White's Tree Frogs By Andrew Boyd

 

White's Tree Frog (also commonly known as the Green Tree Frog, which isn't very helpful, we have several species of Tree Frogs that are green) is one of the largest of the Hylid frogs in Australia, and is certainly amongst the most successful interms of numbers and distribution. They ate extremely hardy (for frogs) in captivity, which has endeared them to frogkeepers all over the world. They are extremely loveable with their bright glossy green skins and eternal smiles.

 

I came across mine in a petshop in Sydney, where the two of them were not very happy at all. They had been kept in a crowded plastic aquaria half full of dirty water for long enough that they were a bit emaciated. I bought them anyway. I figured (probably arrogantly at the time) that any care I gave them would be better than they had already. It turns out I beat lan McGuinness to them by about five seconds, he was standing behind me at the cash register as I paid for them, asking if there were any more. Sorry Ian! You've got first pick of the litter when they spawn. [We'll holdyou to that ... Editor]

 

All I had on them was a couple of paragraphs in a Tetra Terrarium book. It said (in quaint German-structured English) that they should be kept warm on a newspaper substrate. In that funny way things have of working out sometimes, Rodney and Deborah Ralph had a spare tank that they had Graeme Maloney build for them that was big enough to take a full sheet of newspaper folded once. How' s that for luck? I crafted a lid out of an old melamine-covered shelf, covering the large hole in it with plastic gauze to let air but not cats in. An old light-fitting served as a way to stop the frogs jumping onto the coloured 40-watt globe that I used to heat the tank (I feared dreadful burns if the frogs' soft moist skin came into contact with the bulb). Several US correspondents swear that the frogs know not to get too close to the bulb, but I wasn't prepared to take the risk at the time (and I guess I'm still not).

 

In it's final iteration the tank is as described above, flat untorn newspaper substrate (which is quite conevnient come cleaning time), a plastic two litre aquarium for a water/swimming bowl, and a log to hide in. There is a ceramic foodbowl for feeding livefood that might otherwise crawl under the substrate and escape (such as Mealworms).

 

I applied for a permit to keep them, and I am happy to say that it was granted. As far as I know it is a legal requirement to have a permit to keep all amphibians in the ACT, and to maintain accurate records which are submitted annually. The Wildlife Protection Unit of ACT Parks and Conservation have all the details.

 

Food must be alive when given - I have never heard of a White's Tree Frog taking it otherwise. I have personally fed mine pinkies (day-old mice), Bardi (Lawn) Grubs, worms, slugs (not recommended - they stick to the newspaper and dry out!), Christmas Beetles, Crickets, Mealworms, Waxworms, Cockroaches, Moths, and Butterfles. They especially seemed to enjoy the Crickets and Cockroaches, the larger the better. I give them a good feed about once a week and in between they are fed according to opportunity - whenever a big Bush Cockroach turns up in the garden!

 

So how do my frogs live differently than their cousins kept overseas, mainly by Americans? Generally it is in the humidity. Most of the tanks "over there" have a lot more water about the place, usually in the form of half the tank siliconed off to form a pool. 1 have avoided this because of a fear of a bacterial condition called red-leg - it seems to be associated with excessive humidity and dirty conditions. Cleanliness is good, and when you have an animal that can sometimes leave a semi-liquid deposit some three or more centimetres long and a centimetre round, then the cleaning can be quite a chore! Which is where the newspaper substrate comes into it's own - it is just rolled up and thrown away. Most Americans seem to go in for a lot of foliage in their frog-tanks, but the soil in the pots can harbour bacteria as well.

 

So I have an interesting situation, where the frogs are perfectly happy and healthy, but according to most reports, not in enough humidity to breed. I have given this a great deal of thought, and taking into consideration the fact that they could live another twenty years (the record in captivity is twenty-eight) I have decided to leave them the way they are. That way I trust they will be around to delight my grandchildren as they have my young children.

 

White's Tree Frogs, TFH Publishers (details unavailable at present).

Digest for the Successful Terrarium, Richard D. Bartlett Tetra

TerraFauna 1989 ISBN 3-89356-035-1

Keeping and Breeding Amphibians, Chris Mattison, Blandford 1993 ISBN 0-7137-2328-9

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