housing baby RETF

this weekend we *might* be bringing home a RETF.. chances are it will be a small captive bred/born animal. i have spoken to the supplier and he said they were cbb in vietnam and then shipped over. thats the closest i have gotten to cbb, at least they arent wild cought though.. anyway. should i be housing it in a medium size critter/herp house or move it right into a 10 or 20 gal tank? I dont want it to get overwhelmed and die because of being in an enclosure too big for it.. thoughts????

i feel a little leary of the whole bred in vietnam and shipped here thing. why can't the supplier get them in the U.S.? there a few breeders in florida that produce large numbers of them.

anyhow, i think starting with a 10 gallon tank is fine and won't cause stress--they are different than ball pythons and crested geckos in that respect. if it is a really tiny baby you could start it in a medium kritter keeper if you want to, but you don't have to.

I thought it sounded kinda shadey too.. his name is mark lucas (?) hes all over kingsnake for selling them, his website is listed too. perhaps i should run a boi on him and see what i can scrape up. what breeders do you know of down here that perhaps i can get ahold of.. were going to keep a look out this weekend and see what they have at the expo/show.. as always thank you emily your awesome.

thanks for the info on the enclosure size too!

well shoot, there was one breeder in particular that i was going to recommend but i can't find his info. he used to advertise on kingsnake all the time and a friend of mine got frogs from him several times and highly recommended him. if i can track him down i'll pass along how to get in touch with him.

shucks lol.. doesnt it always happen that way, if you think of it do let me know :)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/...f4640dd372.jpg
set up.. trial and error. i was going to do something similar for the cresties, only bigger :P not till they get bigger though


mark lucas, thats the gentleman i spoke to who had the farm raised" RETF... here is what BOI said, not bad :) http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ght=mark+lucas

wow that enclosure is really nice--good luck finding a frog in that! :P

lol Emily, yeah I figured it would be tough but I would rather have difficulty finding a frog and it be happy than stressed out :gj: Aside from the fact its empty I actually like looking at the enclosure in general :)

Thank you for the compliment, do you think it looks ok for a RETF?

i think it looks perfect for a red eye, just needs a shallow dish or something that will be the water source but you probably plan on adding that when you add the frog. :)

you might also consider training the frog to eat out of a cup since there is a lot of foilage in there to have to find food in (although they are pretty good at it). you can put crickets, roaches and whatever other insects you feed into a cup and put that in the enclosure and the frog will learn to eat out of it. that also eliminates you having to find and dig out anything that doesn't get eaten overnight.

thats a great idea..

any suggestions as to how i should do that lol. i do have a shallow (its a reptile food thing) dish made out of rock i planned on putting in there, i saw a frog drown at the petstore not long ago and it broke my heart so i refuse to put one in there very deep.. scares the tar out of me!

Bowl/dish feeding is a good idea and I would be able to see it more often too if i put it near the front of the tank, how do you keep the crickets INSIDE the cup? I have heard of plucking their legs off but isnt that time consuming? How many crickets do the frogs eat a daily typically.. its not a big deal since i have cricket eating machines in the house (canon and nikon) but i would like to know since im meeting with craig today to get more for the girls. I do know handling is an absolute no-no. Should I stick to just one red eye or two? I have read they do better in pairs/groups, is that true? i was thinking i should get one and see if i can keep it alive first.. I know its a small enclosure, especially considering its long and not tall but we do plan to move up when it gets bigger if nessesary, as far as i know we will be getting a cbb baby, not a WC juvinile/adult.

Also, is there a night bulb I could use over the tank so I can see the frog at night, one that wouldnt disturb it. I know beardies are sensative to that stuff but wasnt sure about the frogs. Should I be using a light for the live plant (it says indirect light on the tabby thing) or will it be fine if i just open the blinds on it.. I wasnt sure if the frog would be bothered by THAT light, similar to the cresties

i used to use a tupperware sandwhich container as a water dish. i buried it down into the bedding and then put a tall rock in it and draped a few vines down into it so that the frogs could climb out of it easily. i started out using a fountain type thing which looked awesome, but having to take it out, disassemble, clean and reassemble every day quickly became too much of a pain.

you will have to pinch off the backlegs of the crickets to keep them confined to a feeding cup. it only takes a second--if the crickets are small just make sure to pinch and not pull the legs as that can tear their bodies and they quickly die. depending on the size of the frog they may eat 3-4 crickets every 2-3 days or so. babies you can feed a little more often, but adults you don't want to feed every day because they can actually become obese.

i'm not sure if they prefer to be kept in groups, but i always kept mine that way. they never bred because i didn't provide a rain chamber to spur the females to produce eggs (but the males did try to do their part :P ). during rain storms in the spring the males would call to the females and chase them around--funny how they knew it was raining outside even though they were inside with no view of what was happening outside.

you will probably need to use a uvb/uva light for the plants. some people recommend them for the frogs and some don't but i figure if there is any possibility that it is good for them, why not use it? it certainly isn't detrimental as long as it doesn't cause the temperature to get too high--as long as you use a fluorescent bulb that shouldn't be a problem.

you can use a red infrared bulb near the tank at night for viewing purposes but those do usually put out heat so keep an eye on the temps. i wouldn't put it right over or next to the cage.

as always, great info!! so they really dont eat much at all?! do i supply them with anything else to eat, i guess since they are small they wouldnt *need* to eat very much, i was thinking at least several crickets daily, shoot for that its cheap to feed them lol, do they do that crazy long tounge thing to eat (lol stupid question im sure but ive never seen frogs eat besides on like national geographic).. just tap into canon and nikons supply. im excited to hear them call to one another if i get more than one later on.. what size enclosure did you use and how many did you house in it? i think i saw you say you liked to use 10gal per frog? I had heard using a fountain was neat but not at the expense of that much cleaning, its good to hear you agree.

are the flourecent bulbs the house bulbs or speciaty (buy in pet store) bulbs? i always get them confused. On the tab of the ivy it said it wasnt required to use the uva/uvb bulbs as long as there is indirect light.. it did say to keep it OUT of direct light in big letters lol.. it was suggested in offices, houses, exc.

all of the frogs i had i got as subadults and adults and i fed them crickets and lateralis roaches every 2-3 days. they didn't seem interested in any sort of worm although if i start up another colony i'd like to try silkworms. babies may need to eat more than that, i'm really not sure but you can see how many crickets they tend to eat at one time and kind of go from there.

they don't have long tongues like chameleons. they just pounce on their food and grab it. :)

i quarantined new frogs in 10 gallon tanks and kept my (small) colony in a tall 30 gallon octagon shaped tank. the most i ever had in it at once was 5 adults.

this is my favorite uvb bulb and is highly recommended for a lot of different herps: http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...5-50-uvb-bulb/.

great to know!! how you ever aquired all this information Ill never know! I would love to have an octagon shaped tank for them.. ahh, eventually :) At least I know its safe to have a group.. I will see how it goes with feeding, after we see how the show goes that is lol.. if not it will be at least another week before mark can get more of the cbb babies, so as always i will let you know what happens :gj: its so wonderful having such a knowledgable community to come to.

thats way awesome to hear they pounce on their food lol

it is hilarious watching them eat. they can really jump too!

i like to fill my brain with reptile related things. :P it just comes from reading and researching and talking to other people. soon you brain will be full of these things too. :D

Great info Emily. I just picked up a nice 20 gallon bowfront for my frogs, along with some driftwood I got at the local lake (boy is that going to be fun to disinfect but well worth it). Ashley, your tank looks amazing. Good luck finding a tree frog to put in it soon :D

thank you catawhat.. be sure to post pictures of yours!!

I was thinking about a RETF setup for my office, (I didnt want a fish tank like others because of the big cleaning job). Of course I wouldn't do it because I think someone would flip out with a frog in the office... :/