Need some advice on a giant tree frog found in banana box...

[KellieF]

Hi
Im in melbourne and i found a giant tree frog in the banana boxes at work last sunday. Have spoken to the dse here in vic and a wildlife officer and have permisson to keep him as i have a basic wildlife licence.
I have set him up in a terrarium with uv light, filter, aquarium heater, drift wood, plants rocks etc...

I have spoken to numerous people this week in regards to what the best care for him is to get him better after his long and cold trip and have so many different answers and now im not sure whats the right thing.

Have spoken to the frog carer at the melbourne zoo, a reptile wildlife rescuer in my area, pet shop that sells frogs and have taken him to the vet.

UV Light: they all had a different veiw on time for it to be on ranging from 8 hours to 12 hours a day
Two of them said he also needs infra red heat globe on 24/7 but the other two said its not necessary.

Water temp: I was told 25'c by one as it is winter time now, the other 3 said 28'c 30'c Vet said that the air temp up the top of the enclosure has to be warmer than 25'c the another said it just has to be above 20'c.

Food: One said dont feed as he is in a phase called taupa (not sure if thats how its spelt) and his stomach wont digest it and it will rot and kill him, another said have food available in there for him for when he is ready to eat, and another said dont worry about feeding him yet they can go a couple of weeks without food. (but im guessing it has already been a couple of weeks as he would have been in the bananas for a while.)

When the told said the temp needs to be at 25'c i dropped it and then it wasnt humid anymore and he turned brown overnight and hasnt come green again yet...dont know if this is just a normal colour change thing for them or if he was too cold...

So this morning i have done what it says on the care sheet on the Amphibian Research Centre website and put the water temp at 28'c-30'c and now it is nice and humid in there and hopefully this is right.

If anyone here has one of these frogs any info you could give me on whats the best for them would be great.....meanwhile i will keep trying to get onto the Amphibian Research Centre, every time i ring i get the answering machine....

Thanks

Kellie

 

[1issie]

Its a bannana box frog,DON'T RELEASE IT,it may carry diaseases that harm other frogs.

 

[KellieF]

Of course im not going to release it....

 

[Pythoninfinite]

She's in Victoria, and it's a tropical frog, so she's unlikely to release it.

Sounds like you're doing the right thing kellieF, after the mixed advice you received. The state of TORPOR relates to a sort of brumation in cooler weather, and those who live in the tropics may be able to tell you more about the activity levels of frogs in the wild at this time of the year, although I was in Derby, WA, a few couple of weeks ago, and GTFs were fairly active there on warmish nights. Torpor and feeding activity are temperature related, so if you keep the temps at the levels you have now, try and feed it in a day or two, especially if it is active after dark. This would imply it is hungry.

Jamie.

 

[Profanicus]

Hey good work on the rescue, sounds like you are doing the right thing with all the right equipment! Frogs are awesome.

This is what I have worked out from my own research and experience (which is fairly minimal so far), I keep splendida which have similar requirements.

If it is a white-lipped, they are tropical so matching the conditions up north is what you want to do.

With uv/lighting, Cairns is getting around 11-12 hours of daylight, so setting your daylight period for anything around that is fine.

The use of a heat globe depends on whether you are struggling to get high enough temps I guess, but I would say don't use one.
An aquarium heater in your water should be enough. It should be set to 28-30 degrees, this should keep the air temps above 20. If not, try covering some of the ventilation to slow heat loss. Air temps consistently below 15 are a problem and you would consider additional options if this were the case.

Feeding, if you are keeping temps between 20-28 you should feed him every couple of days. My little guys are still ravenous this time of year.

 

[Jay84]

Its a bannana box frog,DON'T RELEASE IT,it may carry diaseases that harm other frogs.

Did you read the first post???? She has already said she is keeping it.

Good luck with the little frog, lucky he fell into your hands.

 

[KellieF]

Thanks guys....im just hoping the little fella makes it....be a shame to see him go after all this effort...
Kellie

 

[Kristy_07]

Of course im not going to release it....

She's in Victoria, and it's a tropical frog, so she's unlikely to release it.

Did you read the first post???? She has already said she is keeping it./QUOTE]

Guys, lissie's 9-years old. Chill It's awesome that she knows not to release banana-box frogs because of disease.

Kellie, I agree with Profanicus - I'd be trying to match Nth Qld conditions as far as UV hours, water and ambient temps, humidity. As far as feeding, once your temps are good, and he's looking happy and fairly active, and give him smaller feeds at first. Good luck.

 

[JAS101]

if u have followed the advice from the ARC website then thats all the info u need , they know there frogs and how to look after them.

 

[KellieF]

Yes I figured they would be the experts....that's why it would be good to actually speak to someone there....but still no answer, just the machine.

 

[KellieF]

update on froggie....still no change tonight, still brown.....still no answer at the ARC....geeez, wonder if there is actually anyone there looking after the frogs....or are they just reallly busy....

 

[Polycarp]

You're doing all the right things.. just give the little guy some time.. I'm in Queensland, all the treefrogs are not active at the moment, that's normal. All he really needs is to be warm and comfortable, and have a place to hide out and rest. Offer him food, keep him warm and he'll have no problem digesting. If he starts moving around at night, and making a barking sound.... this is frog equivalent to "I'm happy...and hungry". Don't worry about the colour change..

 

[mels75]

your new addition

Good luck getting in contact with ARC. We had a lot of problems getting through to a person. But if you do need assistance we have an environmental centre at school with Green Tree Frogs and now have a great contact with a vet in Cairns. We live in Torquay, Victoria and what you seem to be doing is pretty much what we do with the frogs at school and at home.