Green Tree Frog care sheet

Green tree 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 green tree frog's vivarium should be at least 300mm in length and 450mm in height. There are 2 main reasons for this; firstly the green tree frog is going to grow to around 1.5-3" so they need a space large enough for them to move around in. Secondly they are an arboreal frog so they need an enclosure with enough height for them to climb.

Green tree frogs require a near constant air temperature of 75oF. 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 stays constant.

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 75-80oF.

Green tree frogs are arboreal frogs from the USA. 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 equivelant compact light.

Green tree frogs require UVB in order to synthesise vitamin D3 inside their skin. The vitamin D3 helps the frog to absorb calcium which 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 months and compact lamps are replaced every 6 months.