When it comes to finding a pet, you’re really spoiled for choice, especially when it comes to types of frog.
Hobbyists will have difficulty choosing between frogs, particularly if they want to look after a tree frog.
One of the most popular tree frogs to be kept as pets, though, is White’s Tree Frog (also known as an “Australian Green Tree Frog”).
But how can you care for a White’s Tree Frog properly? Thankfully, it isn’t going to be too hard, as long as you’re following all the right steps and information.
And we’ve got all the information you need!
In our handy guide below, you’ll find detailed information on how a White’s Tree Frog’s diet, the perfect habitat setup that it needs, how to handle them, and more.
When found in the wild, these frogs will primarily be in Australia, but are also located in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
In these places, they’ll typically be in tropical rainforests, although you might find them near swamps or in tree canopies too. Compared to other tree frogs, they’re quite large.
It’s important that your frog continues to get the correct food in its diet, as well as the right amount of nutritional content.
Food
When a White’s Tree Frog is held in captivity, it’s going to be on a more limited diet than when it’s in the wild.
This is because we can only feed them what we rear ourselves, or what we’ve been able to get at a store.
On the other hand, the wild will offer all ranges of food for their diet.
Some of these wild insects will actually cause these frogs to sequester some mild toxins. If you handle them, wash your hands thoroughly after.
The foods that your frog will mostly eat when in captivity include crickets (of an appropriate size to them), but they will also feed on wax worms, horned worms, and Dubia roaches.
Smaller frogs will also enjoy flies. However, the crickets (and other insects) will need to be dusted with extra minerals, vitamins, and calcium first, because your frog will actually require such supplements.
Supplements
Why? Well, a White’s Tree Frog’s diet when in captivity is not going to provide them with enough nutritional content for them to be healthy. In the wild, they get enough, but this isn’t true when kept as a pet (Also check out Is It Legal To Keep Deep Sea Creatures As Pets?).
For that reason, supplements of minerals, vitamins, and calcium need to be added to the food that you’re feeding them.
Feeding Schedule
Generally speaking, most people will feed their White’s Tree Frog 3-4 times a week.
However, the amounts that you feed them each time will take some trial and error to work out, because it depends on the age and size of your frog.
To begin with, try feeding your White’s Tree Frog about 2 or 3 supplement-dusted crickets (remember, they need to be appropriately-sized) on every other day.
Each time, check if all of them are eaten in an hour. If they are, then increase the amount – 3 or 4 crickets – next time. After that, check again. If they’re still eating them all within an hour, increase it again.
With that being said, these frogs will often overeat, so you need to make sure they don’t have too much and become overweight.
What Habitat Should You Set Up For Your White’s Tree Frog?
Just like feeding, it’s also essential that your White’s Tree Frog has the correct habitat.
There are lots of different factors to take into account when doing this, and they all need to be catered to for your frog to live a happy and healthy life.
The size of your habitat will also need to give them more than enough space.
This is especially important with White’s Tree Frog, because they are actually larger than a typical tree frog, measuring as much as 4.5 inches long.
As a result, you need to have a habitat that isn’t too small. Further still, if you’re keeping two or more White’s Tree Frogs then you will need a much larger habitat enclosure.
Habitat Essential Items
In the following list, you’ll find all the essential items that you should purchase before you get your White’s Tree Frog.
Always have these things bought and set up before getting the animal itself, rather than leaving some of it to after.
An enclosure (Terrarium): As we mentioned, White’s Tree Frogs are quite large, and will need lots of room to move around. The smallest enclosure you could get would be about 12 inches wide and 12 inches long, with a height of 18 inches. However, it’s better to just go bigger: an enclosure that’s 18”X18”X24” (LXWXH) will be a good choice.
Plants: The enclosure needs to be populated with plants and branches for the White’s Tree Frog to climb on, as well as hide behind. This is very important for their well-being and activity.
Decorations: Similarly, you’ll need to put decorations in the enclosure too, for the frog to climb and hide behind.
Substrate: A substrate will really help your enclosure, providing nutrients to the plants that we just covered, as well as supporting isopods and springtails in there. If you’ve got fake plants instead, simply use a coco-husk substrate. Otherwise, we recommend an ABG mix for a bioactive vivarium.
Heat Lamp: Temperature is always important, and you’ll need a heat lamp to keep the right temperature gradient.
Thermostat: Similarly, you’ll want a thermostat to help you regulate the enclosure’s temperature. It would be dangerous for it to overheat.
Thermometer/Hygrometer: On top of that, you’ll need a thermometer and hygrometer. A thermometer specifically will tell you the temperature of the enclosure, while a hygrometer will tell you the humidity. Both are important to keep control of.
Lighting: Lighting is essential, because it will give your pet a day and night cycle, keeping their life like it would be in the wild. The best setup will have 12 hours of each. An Ultraviolet B light could be effective, but should be used in low doses for the safety of the frogs. Meanwhile, an LED grow light could help any live plants.
Water Dish: You’ll also want a water dish, with the size depending on how many frogs you have in the enclosure.
Habitat Optional Items
Fog/Mist Systems: You might want to have a fogging system in place, or a misting system. Misting your enclosure each day will help keep your humidity to the correct range. With that being said, you don’t need an automatic misting system to do it, you could just use a spray bottle daily.
A Drainage Layer: This will only be necessary if you’re going to include a waterfall feature in your enclosure’s decorations, because that water will need to be drained somewhere.
Key Habitat Features
The Terrarium (Enclosure)
Terrarium is the name given to your sealed enclosure, and the minimum size you’re going to need is 12 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 18 inches high.
However, you’ll always want to leave your White’s Tree Frog extra room, because they’re reasonably large.
On top of that, you’ll need a bigger terrarium depending on how many frogs you’re going to keep in it. If you’re keeping 2 or 3, then you’ll need the large vertical enclosures.
A good specification to go by is: 18 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 24 inches high.
This will give enough room for 3 of these frogs, but if you’ve got the money and the space then it will be great for just a single one too.
Additionally, make sure that your terrarium has been made by a reliable brand and you’ve seen positive reviews as to its quality.
You want your White’s Tree Frog to have a solid, dependable home.
The Temperature Range
Within your terrarium, you will need to closely monitor the temperature range. Your White’s Tree Frog will need conditions of the correct temperatures if they are to live healthily and happily.
On the whole, they will like warm temperatures, but a mix of warm and cooler temperatures will do them well.
Strictly speaking, during the day your terrarium should aim to have temperatures between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
By contrast, its temperatures at night should be between the low end of the 70s and the high end of the 60s (degrees Fahrenheit).
How do you get this temperature? A small heat lamp should do the trick.
The Temperature Gradient
You will also need to have a temperature gradient inside the terrarium, which means you have lower temperatures at the bottom of the enclosure and higher temperatures present at the top.
This way, your White’s Tree Frog will be able to choose their temperatures, climbing high if they want to be warmer at any point.
Strictly speaking, you’ll want to aim for around 75 degrees Fahrenheit at the bottom of the enclosure and 85 degrees at the top.
A Lighting Fixture
People will often keep their amphibians in a dark room, but this means they will get a deficiency of light and their head will struggle without the traditional day and night cycle.
Therefore, you need some lighting that will provide that for them.
The best day and night cycle to go for is a traditional 12 hours of each, and this can be achieved by a lighting fixture that’s set to follow that.
On top of that, lighting will be good for any live plants that you might be using. Fake plants won’t need them, but live plants will require grow lights to thrive and grow.
These are a special kind of lighting, and we would recommend either LED grow lights or the T5 variety.
Plants And Branches
Speaking of plants, they aren’t just to make the terrarium look authentic or nice.
Instead they, along with branches, are included in the enclosure to give your White’s Tree Frog things to climb on and hide behind.
This will give them a lifestyle that is more in tune with what their life in the wild would have been like.
Whether you use living or fake plants and branches, you will need to ensure they’re securely placed. They have to be very sturdy so that they will keep upright. If they fall, they could harm your pet.
Of course, live plants will also need the “grow lights” that we mentioned above, as well as the correct substrate.
Decorations
Similarly, decorations will give your frog things to climb and hide behind. Make sure they’re firmly secured down.
Substrate
A substrate will help your frog’s well-being, as well as affect filtration and humidity. Which one you get will depend on the type of setup you have.
For example, if you’ve got a bioactive vivarium (with living plants, isopods, and springtails in it), then you’ll want something like an ABG substrate mix for the living things.
On the other hand, a terrarium with fake plants will only need something like a coco-husk fiber substrate.
Interestingly, these types are especially good at retaining water, which will make them good for high humidity terrariums.
Humidity
Speaking of humidity, you will need to ensure your terrarium has the correct humidity for your frog.
Strictly speaking, a White’s Tree Frog will want their humidity to be around 50%. However, they’ll also want occasional raises to between 70% and 80%.
Your terrarium will need proper air circulation, and some are specifically built for this. For example, a Zilla terrarium will have vents and a screen lid.
The other way to control the humidity will be through misting. You can buy an automatic misting system, or you can simply mist the enclosure twice a day with a spray bottle.
Either way, use a thermometer/hygrometer to tell you the humidity levels, so you know that they’re correct and safe.
Clean & Dechlorinated Water
It’s absolutely essential that the water in your frog’s terrarium is clean and dechlorinated.
This means that tap water is not going to be suitable, because it will have been treated with chlorine or other chemical, which will irritate your frog because it absorbs the chemicals through its skin.
If you’re going to use tap water, you must treat it with a dechlorination agent (such as ReptiSafe).
On the other hand, you can use Reverse Osmosis water instead. Additionally, a bottle of spring water will also do the trick.
Water Dish
And where does this water go? You should decant it into a shallow and medium-size water dish for one frog, but you’ll need a bigger dish if you’ve got 3+ frogs in the terrarium.
How Should You Handle Your White’s Tree Frog?
It’s important that you handle your frog delicately and properly. To start with, wash your hands first, or wear non-powdered vinyl gloves.
On top of that, keep focused on the frog and make sure it doesn’t fall or leap from your hands.
Handling sessions should be kept to just 15 minutes maximum, and only once or twice per week.
Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards! White’s Tree Frogs shouldn’t be poisonous, like some other frogs, but they might produce toxins.
What Is The Reproduction Process For White’s Tree Frogs?
If you’re interested in having your White Tree Frogs reproduce, meaning you’ll obviously need at least a male and a female frog, then you’ll need to know about various factors.
Sexing Your Frogs
To begin with, you’ll need to be sure that you have at least one male and at least one female White Tree Frog. How can you be sure? Sexing.
Firstly, inspect a frog and look for its nuptial pads. If it’s a male, then the nuptial pad will be on the inside of their “thumb”, and it’ll look like a dark bump or spot. If it’s a female, there won’t be one there.
Secondly, female White Tree Frogs will be larger than males. Typically speaking, they can grow as long as 4.5 inches.
This should help you make certain of which is male and which is female.
Breeding Season With A Rain Chamber
Since the frogs aren’t in the wild, you’ll need to simulate their traditional breeding season, which will require certain conditions.
The way that you can do this is with a rain chamber, which uses PVC pipes and water pipes to circulate water in the terrarium, allowing it to then fall like rainfall.
For the White’s Tree Frog breeding season, it’ll be raining.
On top of that, the breeding season will also see higher temperatures.
It’s a good idea to precede the simulated breeding season with 3 months of lower temperatures, food, and humidity, as well as less water.
This will mimic what their winter in the wild is like. After that, put the frogs in the rain chamber and let the “rainfall” and higher temperatures commence.
Additionally, their breeding season will also see more available food in the wild, so you should feed the frogs more around this time.
Finally, if you can have more frogs, then it’s worth having about 3 male frogs to every 1 female.
This ratio will cause the males to compete, speeding up the breeding process. If it all goes well, you’ll start seeing results in days, with eggs in the terrarium.
How Do You Look After Tadpoles?
Once the eggs hatch, you’ll be left with tadpoles. These will need to be looked after properly, beginning with:
Relocation
Immediately as the tadpoles are born, transfer them to a new container without the adult White’s Tree Frogs.
This will prevent those frogs from eating the tadpoles. However, before you transfer them you must tend to the water temperature.
Water Temperature
The new container will need a water temperature of 82-85 degrees Fahrenheit, which it needs to stick to.
Water Quality
Additionally, the water needs to be of the right quality too. As we’ve covered earlier, the water needs to be clean and have no chlorine or chloramines in it.
You can use Reverse Osmosis water or bottled spring water to do this, or you can dechlorinate tap water with a dechlorination agent.
Only once the container’s water is clean, chlorine-free, and kept at the right temperature can you transfer the tadpoles to it.
Food
Finally, feeding is essential. In terms of food, the tadpoles can eat boiled lettuce, boiled spinach leaves, hard-boiled eggs (really!), or frozen worms.
On top of that, they can have commercial tadpole food too. For example, you can get commercial pellets to feed them, which will provide a good amount of protein to the tadpoles.
Feeding Schedule
As for how often you should feed the tadpoles, you’ll need to feed them 2 or 3 times each day.
Each of these times should last between 45 minutes and an hour, leaving the tadpoles to eat the food for that duration.
Once the timing is up, you need to remove any leftover food, because it will otherwise pollute the water.
How Do You Look After Froglets?
Once the tadpoles grow into froglets, you’ll need to continue looking after them properly.
In terms of food, you can give them feeder insects that are an appropriate size, such as wingless flies or pinhead crickets.
Be sure not to overfeed them as usual, but make sure they’re eating properly and you’re clearing away leftovers at the end of feeding sessions.
Additionally, you should give the froglets something to climb on.
You’ll be able to notice when they have reached the froglet stage, because their tail will have disappeared. Once it’s been absorbed, they can move back into the terrarium.
Final Thoughts
A White’s Tree Frog is a fun creature for hobbyists to keep as a pet, but they need to be kept in the appropriate conditions we’ve outlined.
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