Green Tree Frog – Litoria caerulea
Dainty Tree Frog or Graceful Tree Frog – Litoria gracilenta

I’ve always loved the tropical frogs such as the Green Tree Frog, Red-Eyed Tree Frog and the Dainty Tree Frog. I decided to apply for a Keeper’s Licence so that I would be able to keep some of these beautiful frogs inside the house. I set up 2 frog enclosures. One is an Exo-Terra tank given as a mothers day present . The other an old fish tank. My licence took 6 weeks to process and during that time the frog enclosures were set up with rocks, plants, water filters, lights and heaters ready for the new babies.

I purchased 5 little Green Tree Frogs and 5 tiny Dainties from a breeder and have thoroughly enjoyed watching them grow. Unfortunately I lost one of the Dainties. It was sucked up against the water filter and couldn’t swim away. It was just too tiny to fight the current. I removed the filter after that. The frogs arrived on 1st July. They were so tiny. The Green Tree frogs were about 2cm long and have grown VERY quickly. They live in the Exo-Terra tank. The Dainties were about 1 cm long and very pale translucent yellow. They are just starting to green up now and are nearly 3 times their original size.

Baby Green Tree Frogs moving into their new home

Baby Dainty Tree Frog

Baby Dainty Tree Frog

I feed my frogs crickets, woodies and house flies. Various sizes of crickets are necessary for the different sized frogs. The Green Tree Frogs are now eating adult sized crickets which can be quiet noisy at night! One of the Green Tree frogs has started to croak. Very surprising as I thought they were far too young at this stage.

Green Tree frogs as they grew…

The following picture was taken this evening.

The Dainty Tree Frogs are harder to photograph as the old fish tank is only open at the top. The Exo-Terra on the other hand has opening front doors for easy access. The following photo was taken during the day as the Dainties slept. One shows the lovely green colouring while the other the yellow underneath. I love to see their feet and belly all squashed against the glass. They conserve moisture this way as they like to sleep under the lights during the day.

Dainty Tree Frog this evening. He is waiting for crickets to come to the warm water.

Finally a movie clip of the frogs feeding.

[flash http://mybackyard.info/movies/MVI_1340.flv w=450 h=337]

 

 

Posted on September 28th, 2008 by Sue
Filed under: Frogs, Pets