug around the other day (it wandered off and hasn’t been seen since). We are often snowbound. What do you suggest we try feeding him? Or does he need to be fed?
My guess is that if there has been enough food around the house to sustain the frog since September there might be enough to keep it going until the weather warms up. Once temperatures are above freezing at night you can let it go outside. The only other supplemental food source I can think of that you might have available would be earthworms sold for bait? Maybe not this time of year. Otherwise, I think the frog will need to rely on whatever bugs are already living in your house. If the food is not alive or at least moving and looks alive the frog probably won’t attempt to eat it. Good luck,
Devin
I just found an eastern gray tree frog on my bathroom floor after having hopped out of my fern which had spent the summer outside. Not sure what to do with him now. I have about four days of 50° daytime temps and 40° nighttime temps coming up, but this guy has been inside since late October and I’m not sure he can transition back outside in those temperatures.
That must have been a surprise! You can let the frog go outside when temps are in the 40-50’s. Try to find an area near where the fern was. As long as the temperature isn’t below freezing at night and there are a few days of warmer weather I think the tree frog will probably be okay.
Devin
Then Christmas Day I will release him back outside and say a prayer for him!
I discovered a tadpole in a bucket of rain water late this summer and it was still there October 31st when our temps were going to go below freezing. I was afraid he would
freeze to death, so I went to town and bought a 10 gallon tank, heater to put in the water, heating lamp, water filter, a small castle to hide in and tadpole food. A few weeks later he
started to grow back legs and then front legs and his tail went clear. I checked on him one
morning and he was the same, still swimming with a tail, then 3 hours later he was a little green frog climbing the inside of the tank minus a tail!! It was so AWESOME to watch him change from a tadpole to a frog!! He’s still in the 10 gallon tank but it now has branches to climb (bought from a pet supply), plants to climb and hide under, a shallow bowl of water, day and night heat lamp and crickets to catch and eat. He’s eating 1/8 crickets right now and loves them. The heat of the tank is 70 to 75 degrees. I thought he was a green tree frog but he turned grey today, so I guess I really have a Grey Tree Frog that’s not even as big as a dime and he’s bigger than he was a week ago. I had planned to set him free in the spring but do you think he would survive after being raised since he was a tadpole? This is my first frog and I’m having a blast taking care of him!!!!!!!!!
It is pretty fun to watch tadpoles turn into frogs and I am glad you had the opportunity with the tadpole you saved. Usually, once an amphibian is in captivity it is better to keep it permanently. However, if you don’t have any other aquatic pets at home, this frog is the only one and it has been kept alone, then it probably should safe to release it in the spring once night temps are above freezing. Release it in the same place where you found it.
Devin
A gray tree frog that comes and goes in my house in summers has gotten caught inside when the temps went down rapidly. He has been living around the sink area, and I have kept him fed by pressing cider regularly over last month, leaving a bowlful of press on the counters to maintain a population of fruit flies. I doubt there will be a warming period ahead that would let me reintroduce him outside so that he could settle in for an outdoors hibernation. Your suggestions please? He seems to hibernate inside now for periods of time – I find him in the sink about every seven to ten days, otherwise he stays under an elevated dish drainer that gives him complete protected privacy. I have given over the corner of the counter (2.25 x 4 ft area) to a collection of plants and a water dish. I can provide turf in the form of coconut fibers if advised. I heat with a woodstove, so my house temps are generally between 40 – 52 degrees, but the walls and the countertop he seems to favor would be cooler at times. Should I let it remain so, and hope he hibernates, or should I provide a lamp? Can you describe to me what conditions are needed to return him outside safely.
I guess so long as you don’t mind having the frog around inside the house on the plants, I would just see what happens. At cool temperatures, the frog won’t hibernate but its metabolism will slow and it probably won’t be very active or need too much food. If you provide a warm spot near the plants with a lamp during the day you could see if the frog uses it or spends time in the warmer area. If it isn’t using the warm spot under the lamp, you probably don’t need to provide it. I don’t think you need to have a substrate or anything like that, just a dish of amphibian-safe water and the plants on the table. If all goes well the tree frog will make it through the winter inside. Once temperatures at night are regularly above freezing you can let it out again. Enjoy having the frog around.
Devin
Thank you for all your information Devon. Especially mentioning the water quality issue – rainwater or snow melt okay? Everything out of the tap is atrocious here, regardless of filtering. Would small crickets from the pet store interest him? Any other food you’d recommend to cover all the bases? As you mentioned, he doesn’t move or eat much, but I won’t be able to track his eating, and thought I would foster a few different populations so he can hunt on his own if he is inclined to.
I just read that this guy hibernates in hollow logs or heavy leaf litter? (not mud as I assumed at first). There is a very large hackberry just outside the window entrance he uses, with a lot of hollow knot holes at the junctions of its gnarly branches. Possible that he would pick a tree like that for a dwelling?
Yes, in many places rainwater is just fine for amphibians. Often tap water treated with a water conditioner for aquariums is best, but you’re right, it depends on your local water quality. Some people also reconstitute distilled or reverse osmosis water by adding an aquarium product like Kent RO plus or something, but in your situation, a little bowl of the water the frog would be exposed to outside is probably the easiest thing to do, especially since the frog came in from out there.
You could put small crickets in a plastic cup near the houseplants (if the cup is tall and smooth on the sides the crickets probably won’t escape but the frog could likely get in and eat them). The frog might not eat very much if it is cooler in the room this time of year.
Yes, I’m not sure exactly where they hibernate but in deep leaf piles/under logs or other forest debri sounds about right. Once it warms up outside you can let the frog back. Enjoy having it around in the meantime,
Devin
I just discovered a g\gray tree frog in one of my houseplants that summered outdoors. Our temperatures in SW Michigan are fluctuating. It’s been warmish (in the 40s-50s by day, upper 30s -40s by night), but I thought it might be dicey to put the frog outside. I’ve got it in a 10 gallon tank with some live plants and a substrate I bought from a pet store, along with crickets and a 40-watt heat lamp. Our house stays at about 64 degrees. Do I need to keep that lamp on around the clock? Should I turn it off during the day when it’s less active?
If the plant was recently outside the last couple days and the frog was on it, I think it is safe to put the frog back outside even though it is getting cold. You can trust the frog to know where and when to hibernate. Try to find a night this week with temperatures staying above freezing to release it, and in an area near where the plant was.
If you want to keep the frog, it sounds like you have a good setup already. Keep the light on for around 10 hours a day. Measure the temperature in the enclosure with a thermometer to make sure it is not too hot or too cold. The warmest area under the light can reach the mid-80’s and should at least stay in the upper 70’s through winter to make sure the frog remains active.
Good luck,
Devin
Thank you for the information! The plant has been indoors for about 5 or 6 weeks, so I’m guessing the frog has acclimated to our indoor temperatures. The heat lamp keeps part of the enclosure at 72 degrees. I assume the cooler hours, when I turn it off, will be at night, which means the enclosure’s temperature will eventually drop to 64 degrees — is that OK? I don’t care if it’s active (for my entertainment) — I just want to keep it alive and healthy until spring when I can safely release it. It’s mostly staying hidden, even at night.
In June, I noticed five little gray tree frogs in a planter on my deck. Over the summer, most disappeared and now there is only one left. It always leaves at night and returns in the morning. It is getting colder and the habitat around my house isn’t suitable for it to hibernate. Last night and tonight, it didn’t leave the pot. I am wondering if it is not finding bugs since it is getting colder. I’ve decided that for the next few nights, I will place the frog in a plastic bin (with holes in the lid) with substrate, leaves, small branches and tiny crickets. Then, during the day, I will put it back into the planter. This weekend (after a few hearty meals), I want to relocate it in the hope it will find a place to hibernate. There is a nearby wooded area by a river (a few blocks away). I no longer hear tree frogs making noise in the woods. I am wondering if they are already hibernating. I am hoping to give the frog a fighting chance. Where in the woods should I relocate it? Meaning, I am unsure how close it should be to the river. Is a marshy area better? Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
Gray tree frogs are pretty special frogs. They can partially freeze, thaw out afterward, and be fine. Most frogs don’t have this ability. It is understandable that it seems kind of strange to see a frog outside while it is getting colder, but you can trust the animal to know when it needs to hibernate. In fact, moving it inside or keeping it in a warmer area might actually throw its normal hibernation rhythm off or bring its metabolism up to higher levels which deplete the energy reserves it will rely on to survive while hibernating. I suggest leaving the frog where it is outside to let it do its thing even though the other four have moved on. Moving it a couple of blocks away probably won’t hurt, but it might also have a spot around your house where it overwinters too which you are not aware of. If you do move it, make sure the temperature at night is not approaching freezing (the warmer the night the better).
Devin
Thank you. I think they were all born in the spring as they were pretty tiny in June. It was interesting to see how a couple of them were in the planter from time to time. The remaining one has been in the planter consistently throughout the summer. Since we’re in a townhouse, there really doesn’t seem like there is anywhere for it to go (no logs, leaves or a porch to crawl under). I recall reading about the chemical in their body that makes them resilient in the winter. I’m sure nature will take its course. I’ve just gotten fond of it and hope it survives. Thank you Devin!!
Hi, My principal recently brought me one of these little gray tree frogs that a group of students found partially frozen in a recent snow storm. the previous day had been in the 60’s. It has one completely blacked out eye and I’m worried it can’t see from it. at this point, it is staying very cold. Should I keep it and care for it? I’ve given it some crickets and a meal worm. Thanks!
There are three things you could do in this situation. The first and probably the best option is to get in touch with a local wildlife rehabilitation center. You could bring the frog to them and they can decide if it is okay to release. It sounds like the frog might be injured and if you take it to a wildlife center they might have a vet who can look at it. The second option would be to release it yourself. If the days are still above freezing in the 40’s or 50’s, I think you can safely release the frog and it still will have a good shot at finding a good place to hibernate. On the other hand, if the days are below freezing, then you might want to do the third option and keep it over the winter if you don’t have a good place nearby to take injured wildlife. Good luck,
Devin
Hello!
I found a E. Gray Tree Frog on a door while out on a delivery and with it nearing freeze temperature, i ended up rescuing the creature. She soaked up all the water in the dish that i got for her and has been exploring (i think?) the tank for a few days. I believe she’s eaten 1-3 of the crickets i’ve put in the tank, but they may be too small/she may still be adjusting.
She’s probably close to 1.5″ and i did get the smallest crickets, but her head seems to be twice the size of the crickets i got, so i’m not sure she’s finding them. And while she’s active at night, she mostly spends it splashing the water out of her dish and trying to climb out of the enclosure.
I guess i’m most curious if this is normal, how long it is normal for, and the proper size of the crickets. She’s my first frog and I want her to be as happy as possible.
Hi Kaedan,
Yes, it sounds like normal tree frog behavior. If you are concerned the frog might not be finding the crickets at night, you can try putting the crickets into a smooth-sided cup in the enclosure. As long as the crickets can’t climb out of the cup, you should be able to easily count how many you put in there before night and how many remain in the morning. Your tree frog should be able to climb in and eat the crickets if it is hungry. Sometimes frogs can knock over feeding stations, though, so you might need to either submerge it in the substrate a little or zip tie it to a branch or other cage item. Using a feeding station will allow you to better monitor how much your frog is eating.
Devin
Thank you! I just got a lamp with day/night bulbs and a small dish for some mealworms- it seems like two of the crickets are gone from what i did put in there when i was getting that set up, so it does seem like she’s eating- i found no dead ones and as soon as i put the lamp in, she settled down to take a nap!
i found a grey tree frog about 2 months ago sitting on a church step. walked up to it and noticed it only has one eye and had to stay close to the wall when it walked around or hopped. so i brought it home and at first he wouldnt eat nothing he would just hide and stay hidden but now since he has accepted the fact that he is being taken care of he is loving his new home. he no longer stays near a wall when he explores around the cage and he loves the attention he gets from his new family. he loves to sit on shoulders and just chill. hes my new chill buddy
it’s wonderful you rescued the little guy! I would suggest wearing gloves when you”re handling him, frog”s skin is very sensitive and can absorb any toxins etc that you may have on your hands.
We just found a grey frog in our basement. He was super skinny & barely moving. We put him in a 20 gallon tank with a little water dish thing & he got in it. A few hours later I checked on him & he looks like a totally different frog…not skin & bones looking…he is now looking like I would expect…actually a little plump & is climbing up the side of the glass. Is it possible he was just dehydrated? We were going to keep him and try to nurse him back to health and release him in the spring but I am wondering if we could let him outside now? We live in Michigan so the cold is coming, the temperature really fluctuates but nighttime temps are in the 40s now with the daytime temps ranging in the 50s and 60s. What do you think? Should we go ahead put him outside now or wait until spring? I’m pretty sure he’s been in our basement since summer because I saw a frog over the summer but when I tried to catch him he went under the stairs and I could never find him until my son found this one today. ( there were probably plenty of spiders, etc. down there for him to eat but not any water per se so not sure how he got water) I did get some crickets & meal worms but he hasn’t eaten them yet (but we haven’t even had him for a full day yet.) Thanks for your opinion…just wanting to do what’s best for the little fella 🙂
Yes, it sounds like the little guy was probably just dehydrated. I have seen some pretty ill-looking frogs which escaped and were out of their enclosure come back to life after a soak. If the night temperature is still above freezing, it is best to put the frog back outside. If there is a small pool or creek near your house or backyard this is probably where it should go. On the other hand, if you think it came in on a potted plant purchased at a store or some other way and the frog is not from your area, it is probably best you keep it. Good luck,
Devin
I recently found a grey tree frog and have decided to keep it. I’ve done a bunch of research on how to care for it. He’s pretty small, I would say about the size of a nickel. I can’t find any crickets that aren’t either the same size as him or bigger. I read that fruit flies would work, so I tried the flightless ones as they are rather small, but he wouldn’t eat them. Plus they are kind of a mess to deal with. What other options do I have? I’ve had him now for about 3 days, so I imagine the little guy has to be starving by now. What can I do for him?
Crickets and flightless fruit flies are the best and probably only options for a staple diet. Pet stores typically carry crickets in three sizes: small, medium, and large. Small crickets are most often ordered at the 1/4″ size (although some stores might have 1/8″ or 3/8″ size crickets instead) and a juvenile gray tree frog will be able to eat these. Sometimes, though, pet stores run out of particular cricket sizes during busy times of the week. I suggest calling around to different pet stores and asking what day their cricket shipment arrives and what sizes they carry. You should be able to find some store selling 1/4″ size crickets, although if you live in a rural area where there is only one local pet store you might need to special order some. Good luck,
Devin
Devin,
I have a gray tree frog that hitched a ride into my house on mother’s day. My daughter bought me a huge, full hydrangea as a gift. It wasn’t until nearly a month later when the plant started to lose its flowers that he came to my attention. When I found him, he was very small and extremely thin.
I got him a small reptile carrier and found some nice round rocks and some perching sticks. I followed the advice of a friend and removed the bark from the branches leaving a nice “y” shape at the top for a sitting area. I then boiled the sticks and rocks in spring water to remove any harmful bacteria or parasites. I am using an artificial turf base made specifically for amphibians and reptiles.
Because he was so thin when I found him, he was eating as many as 3-4 medium crickets a day. He is now fat and happy. He calls about the same time each evening, just a few times, and my husband and I get the biggest kick out of it.
Just recently his eating has slowed almost to nothing. He is still active and calling. His color is great. He doesn’t seem to be having any other issues other than he doesn’t seen to be eating much. I have been removing the crickets if they die or get too large.
I was wondering if, because of his small initial size which I took to be because of his lack of food before I found him, he might have been a juvenile and is just eating less because he is matured. Or could it be because I recently moved his habitat?
I had been keeping him on the table next to my sofa where he was under a regular table lamp. Could the difference in heat from a regular bulb make such a drastic change in eating habits or is it more likely that he just needs fewer crickets now?
Would you suggest a heat lamp or should I just move him back under the table lamp?
Thank you for this page! I didn’t set out to be a frog mom, but my husband and I have become quite attached to the little fellow. It is nice to know that there is such a great resource available when we have questions! (-:
It sounds like the frog was pretty lucky to have ended up in your care. I think the best thing to do is to check the temperature in the enclosure with a quality thermometer. Move the thermometer to the warmest part of the tank. Is it getting up to 80-85F? Move it down to the cooler area. Is it getting cold at night down into the 50’s? My guess is the temperature in your house is changing with the seasons and even though it doesn’t feel much colder to you the frog is sensing a change. As a result, its metabolism is slowing with the cooler weather. Ideally, you want one part of the tank to reach the low to mid 80’s during the day, with an ambient daytime temperature elsewhere in the enclosure in the 70’s. At night the temperature can drop, but if it isn’t warm enough during the day your frog might not eat as much. At low temperatures, the frog might be more susceptible to health problems in the long-term. If you find the temperatures are within an appropriate range other environmental cues might be triggering the frog to slow down, for example, a change in photoperiod from fewer daylight hours in a nearby window. Good luck,
Devin
My son has raised 2 Cope’s Grey’s from tadpoles. They are about the size of quater from nose to bottom. We are trying to figure out how often to feed them and how much. Right now we’ve been feeding 2 to 3 crickets per day. He got them as tadpoles on July 18th.
That sounds good to me. With growing frogs, you can usually feed as much as they will eat. Small frequent feedings are better than large infrequent ones, so 2-3 crickets a day (or more if they are all eaten right away) is a good place to start. Remember to coat the crickets in a quality nutritional supplement which contains calcium and vitamin D3 before feeding them to the frogs. Repashy Calcium Plus is a pretty good one.
Devin
Ok great! We feed them a cricket brick made for frogs and most of the time put a carrot in there with them.
Got in my son’s car and start driving suddenly my daughter starts happily yelling that there was a frog in the car…not sure how long it’s been in here though…she wants to keep it but I have very little knowledge on amphibians…what do I need to do to prep a habitat
Hi, today my mom caught a gray tree frog stuck in a spider web in our yard. We decided to keep it as a pet, but we can’t feed it crickets. What other foods could it live off of?
They will eat most any live insect, so long as it is moving and catches their attention. Different feeders have different nutritional qualities. Crickets are best because they are widely available and their nutritional content is not bad, especially if you keep them for a day or two before feeding them to the frog and gutload them with fresh veggies. Small earthworms or maybe the young of some kind of roach might work, or flies if you buy the maggots and let them pupate in a secure container and then put the container in the refrigerator to immobilize the flies before feeding them to the frog. Mealworms and waxworms are not good to feed often, but every now and then are okay. Crickets, though, are really your best bet. Good luck.
Devin
Hi! I have a grey tree frog that ai have had for over a year. It is a female. Last winter she did not go into hibernation but this year she is starting to show signs of going into hibernation mode already. She isn’t burrowing I to the soil but she will lay in one position all day on the bottom of her habitat. She goes into her water dish at night. She hasn’t eaten in days and is very lethargic. Her color is good. Should I be concerned or is this just that she is going into hibernation mode?
You could try increasing the temperature with a low-wattage heat lamp. Usually, it’s best to keep captive frogs at a warm summer-like temperature so they stay active year-round, but even just cooling temperature inside your house and decreasing photoperiod in the fall or winter might cause a frog to kind of slow down and change activity patterns. Fortunately, gray tree frogs are hardy amphibians so a few cool days don’t present a problem for healthy animals. I suggest getting a low-wattage heat lamp and positioning it over part of the cage so that one area higher up near the top reaches the low to mid 80’s during the day. Use a quality thermometer to measure the temperature under the light to make sure it is not getting too hot. If you already have a heat lamp, you could try switching to a higher wattage bulb.
Devin
Hi Devin,
I have a similar situation – my frogs have drastically slowed their eating. Most nights they straight out refuse and back away from the cricket in the tongs. I’ve been keeping their heat lamp on during the day, but it is definitely getting cooler at night. They’re in no danger of starving to death (their wrists have little chubby rolls) but I’m concerned about such a drastic change in behavior. They are just over a year from froglet stage. Also, what’s the best way to get your frogs to move more? Mine are in the same positions for days it seems… They’re like little Jabba the Huts. Ugh. Thank you Devin!
Regards,
Kate
I see that too with captive frogs. Their behavior will change with the seasons even though we aren’t really sensing much of a change inside our house. I think what seem like small changes in temperature, humidity, and photoperiod to people are actually much greater for our pet frogs and so it is not uncommon to see a frog feed less or be less active during winter and then increase in activity, call, feed, etc. more in summer. A lot of people who breed frogs also notice how they get eggs more often when there are thunderstorms passing through the area, so probably even just changes in atmospheric pressure will affect captive frog behavior. There is not much you can do other than monitor the conditions in the terrarium, especially temperature. Use a quality thermometer and move it around the enclosure in different areas to make sure it is not too cold. At cool conditions, metabolism will slow and you run the risk of health problems showing up. Good luck.
Last night I caught a Baby gray tree frog. Have in a 20 gallon aquarium, which has a fake plant rock looking water bowl (which to big for “kermit” right now, fake log w/opening and fake wood piece, guy I got all the above from had feeder mice in for his snake, (which all of above been cleaned), but the bottom is filled with looks like tiny cedar bits but not and I think it sticks to kermits toes. Is Newspaper Ok for the lining of bottom of Aquarium for about a week until I can get something different?. Or Live leaves (have a lot of trees in back yard)! ALL HELP IS WELL APPRECIATED.!!! Thank You
Instead of the newspaper do moist paper towels. Paper towels can be used as a substrate permanently if you want, but they need to be replaced every couple of days and not allowed to get too wet. Otherwise, if you prefer a more natural-looking substrate, coconut husk fiber or other safe soil blend designed for use with amphibians works well.
i have a baby gray tree frog and it while be a cupl days till i can get live cricets so can i feed it mashed up dried mealworms or would that be bad for it
The frog should be fine for a couple of days without food. Frogs usually won’t accept food that is not alive, or at least not moving, and it probably won’t be interested in dried mealworms. Instead, feed live foods that move around and which will attract the frog’s attention.
Devin
I caught a tree frog for my son, who is 3, and I put three crickets in there with him and he still hasn’t ate any of them. Could it be that he’s trying to get use to his new surroundings?
Yes, that’s possible. Sometimes frogs won’t eat when they are still adjusting to a new enclosure, or at least they won’t eat in front of you while you are watching. Try feeding right before you turn the light out at night (gray tree frogs are nocturnal) and then checking for crickets in the morning. If the crickets are still in there your tree frog is not eating. If you don’t see any the frog is eating just not while you are watching. Also, make sure the crickets are the right size. If they are too small the frog might not notice them immediately. Crickets should be about as long as the width of the frogs head or a little smaller. For adult gray tree frogs medium size crickets from a pet store which are 1/2″-3/4″ long should work. Good luck,
Devin
I have a gray tree frog living on our deck out side. It has been here all summer so far. Is there anything I can do to help him survive?
Nice. I think the best thing you can do is avoid spraying pesticides/herbicides nearby or treating the deck with anything unless you move the frog away first. Other than that, enjoy your new neighbor!
I have a small container pond with many tadpoles – it’s well-established so has plenty of natural algae for food. With it being really hot/dry the last few weeks, I’ve had a 5-gallon bucket out with water de-chlorinating so I can top-off the pond as needed. We had torrential rain this weekend, and both pond and bucket are overflowing. The problem? Another batch of eggs hatched in the bucket, and I have many new minuscule tadpoles. No algae there… how to feed them? Online I see “boil organic spinach 5 minutes”, is that a good idea? And how much do they need? Thanks in advance!
There might actually be more food in there than you think. Even if the containers look clean there is still stuff growing in there. The tadpoles will filter tiny things you cannot see out of the water and also scrape films growing on the sides of the containers. You can supplement this with fish flake for aquariums which you can grind up between your fingers into a powder while feeding. Have fun with the tadpoles 🙂
Devin
Brand new 5 gallon bucket, only outside with water about a week. Doubtful much to eat! Thanks.
In January, my mom found a Gray Tree Frog on one of the house plants after bringing the plant in for the winter in October. It’s now March and the frog seems to be doing fine. My mother got it a shallow bowl for water and it seems to stick to the potted plant that it came in on (she hasn’t gotten it a terrarium, since she sees the situation as her giving the frog refuge until it can be released in the spring. Personally, I would’ve at lease gotten a small tank but I digress). The one thing I’m wondering about is how it’s eating. My mom hasn’t gotten it any crickets or moths or anything but our house has a Japanese Shield bug and fruit fly problem. It seems to have survived the past 6 months in our house without my mom providing food and from her accounts, it is relatively active, moving spots to bask in the sun, perching, and wading in it’s water dish. Is it reasonable to assume that the frog is fending for itself to eat and doing okay?
It’s great to hear the frog is doing well. It must be feeding on something. Like you suggest, probably it is eating the fruit flies or other bugs around the house. My other thought is that inside in winter if the temperature is cool (50’s or 60’s) a frog won’t require much food because its metabolism will be slow at low temperatures. If it is catching a few bugs a week that might be all it needs to hang in there. Soon enough it should be warm enough to put the frog back outside, once night time temperatures are above freezing. Enjoy having it around until then, and thanks for sharing the story.
Devin
Hi Devin,
I found a gray tree frog and I was unsure whether or not I should be handling it. I read in the comments that you can when it needs to be moved, but should it never be handled unless absolutely necessary? How often should I be feeding it? I believe it is a female based on what I have read. If you have any other tips or information you could share to help me keep her/him safe, happy and healthy, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Christina
Yes, I don’t recommend handling the tree frog unless you have to. When you do pick it up, for example when cleaning the tank or moving it out of the way to change the water, make sure your hands are moist.
Feed the frog a few times a week. If there are food items left in the enclosure in the morning you are probably overfeeding. If on the other hand, the frog eats everything in a minute or two and still seems hungry you can feed more. Remember to use a quality nutritional supplement on crickets and other food items before feeding. Repashy Calcium Plus is what I usually use with my frogs.
Enjoy the tree frog,
Devin
Hi Devin,
I had six tadpoles that morphed when it was too late to release them. I got a terrarium with sphagnum moss substrate and a branch for a perch. They have a full spectrum light, heating pad underneath and a bowl of water. I mist and offer crickets daily. but all except one frog has died. I want to save the last one if I can. Any advice?
That sounds like a good setup, but something is off. Double check the environment and food. Move a thermometer around different parts of the terrarium during the day and night. For young tree frogs, the temperature should range from the high 60s or low 70s near the bottom of the tank up to the low to mid 80’s closer to the top. Is the sphagnum moss staying moist but not soggy? What type of water are you using? Straight tap water is unsafe for amphibians. If the environment seems okay then I would look into food. Have you seen the frogs eating or do you just put the crickets in and assume they are eaten? Try feeding at night in a shallow dish. Make sure the crickets are about as long as the width of the frog’s head, maybe a little less. If the crickets go and hide in the moss and are never eaten this could be the problem. In this case, you might try switching to moist paper towels (and removing the heat pad) that are changed every couple days because it will be easier for the frog to locate food on this substrate. Alternatively, you could try feeding in a small shallow dish and at night, and then watching with a small flashlight to see if the frog notices the food.
Good luck,
Devin
Too late. The last one died I’m afraid. Thanks anyway.
Hi Devin, I have 3 gray tree frogs that someone abandoned to a pet store. I’ve had green tree frogs in the past but adopted these grays to study for a sculpture I was doing. They’ve been doing great until one of them became very bloated a few days ago. The poor thing looks so uncomfortable. The only change has been that the temperature is a bit cooler but I keep the heat at 65 in my studio just for them! Any idea what the problem might be?
Frogs can become bloated for many reasons and it is impossible to figure out what is going on without a veterinarian who is experienced with amphibians. Commonly bacterial infections can lead to bloating, and especially if temperatures have decreased recently the frog’s metabolism has slowed and its immune system is not as strong as it was at warmer temperatures, making it susceptible to things in its environment it normally might be able to cope with. There are many other reasons a frog can become bloated though, this is just one idea, and if you are able to find a veterinarian they can run some tests and try to figure out what is going on. I also understand if a vet is not possible (financially or otherwise since a good frog vet can be hard to come by). At a minimum I suggest separating the bloated tree frog from the others in a different enclosure that is set up simply (moist paper towel substrate changed daily, a few perches, a fake plant, water dish) and heated with a lamp so at least part of the cage stays in the low to mid 80’s, the other part in the 70’s. Monitor temperature with a quality thermometer. Boosting the temperature to the upper end of their preferred range sometimes helps. Also check your water source and make sure it is safe for amphibians and that there have been no changes to it recently. Sometimes bloated frogs recover on their on, other times they go down hill quickly without veterinary assistance.
Good luck,
Devin
Thank you Devin. We have a new exotics vet in town. I will ask if she has experience with frogs. Does it need to be a particular kind of light? As for water, is reverse osmosis filtered water okay? I greatly appreciate your help.
Reverse osmosis water is great for misting but for the water dish it is usually best to use tap water that has been treated with an aquarium conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramines, or even better you can reconstitute reverse osmosis water with aquarium products like Kent RO Right. In either case you will have a gallon of frog-safe water sitting around for the water dish, but you can use straight RO for misting.
A bulb made of red or blue glass like the night heat lamps sold for reptiles is ideal, this way you can leave it on at night without disturbing the frog. Probably something around 25-40 watts will be powerful enough depending on the size of the enclosure, but check the temperature under it with a quality thermometer and make sure it is not rising much above 85F-90F at the hottest place your frog can go. There should also be cooler areas that stay in the 70’s during the day elsewhere in the enclosure.
Good luck, hope this helps.
Devin
I actually want to ask a question. I also have a gray tree frog that came in with my house plants in early October. He hopped around my living room and finally settled on my bears foot fern. He seems to stay in the same place.. I’ve got water for it, and have bought about 17 small crickets. I released them one night, all of them accidentally. Don’t know if the frog is eating or not, but the crickets are not around and he is still alive. We keep it cool in our house. The plants get watered and misted.. I am not about to try to make a real pet out of it. So how do I know if it is okay?
Good question. So long as there is a safe water source and food around there is a good chance the frog will make it until spring. It is easier to control conditions in a terrarium, but if the frog is in a greenhouse or sun room with many plants I think it is possible it will survive until it warms up. If you don’t want crickets running around the room, you might try container feeding. You could put the crickets in a plastic bin on the floor with an open top. Count how many you put in and observe the bin at night when the tree frog is active and hunting. Placing this container near the plants and water source will help ensure the frog finds the crickets. Count how many crickets are left in the morning to see if the tree frog is eating.
Devin
So we did as a local store told us when we bought a terranium for them and put reptisoil in the bottom. They have been doing great in their old tank but we have seven so wanted something with more space and when we came back after putting them in there for a couple hours 5 of the seven burrowed them selves. What does this mean? One of them also didn’t have much movement so we rinsed him off slowly and placed him on the logs. We fed them right after just to see if they were all ok and had their normal appetites and the little one still didn’t move really. We are just very concerned. Our cousin rescued them as tadpoles and now we took over for her as baby frogs and we love them just want them healthy.
Sometimes it takes tree frogs a while to settle into a new enclosure. If there is not a lot of cover the frogs may be digging into the substrate to hide. If there is not a background on the terrarium you could tape some black poster board to the outside of three sides to make the frogs feel more secure. Gray tree frogs also might dig into the substrate if the humidity is low or the enclosure too dry. Lastly, it could also be related to temperature. If you have a basking light above the tank that is very hot the tree frogs might dig into the substrate because they are looking for a cool place to escape to. If you have a heat lamp, check the temperature and if it is getting above 80-85F in the lower part of the terrarium it is too hot. Mostly likely, though, the frogs just need some time to adjust to the new setup and once they are settled they will move up to other areas.
Devin
HELP! I just found a brown tree frog in my Christmas cactus that I brought in my home a month ago (it had been on my pool deck). Our nights are now freezing, with this weeks lows in the teens, so I’m guessing it’s too late for him to be put out for hibernation. Not sure how he’s survived this long, but no idea how to help him!
Yes, if nights are below freezing it is probably too cold to put the frog back outside. You can keep it as described on this page until it is warm again in the spring. If a warm few days show up and night temperatures are above freezing for a while it should be okay to release the frog, otherwise best to keep it until spring (or find someone else who is willing to do so). Good luck,
Devin
Hi Devin,
Thank you for this page! I have three gray tree frogs I raised from tadpoles. They are in a 18″x18″x36″ terrarium – with lots of different tree types, some rocks, a little “pond” type dish they can walk into and faux plant life. I have 2 that are a bit smaller than the other (assuming the big one is a female). The largest eats 5 small crickets a day, the other 2 eat 3-4 small crickets per day. I tried giving them mealworms again – and now they spit them out. I have picky eaters. Also, I had a very hard time finding information on Hyla versicolor and was recommended to give them their nutritional supplement every few feedings. Couple this with one of my 2 small frogs refused to be hand fed and would only eat fruit flies, I’m concerned that their bones haven’t developed properly. To give you an idea of age, they dropped their tails between July 3 and 8. Any ideas on how to get them to eat other food besides crickets? Am I feeding them too much? They are very active at night, and have a blast doing their best cirque du so-frog acrobatic feats. I’m actually nervous they’re going to injure themselves sometimes – is it normal for these frogs to jump from the highest point in the terrarium into the water 3 feet below? I’ve never had any type of creature that needed a terrarium before so this is all new to me.
Thank you very much Devin!
Kate
That sounds like a great setup Kate. You can feed young growing frogs just about as much as they will eat in a sitting each day. Four or five crickets per frog sounds about right, but if they eat more you can feed more. Once they are adult cut back to feeding every few days or in smaller amounts daily. Dust food lightly in a nutritional supplement at every feeding. Repashy Calcium Plus is the supplement I use for my frogs. You might also consider providing UVB lighting (bulbs labelled 2.0 or 5.0 are good) and this can also help ensure they develop properly. Health issues related to nutrition are common in captive amphibians, especially young ones that are growing, so it is good you are keeping an eye out for it. Enjoy the tree frogs.
Hello Devin,
Thank you for your last reply. I have now added a UVB bulb, a natural light ION bulb and a ceramic heater (that one was a big hit). I have a question for you about the behavior of these guys. I live in the Northeast and now that the heat is on the air is much dryer, so I’ve been misting them daily. A couple of them started opening their mouths and kind of sticking out their tongues (almost like a little kid does when trying to catch the rain on their tongue) – is this something I should avoid them doing? The misting water is dechlorinated and treated. I thought it was cute, but then my husband said I better look into it. Also, I have one frog, Phil, who is determined to leave the terrarium. He will jump out onto me, the floor, anything, in an effort to explore. Is this something that I can allow occasionally, or should I keep him in the terrarium at all times despite his best Houdini-like efforts?
Thank you again Devin – and Happy Thanksgiving,
Kate
Yes, it’s okay if you end up occasionally handling the tree frog to help move it back to its enclosure when it jumps out. For misting, it shouldn’t be a problem when frogs are sprayed directly so long as the water is from a safe source. When I mist enclosures I like to use one of those pump up pressure sprayers and adjust the nozzle as I spray. This way you can start with a fine mist over the whole tank and then adjust it to more directly spray waste off of cage items or the side of the enclosure in between cleanings. Hope this helps, enjoy the frogs.
Devin
We found a batch of tree frog tadpoles in a dog pool and raised about 25 of them to froghood. I have 2 questions.
1. Are they likely to survive the winter if we release them this late in the fall (late October)?
2. Some of the tadpoles still haven’t changed. Can we keep them through the winter and will they change in the spring?
Thanks
If there hasn’t been a big freeze yet it should be fine to release the newly metamorphosed tree frogs back near the pool where you found the tadpoles. Gray tree frogs are very hardy when it comes to cool temperatures, and so long as it is not below freezing at night it should be fine.
For the tadpoles that have not morphed, you can keep them through the winter but they might complete metamorphosis while in your care. In that case you will need to feed and care for the frogs until temperatures have warmed up enough to let them go where you found them. You could also release the tadpoles in water near the pool where they were collected, although they might not make it if temperatures are already low.
Devin
I found a wild baby gray tree frog and keeped it as a pet how long before it will eat in my tank trying to feed small crickets to it please let me know as soon as possible
It might take a few days, although if the tree frog is hungry and there is a small insect nearby it probably won’t hesitate to eat it. Remember that gray tree frogs are nocturnal so they might not eat during the day or when the light is on. Try feeding at night and observing with a small (not very bright) flashlight.
If you are not sure if the frog is eating, count how many crickets you put in the cage. If you put in three crickets one day and then check the next morning and there is only one left, you know the frog is eating.
Devin
I found a baby gray tree frog in a tree a decited to keep it as a inside pet how long will it take before it will eat in the tank i have had other wild full grown gray tree frog so i khow how to take care of them so i was just wondering how long it will take before the frog will eat after catching and puting in a properly set up tank please let me know as soon as possible
Hi Devin,
Thanks for your reply. You write: Regarding the call, I would guess there is some other kind of frog at your pond that is difficult to see during the day but has a quack-like call. I am 100 % certain that that strange high pitches quacking comes from a Grey. It lasts only a few seconds and is only heard when there is a Grey chorus so it is hard to find the frog it came from. The only other frogs I have are Green Frogs. (I live near Washington D.C so the possibilities are limited.) . By the way, I am a biologist breeding 8 species of poison frogs. as a hobby.
As to the scent: I have a friend who lives in the woods where there are Greys. He dug a pond without fish for them to breed. . For years the Greys would not breed in his pond. His pondwater was circulating via a pump with his in-house atrium in which he had a large fish tank. Then his pump broke down, (so no more connection with the fish water), and almost immediately the Greys started to breed in his outside pond.
Cheers,
Jan.
Hey Devin, wonder if you can help.
I have a 15x15x24″ enclosure and I’m wondering if it has enough ventilation for these frogs. It has mesh on top measuring 8×8″ for a small light dome to rest on and two 70mm circular vents (one on the left and right side of the enclosure walls). Is this enough or should I put another 70mm on the back wall? Thanks, Jason
It is probably enough ventilation, but adding more wouldn’t hurt. Gray tree frogs do not required particularly high humidity and adding some extra air flow to the enclosure is not a bad idea.
Hello,
I rescued a near dead gray tree frog from my garage several months ago. After getting him back into shape he is doing great. A friend found a grey tree frog in his house recently. Having read that males can get aggressive with other males would it be unwise to introduce the second frog into the enclosure not knowing it’s sex? Also, the rescued frog has done so well I am also concerned about introducing a new frog and potential disease. Thanks
Good questions. There is always a risk of exposing one frog to disease when introducing another one, even if both appear healthy. That said, there is nothing wrong with housing more than one gray tree frog together and territoriality shouldn’t be an issue so long as both frogs are about the same size and they each get enough to eat.
If you have one tree frog with a health problem that has recovered, good practice is to wait 30-60 days after recovery before housing it/returning it to housing with another tree frog to make sure it is in good health. So, if the frog you found in the garage fully recovered back in May and the other one from your friend’s house appears in good condition, I don’t see a problem keeping the two together. In general though it is best to leave wild animals alone, so if your friend is okay just releasing the gray tree frog from the house outside and you stick to keeping the one from your garage that is probably the best thing to do.
Good luck,
Devin
I have a 20 gallon tank set up and i would like to know if a heat lamp or heat mat are mandatory for a gray tree frog. thanks
It depends on the temperature inside the 20 gallon tank. You need a thermometer to measure the temperature. If the temperature is not reaching 75-80F in the warmest part then you might want to add a small lamp. Don’t use a heat mat but instead go for a lamp. Usually if you put a a normal fluorescent strip light over the tank (like the kind on an aquarium) it will provide a small amount of heat and that can be enough to warm the tank. If you find the enclosure is getting too warm (over 80-85F for days on end and not cooling off at night) you should not use heat lamps and might need to find a cooler location for the tank. Gray tree frogs are hardy though and if the temperature is too warm or too cold for a few days they should be okay.
Hope this helps,
Devin
For four years we had a gray tree frog make it’s home in a pottery bird house hanging on our trellise outdoors. Is it possible that the same tree frog came back to the bird house each spring? I find it really amazing. Haven’t had the tree frog for 2 years now but we sure enjoyed watching it.
Very cool. Yes, I think it is possible or even likely that it was the same frog. Male gray tree frogs are territorial and vocalize to attract mates and defend territory, perhaps the bird house is a particularly good calling spot? Alternatively, maybe your pottery bird house is just a great tree frog spot regardless and tends to attract a frog here and a frog there. I hope another one arrives again in the future for you to enjoy.
Devin
Hi there,
In mid January we found a gray tree frog that snuck inside for the winter on a succulent plant. It looked very sick so we set up a terrarium and have been giving him some crickets and water. It looks so much better! But we were planning on rereleasing it when it isn’t the middle of winter and want to make sure we could do that? Never had any intentions of having this indoor animal – we enjoy him in the summer on the back deck.
Yes, it should be okay to release it so long as you don’t keep any other pet amphibians and the gray tree frog has not been in contact with any other pet amphibians.
The main concern with releasing a frog that has been in captivity is that it could introduce a foreign pathogen to wild frog populations, but if the gray tree frog has been isolated alone without other frogs or aquatic animals then there is little risk of this. Once night time temperatures no longer drop below freezing you should be good to go.
Devin
I’m keeping 4 gray tree frogs we found when they were tadpoles. Now they are almost an inch long and I feed them fruit flies (dusted) every day. There are no pinhead crickets available locally and it costs too much to have them shipped to me. Is it okay if they only have fruit flies until they are big enough for small crickets? Anything else I find around here is even bigger than the small crickets. Thanks.
Tree frogs can live on a single food item like fruit flies for some time, but long-term it will lead to health issues. You might also be surprised by how large of food a small tree frog can eat. If a cricket is the length of the width of the frog’s head it is not too big and can be offered. Make sure to use a high quality nutritional supplement (Repashy Calcium Plus is what I use) on the fruit flies before they are fed to the young tree frogs and in a couple weeks once they are larger try a few small crickets.
Best of luck,
Devin
Thanks. Repashy is what I use.
We are using untreated potting soil as the substrate. Our frog frequently burrows half her body in at the base of the tree branch we have in there. This seems to work well in catching her crickets. How often should we replace the substrate?
The best way to know when to change the substrate is by smell and appearance. The enclosure should smell fresh and organic, like a forest. If it starts to smell swampy, sour or like rotting eggs definitely time for a change. You can also look at the substrate and if you visibly see a lot of waste then replace some or all of the soil. If the substrate becomes waterlogged or flooded that is another sign to change it. For one frog in a properly maintained 20 gallon aquarium you might only need to replace the substrate very 2-4 months, especially if you keep up with spot cleaning.
Also, thinking about substrate, be careful when using soil. Most soils sold for potting plants contain additives that are not safe for amphibians (for example, fertilizers or perlite) and the quality can vary from bag to bag. Better options are coconut husk fiber or soil blends designed for use with amphibians and available at pet stores. When it is time for the next change consider looking at these other substrates.
Best of luck,
Devin
it’s also good to add that if your reason for using potting soil is the cost, if you look around you should be able to find better options for the same price or for VERY little more.
Hi! I️ have a couple questions! Thanks so much for all the tree frog info you have posted! We found tadpoles in late July in my kids pool and after raising about 200 of them they started jumping out and dying on my patio. I️ released the majority of them into a pond in my neighborhood in September so they could continue developing and hibernate properly. Now we have 11 fully morphed gray tree frogs and 3 that just got their front legs this week. It is too cold to release any now so trying to find good homes for most of them but we will keep a couple as pets. Ok so questions. We have been feeding crickets coated with vit D and calcium supplement. We tried meal worms but they don’t seem interested. I️ didn’t buy fruit flies because I️ think they would get lost in the coconut husk and just be a waste. Is strictly crickets ok?? Any other suggestions? Also my home stays between 68-75 degrees year round so do we need a UV lamp or a warmer for under the tank? They will be in a room with a very large window that is minimally used so it should be quiet and sunny. Any thoughts you have about any of this would be much appreciated!! Sorry so long!
Hi Linsey,
Other regularly available food options include waxworms, soldier fly larvae (sometimes sold as phoenix worms or calciworms), or earthworms cut into pieces an inch or two long. All of these foods are best fed to tree frogs by placing them in a small dish that the worms can’t climb out of. Put the feeding dish in right after the lights go out when the frogs are being to be active and check in the morning to see how many are left so you know if they are feeding. Some gray tree frogs will also accept these foods if they are offered with tweezers and dangled in front of their head.
Flightless fruit flies are a good option for young tree frogs. If the frogs are still only the size of a penny or smaller you might consider ordering a culture of the larger fruit fly Drosophila hydei from an online supplier. Good cultures will produce thousands of flies and the tree frogs will notice them–they won’t get lost in the coconut husk substrate. The small vials with blue media of fruit flies that you find at pet stores are usually not all that productive and it is better to order from a feeder insect company online that sends a culture in a larger 32 oz cup.
If you do stick with only crickets keep coating them with the calcium and vitamin D3. Also consider keeping the crickets for a few days before they are fed to frogs and feed the crickets a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potato, squash, orange slices, zucchini, etc. to help improve their nutritional content.
Lighting–although UVB lighting might be beneficial it probably isn’t required. Instead, putting a low wattage standard incandescent light bulb over part of the enclosure to create a warm area towards one end that approaches 80F is a good idea. A temperature of 68-75 might be okay for a while, but it is best to provide a thermogradient within the enclosure with a warmer area towards one end and a side that stays cooler on the other. You don’t need anything fancy or expensive to do this, just a small low wattage (probably 25 or 40 watt would do it) incandescent light over the screen on one end and a thermometer to measure the temperature.
Best of luck,
Devin
Thank you so much Devin! That helps a lot!
Hi there. I had a bunch of tadpoles in the deep end of our pool that got a hole in the liner. They have been morphing and moving on with a little help getting out, but I found a very tiny one today on the pool liner and I thought he was dead. When I scooped him up he fell over onto his back. I brought him in and warmed him up and he became alert and started rubbing his eyes. I tried to release him in my flower bed in front of my house, and he won’t move. Gets cold again and falls over. It’s getting only about 42 degrees and very windy and rainy. I don’t know what to do with him. I’d hate to keep him because I feel he needs to be wild. Keeping him and taking care of him is not a problem, but feeding him is. I have no where that sells flightless fruit flies so I’m not sure what he should eat. He is very small. Maybe a half inch long and has probably just went through his morph. Any suggestion on how to release or what to feed?
Gray tree frogs are surprisingly well suited to deal with cold weather. I would recommend letting the little newly morphed tree frog go near the pool liner that had the water. It’s true that it might not survive, but I don’t think it is too late so long as it is not freezing at night.
Devin
Thank you for the reply. Freezing temps starting tomorrow night.
Pin sized or small crickets should be sold at your local pet or reptile store.
Hello, I read somewhere that gray tree frogs have acid on there skin that can cause severe discomfort if it comes in contact with eyes or open cuts, is this true? Also, is it safe to manipulate there enviroment so that they will change color? Is a easter lily ( a common houseplant) in the habitat or can it harm the frog?
Thank you for your time.
Gray tree frogs, and many other amphibians, produce noxious skin secretions that can cause irritation. If a tree frog is handled roughly or squeezed and then a person doesn’t wash their hands before rubbing their eyes or nose they might experience a burning or discomfort. The best way to avoid this is to 1) don’t handle pet frogs, and 2) if you do handle a frog, make sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterwards.
Do they NEED a light? And, we have an adult panther chameleon. Can they share a habitat or will the chameleon eat it?
Gray tree frogs do not need any type of special lighting, but they do need to be provided with a photoperiod of 10-12 hours of light per day. Using a small light set on a timer is the best way to do this. They might also benefit from low levels of UVB, so if you have the option you could use a UVB bulb designed for amphibians for this purpose. Pay attention to temperature to make sure the light does not overheat the enclosure.
Keeping a tree frog with a chameleon probably would not work in the long-term. I believe you are right, that a hungry panther chameleon that has not been fed for a day or two would happily eat the frog.
Devin
You mention once you take a grey tree frog into captivity not to let them go again. I have been rescuing baby frogs and froglets out of my tiny pond because they keep drowning! So I keep them inside till they are strong and let them go in the trees close to the pond. Is this bad? I give them fruit flies then use flying bugs so they learn how to hunt. I just don’t know when to release them- I also heard their biggest threat is bigger frogs.. there just doesn’t seem to be any information on releasing frogs when and how on the internet!
Hi Laura,
In this situation it is probably just fine to release the baby tree frogs after they finish metamorphosis. The main point to remember is do not release an amphibian back to the wild if 1) it was not collected in your local area and 2) if it has been kept with or may have been in contact with other amphibians or fish in your care (you risk introducing a disease that could harm wildlife).
The longer the animal has been in captivity the higher the risk, so if you collect tadpoles I would recommend placing them outside in a kiddy pool or bucket once they grow front arms, that way they can climb out on their own. Put the container near the pond or drying pool where the tadpoles were collected. Alternatively, if they are already frogs then you are good to go so long as they have not been in contact with pet frogs or fish and were collected nearby.
One last consideration is time of year. It is already October, and depending on where you live gray tree frogs may need to hibernate in the winter. Releasing the small frogs as soon as possible is the safest way to ensure they have time to put on some weight and then cool down appropriately. Think about letting them out after dark or on a warmer rainy day this week, if there is one, which I would guess might help improve chances of survival.
Best of luck,
Devin
I just re-read your question and realized you are collecting baby frogs rather than tadpoles. It is just fine to move the baby frogs from a pond to land nearby to help things along, but I would not recommend taking them into captivity and growing them up. Instead, see if you can add something to the pond (vegetation, emergent log, etc.) that might help the frogs find their way to land after metamorphosis if the pond has smooth straight sides. Another thought – it would be strange for frogs not to be able to find their way out of the water after metamorphosis if there is easy enough access to land, so if you are finding dead baby frogs in the water it might not be from drowning but another cause.
Hope this helps,
Devin
I caught a tree frog and got all the things to make a nice habitat for him. I read some where that I need a 75w red light for him ( that this will keep him from hibernating??) Since I put the light on he has been in his water bowl. Is he to hot?? Also I didn’t know better and put about ten crickets in (a few drowned in the water bowl) he ate them all and got fat over night? Will frogs over eat?
Yes, it might be too hot. The only way to know is to check the temperature with a thermometer. Move the thermometer directly under the red light. Is it above 85F? Then it is too hot. Try moving the thermometer around different parts of the enclosure and seeing what the temperature is elsewhere. You want to aim for a range of temperatures between the high 60’s and 70’s during the day. A warm area that reaches the low or mid 80’s is fine to provide too so long as the rest of the enclosure is not this hot. But, first step is to get a thermometer and check the temperature so you know if it is too hot or not.
Crickets – While it is better to feed a few crickets every couple days, if your frog ate all 10 at once and there were no extras running around the cage then I wouldn’t worry about it. Consider waiting some days or even a week before feeding again. Pay attention to the body condition of your frog. If the frog looks obese or shows little interest in feeding then feed smaller quantities less frequently. If the frog looks thin and immediately eats everything then feed more. Usually a few crickets every other day is a safe amount to feed. Remember to use a quality vitamin and mineral supplement on crickets before feeding to avoid nutritional problems down the line.
Devin
Thank you so much for the response! One last question, I use my tap water for him and you talk about chlorinated water not being good…….. I found him in a potted plant in my back yard that I had been watering with the same tap water and he’d been there for at least a month. Is this a problem? By the way his name is Max 🙂
Hi again Vanessa,
Chlorine and chloramines are added to water by municipalities and over time these disinfectants will harm amphibians if the water is not treated before use. This is especially true for aquatic amphibians that spend all of their time in the water, but also for tree frogs like Max.
There are several options to make the water safe. You can use an aquarium water conditioner to treat a gallon at a time. The water conditioner will neutralize chlorine and chloramines. Alternatively, you can buy distilled or RO water and add products like Kent RO right or other aquarium water additive used to reconstitute water for fish. A third option is to find out if your municipality uses chlorine or chloramines as its disinfectant. Most use chloramines, but if you call and they only use chlorine or you are on a well and know that only chlorine is added, then chlorine will slowly evaporate if the water is left in an open container. In this case you could fill up a tub with tap water, add an air stone or water pump to agitate it, and let the water sit for a few days before use and the chlorine should more or less be gone. This won’t work though if there are chloramines in it which do not dissipate as quickly as chlorine.
The easiest option is probably the first one – treat tap water with an aquarium water conditioner to make it safe for your tree frog.
Hope this helps,
Devin
Hey there, I as going to cut and paste a picture of Max’s home but I can’t figure out how to I’m wondering if freeze dried mealworms are okay to feed in between feedings. Thx again you have been so helpful
Sounds great. Yes, you can try offering freeze-dried mealworms from time to time (maybe once or twice a month) by hand or with feeding tongs. Gray tree frogs likely won’t recognize the food unless it is moving, so you may need to wiggle it around in front of the frog to get a feeding response.
If you upload a photo of your setup somewhere else like Google Photos and link to it I am always happy to see how things look, and other people might like to see as well.
Enjoy the frog,
Devin
Hello again,
I found mold in Max’s aquarium today. Is this bad? I’ve attached a link to some pics of his aquarium and one zoomed in so you can see the mold. By the way…I change the water and spray every other day with clean water (water from tap that I clean with aquarium cleaner solution that I bought from Pet store). Also, I have a 40 watt moon light that I thought I would use at night when it starts getting super cold. Is this ok?
Thanks again and again,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AkY9vqYjMNivpJUl1
Vanessa
Hi again Vanessa,
Thanks for sharing the link to the photo of your tree frog’s habitat. Mold like this is not uncommon, especially on this type of wood and when it is first introduced to a moist environment. I would recommend leaving it for a few weeks and seeing what happens. If the mold continues to grow then the type of wood may not be suitable for a humid environment. More likely the mold will go away on its own. You can also try rinsing the wood under the tap, but most likely the mold will just come back.
Wood often needs to sort of break in after being dry so long and sometimes it can mold or grow strange things. Usually this does not present a threat to your frog. If there is still mold in a couple weeks though I would recommend removing that particular piece of wood and not using it with your frog. When introducing new wood to an enclosure you can soak it in water for a few days first and then set up the terrarium some weeks in advance without the frog in it to see if the kind of wood you have molds or not.
Lighting – yes, a 40 watt moon light should be okay to use at night, but make sure to place a thermometer below the light to check the temperature. At night the temperature should stay in the 60’s or low 70’s. If the light is keeping the terrarium too warm or overheating the cage then this could lead to problems. The only way to know is to check the temperature with a thermometer. The light itself though won’t bother frog if it is a “moon light” that is made of black or red glass.
One other thought after looking at your setup is about the substrate. The type of moss used in your tank sometimes doesn’t pack down well and can accidentally be ingested by amphibians when they feed. Next time you clean the tank and replace the substrate, see if you can find sphagnum moss for sale which is a lighter tan color and will say “sphagnum” on the package. This type of moss stays fresher longer, but more importantly it also can be padded down into an almost sponge-like surface that is safer in the long-term.
Best of luck and enjoy the tree frog,
Devin
He is fine. Don’t worry.
Have 2 tree frogs living on seasonal plants outside. What do they do when winter arrives?
In temperate regions tree frogs hibernate during the winter. When the temperature cools and winter arrives their metabolism slows and they do not need to feed. Gray tree frogs can even survive days at temperatures slightly below freezing by producing a sort of “anti-freeze” to prevent freezing solid. I poked around a bit online but it doesn’t look like we know exactly where gray tree frogs hibernate and spend the winter. Most likely they move down into crevices in the ground or under/in logs or rocks, places that might be buffered from the most extreme temperatures. Here is a short easily read article about amphibian hibernation: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-frogs-survive-wint/ Great question.
My son just caught a juvenile tree frog (he’s very small) that was on the outside of our door casing when we got home. He wants to keep him. I found your website which is very helpful. If they mature at 2 years of age, how long will they live for as in captivity as a pet?
Great question. Given the right environment and a good diet, 5-10 years is possible. Tree frogs can live longer than this in captivity but a range of 5-10 years is a good guess.
If you are not sure you want to commit to keeping the frog for its full life, it would be better to just leave the frog outside and take your son looking for frogs around the house and neighborhood. They are nocturnal and going out with a flashlight after dark to look for the tree frog might be fun. Often they will hang around houses if the environment is right, especially near light sources that attract insects.
Otherwise, if you do decide to keep it then it is best to maintain it for its full life rather than release it later on.
Best of luck,
Devin
My frog keeps jumping around the cage a bunch. I do not know if I should worry. This is the first day.
It is normal for a tree frog to jump around and try to escape, especially the first day or two it is in a new enclosure. Usually this isn’t a problem, but if the frog seems to be trying to jump through the glass it might injure itself. To help prevent this, try attaching a dark colored paper or poster board to the outside of the tank with tape on all but one small side.
Another thing you can do to help is not disturb the frog. Don’t handle it or open the enclosure except when needed. If you can put the tank in a room where there is not a lot of movement going by that can also help.
It can take a few weeks or more for a frog to really settle into its new surroundings, but as long as it doesn’t get hurt trying to escape and there is not too much stress this shouldn’t be a problem. Gray tree frogs normally adjust well.
Best of luck,
Devin
We had either a gray or green tree frog hitchhike home with us from vacation. We are trying to decide whether to bring it to the museum (neither are native to our province and we cannot release it) or whether to keep it for a pet. Of course my kids would like to keep it but we know nothing about keeping frogs. Do they call all night long? I am a light very light sleeper, lol. Any advice somebody could offer would be a great help. Thanks
Hello Michelle,
Gray, green, and other North American tree frogs are not particularly difficult to care for. Males may call at night or after the enclosure is sprayed with water and their calls are fairly loud, but it is not something you will hear often and is usually an enjoyable behavior to observe. Only males call so if you have a female it will not vocalize.
The most common issue people have with keeping tree frogs and deciding whether or not to keep a frog in general is that they require live food, so that means also keeping live foods like crickets too. If the idea of having frog food in the house is not appealing, then it might be best to find another home for the frog. Other than the live food, their care is not that demanding and they are enjoyable animals to keep.
Devin
Thanks. How can I tell if it is a male or female?
Well, this does not help your situation, but if the frog calls then it is a male and if it does not it is a female. So you may have to wait and see.
Some males may not vocalize often in captivity, however, or you may not notice it if they call infrequently, and in that case it is difficult to tell. In some tree frogs there is also a size difference between males and females and females are generally larger than males, but I don’t know if this is the case in gray tree frogs.
My daughter caught a gray tree frog and she wants to know what I should put in the tank for it to be like where it came from.
Hi Kyle,
The tank should reflect the habitat of gray tree frogs–woodlands and forested areas near seasonal ponds. But, the setup doesn’t need to be made from natural items taken from outside. In fact, wood, plants, dirt or other items collected outside often don’t work as well as items more commonly used in terrariums sold at pet stores.
Cage items should include a water dish large enough for the gray tree frog to soak in (remember to treat tap water with an aquarium water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramines before use), a safe substrate like coconut husk fiber, leaf litter, sphagnum moss, or moist paper towels, and several perches/hide areas. A piece of driftwood or corkbark and some artificial (or live if you have lighting) plants will provide perches and cover.
One of the most important parts of the environment is actually not the things that go inside the tank but environmental conditions like temperature. Make sure to use a thermometer to measure the temperature. Try to keep the lower areas in the high 60’s/low 70’s with a warm spot under a small lamp that reaches the high 70’s or low 80’s. Have your daughter move the thermometer around to different parts of the tank to see what the temperature is near the water, near the light, during the day and at night.
Getting the temperature right, having good quality clean water available, and feeding a varied and well-supplemented diet are more important than the things that go inside the tank.
Enjoy the treefrog,
Devin
Thank you again you have been So Helpful
Hi Devin,
You seem to be te grey tree frog expert! I have 3 questions:
1. I made a large pond in my backyard with an oligotrophic peat bog rim around it. No fish. A colony of Greys established itself. There are more ponds in the neighborhood, all have fish, none has Grey Treefrogs. I have heard that Greys can smell whether there are fish in the pond and won’t breed in there as fish will eat their tads. Is that true?
2. When there is a chorus in the evening I hear occasionally a very different sound from the thrill they normally produce, like a high pitched “Quack-QuacK.” Is that maybe to ward off other males as they sometimes embrace each other trying to mate?
3. Are the tadpoles exclusively filter feeders?
Hi Jan,
Great job creating tree frog habitat in your backyard. Gray tree frogs reproduce in both temporary and permanent ponds, including those with fish. The permanent wetlands that have fish where they breed usually have a lot of vegetation and cover. More often they breed in temporary pools without fish, and of course it is better for the frogs if they breed where there are fewer predators (gray tree frog tadpoles are palatable and fish will/do eat them). I don’t think frogs actually choose breeding sites based on if there are fish or not, but rather the type of breeding habitat they prefer tends to be the kind where you wouldn’t expect fish, like shallow temporary still pools rather than rivers or large open lakes. I don’t think they actually can smell whether or not there are fish, but who knows.
Regarding the call, I would guess there is some other kind of frog at your pond that is difficult to see during the day but has a quack-like call. The only way to confirm would be to go out at night with a flashlight and try and find what species is calling when you hear it. You could also look up frog calls in your area and listen to all of them to see if any sound like the call you are hearing. It could also be an insect.
Gray tree frog tadpoles do filter feed, but they also will eat detritus and algae which they can eat off of surfaces.
Hope this helps,
Devin