Amazon Milk Frog Care Sheet

The Amazon milk frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix) is a large species of arboreal frog native to the Amazon rainforest in South America. It is sometimes referred to as the blue milk frog due to a sticky, milk-like substance that they produce when feeling threatened.

Amazon milk frogs do well with a glass terrarium as their enclosure. This is because glass is great at allowing heat to escape, ensuring that the enclosure stays cool enough. Other enclosures, such as wooden vivariums, are far too efficient at retaining heat.

The Amazon milk frog's vivarium should be at least 450mm in length and 600mm in height. There are 2 main reasons for this; firstly, the Amazon milk frog is going to grow to around 4", so they need a space large enough for them to move around in. Secondly, they are arboreal frogs, so they need an enclosure with enough height for them to climb.

Amazon milk frogs require a near-constant air temperature of 75°F on the warm side of the enclosure. This is best achieved by sticking a large heatmat on one side of the glass enclosure. This heatmat is regulated using a thermostat to make sure the temperature doesn't exceed 75oF.

As the glass is only being heated on one side, this also creates a small temperature gradient within the enclosure, allowing the frog to warm itself up or move away to cool down.

If the enclosure is not able to get up to temperature with the heat mat alone, a small basking bulb may be implemented in the canopy as long as the temperatures do not exceed 75°F.

Amazon milk frogs are arboreal frogs from the northern side of South America. Animals that inhabit jungle regions do have some natural cover but still receive a fair amount of UV. Their UVB source should reflect this. In this kind of enclosure, lights are generally held in a canopy above the mesh ceiling. In this canopy, you can either implement a 5-6% UV tube or the equivalent compact light.

Amazon milk frogs require UVB in order to synthesise vitamin D3 inside their skin. The vitamin D3 helps the frog to absorb calcium, which is crucial for bone structure and growth. This is why reptiles can suffer from metabolic bone disease (MBD) when not provided with adequate UVB.

It is recommended that t5 tubes are replaced every 9-12 months and compact lamps are replaced every 6 months.

Amazon milk frogs should be kept on a slightly moist substrate to increase the humidity inside the vivarium. Whilst any loose substrate has the potential to be accidentally swallowed, we have found this to not be a problem with coarse orchid bark, and that is what we keep our Amazon milk frogs on. It is also very easy to clean. If the humidity is not high enough with just this substrate, we would recommend adding a small amount of moss to the enclosure.

Amazon milk frogs are arboreal frogs, and they do like to climb on top of things to survey their surroundings. The terrarium should be decorated with various pieces of wood or vines to enable them to do this.

The milk frog vivarium can be decorated with artificial plants for a more natural look. Natural wood ornaments look very effective and also provide further perches for the frogs. Trailing plants are very good at disguising electrical wires and equipment, as well as providing cover for young amphibians

Amazon milk frogs are carnivores and have a diet consisting mainly of live foods. The core of the live food diet should be high in protein and relatively easy to digest. We have found that brown crickets are the most readily accepted, but you can also use black crickets or locusts (hoppers). On occasion, for variation, you can offer other bugs such as mealworms, waxworms, or calciworms.

The vivarium should be misted with water every morning to provide hydration. A water bowl may also be introduced as a source of freshwater.

To provide the Amazon milk frog with optimal nutrition and to keep them in the best of health, they will require diet supplementation in the form of calcium, vitamins, and minerals. These are most commonly available as powders

Any live food for the Frog should be 'gut-loaded' with an insect food. This basically involves feeding the live food a nutrient-rich diet before they are fed to the Amazon milk frog. Our live food is delivered to you already gut-loaded, but this should be continued at home.

If you keep a male and female together, they may breed. You do not need to do anything to encourage this. As long as they are healthy and the conditions are good, it will happen naturally. You need to consider whether you want this to happen before introducing the pair. What will you do with the babies if you incubate the eggs?

A gravid female should have access to a nesting box to lay her eggs. The box should be large enough that she can fully turn around inside it. Inside the nesting box, we use a soil mix that is kept humid enough to hold its shape but not so wet that it will saturate any eggs. We have found that ProRep spider life is perfect for this.

Amazon Milk Frogs, as with most pets, require a clean environment to thrive. We recommend a spot clean as often as possible (every day) and a full clean every 4 weeks or so. If you are keeping the chameleon in a bio-active enclosure, you can spot clean and monitor the enclosure. It may still be a good item to change out the bedding a few times per year.

When cleaning the enclosure, you should remove your animal, all decorations, and all of the bedding. Once the enclosure is clear, you can spray it all over with a reptile-friendly disinfectant. These usually work very quickly and only need to be left for around 30 seconds. Instructions can normally be found on the disinfectant packaging. Once the disinfectant has done its work, it can be wiped away from the surfaces with a paper towel.

In some cases, you might want to repeat this process a second time to ensure that the enclosure is thoroughly cleaned. Your decorations can be cleaned in a similar method, simply spray them down with the disinfectant and rinse thoroughly with water before drying them off and putting them back into the enclosure.

We recommend that this process is done during the daytime to make sure that the frog will be going back to a warm vivarium for at least an hour before the basking lamps are turned off for the night.