Grey tree frogs are very popular and entertaining because of their changing skin color. If you keep a grey tree frog or are interested in them and want to know what they eat, then stay with us at Al Amphibian.
What do grey tree frogs eat?
Grey tree swans have a rough skin like toads, but they are not toads; that’s why their skin is always moist like frogs. They have an interesting feature and can change the color of their skin compared to their surroundings. Like most frogs, Grey tree frogs are carnivorous as adults.
Most of their food is insects. Because they live on trees, they do not feed on aquatic creatures, and their food is insects and mollusks found on trees, such as butterflies, moths, flies, worms, and many other insects.
They recognize anything that moves as food, so some of their prey pretend to be dead when threatened so that the grey tree frog does not hunt them. They are amphibians and have a two-stage life. At each stage of their life, they have a different diet. At first, they start their life in water and are completely aquatic.
Then they grow rapidly, and extensive changes take place in them, which is called metamorphosis. After metamorphosis, they find the ability to live on land and trees and become adults. Adult grey tree frogs are obligate carnivores and feed only on live animals. They lie in wait for their prey and catch insects with their sticky tongue. They are very active and even follow their prey in many cases.
What do grey tree frogs eat as tadpoles in nature?
The grey tree frog lays eggs. At first, the embryo of this frog feeds on the yolk inside its egg for three weeks, and when it grows enough, it hatches. At this time, their body is very weak, and they are not able to move and swim. For this reason, they feed on the rest of their eggs in the first few days of life.
Their growth rate is very fast, and after a few days, they will be able to move a little. At this time, they are herbivores and feed on algae and small pieces of aquatic plants. Plant materials are harder to digest and need more time to digest; that’s why tadpoles, at the beginning of their lives, have complex and long intestines that can digest plant materials.
The more they grow, the shorter their intestines are, which is suitable for absorbing protein materials that are digested faster. For this reason, they are omnivores after three weeks and start eating protein items such as insect larvae, small insects, and animal carcasses.
Their growth rate is very high, probably because they are easy prey for predators and have no defenses to protect themselves, so they have to grow faster and pass this stage. Grey tree frogs’ tadpoles become completely carnivorous at the end of their larval period and start hunting small aquatic organisms, insects, and worms, and do not feed on plant material for the rest of their lives.
What do Young and adult grey tree frogs eat in nature?
Young grey tree frogs emerge from the water after metamorphosis and are completely carnivorous. As their name suggests, these frogs live mostly on trees. Therefore, Young grey tree frogs feed on small living creatures that they can hunt on trees. Most of their food consists of ants, small slugs, termites, and mites.
It takes almost two years for them to reach full maturity, and until then, due to their small size, they feed on small creatures that they can hunt. As they grow and become bigger, they can also hunt larger prey. Because their jaws and mouths get bigger, they can catch new, larger prey. It consists of beetles, mosquitoes, flies, ants, grasshoppers, and snails.
In nature, they hunt their food from the leaves of plants and trees. They are very agile and easily move between the branches of your tree. In urban areas, they usually lurk near lights and hunt insects that are attracted to the lights. Studies have shown that the main food of grey tree frogs in nature is ants and termites, which make up 70% of their food.
What do grey tree frogs eat in captivity?
Grey tree frogs should be fed food similar to what they eat in the wild. In the wild, they feed on a wide variety of small organisms, and the only reason their diets differ in captivity is because their owners cannot feed them the different insects they hunt in the wild. Therefore, the food of grey tree frogs in captivity is limited to a few items.
You can feed grey tree frogs with breeding insects, such as fruit flies, mealworms, crickets, silkworms, waxworms, and cockroaches. Grey tree frogs are not very picky about their food and you should feed them a varied diet to get all the nutrients they need. But due to their limited food in captivity, you can supply them with the food they need by two methods.
The first method is to use supplements. In this method, you get food supplements such as calcium, which are in powder form, from pet stores, and before giving insects to the frog, you roll the insects in calcium powder, and then you give those insects to your frog. The second method is called intestinal loading. In this method, you give healthy and useful food to insects as food, and then you give these insects to your frog. In this way, Nutritious food enters your frog’s body through insects.
Do not use wild insects to feed grey tree frogs in captivity because frogs in captivity have a weaker immune system than frogs that live in the wild, so they may get sick easily. Also, most wild insects are contaminated due to contact with chemicals and insecticides and may transfer these substances to your frog, so try to always use live-farmed insects.
Try to feed the grey tree frog in special containers or outside their habitat because many insects can hide or go under the soil bed, and the frog cannot hunt them. To feed grey tree frog tadpoles, you can first use cooked vegetables and herbs such as cabbage and lettuce, as well as some algae, and after two weeks, you can add worms and small insects such as mosquitoes to their food.
How fat should a grey tree frog be?
Feed grey tree frogs in captivity two or three times a week and young grey tree frogs once a day. Of course, the amount of food they eat depends on the temperature of their environment. Grey tree frogs are less active at low temperatures and reduce their body metabolism, and need less food, and one meal a week is enough for them, but at high temperatures, their body metabolism increases and they are more active and need food.
Grey tree frogs, like most frogs, are prone to obesity. They are cold-blooded animals and have little space for movement, so you should not overfeed them. They are greedy in eating and if you give them extra food, they get fat. You should always remove the extra food because fed frogs will still eat them even though they are full.
To prevent grey tree frog obesity, try to give them fatty foods such as slugs and wax worms occasionally. Try to place some plants and branches in their living area so that they have enough space to move vertically and can climb the branches. Grey tree frogs should easily climb branches and move around. If your frog cannot climb easily and does not move much, it is either sick or too fat. Healthy grey tree frogs are very mobile and move between branches. Normally, these frogs can live up to two weeks without food, but at lower temperatures, this time increases.
Why my grey tree frog does not eat?
Frogs usually like to hunt their food
Some people feed them using tongs. But the best thing is to put their food in front of them and let them eat until they are satisfied. But sometimes your grey tree frog doesn’t want to eat and you may worry. There are several reasons why grey tree frogs are not eating that you should pay attention to.
They are still not used to their new place. One of the reasons why frogs don’t eat is the stress that happens to them when they change their living place. In this case, put the frog in a dark place for a few hours to relieve some of its stress. Frogs are nocturnal and are more active in the dark.
Their food is too large
Many times, the reason for not eating food is that the prey is too big. Frogs can’t chew their food and swallow it whole, so they can’t eat big food.
Their environment temperature is low
As we mentioned earlier, frogs have a lower metabolism at low temperatures and need less food. They do not have much appetite at low temperatures and do not show a desire to eat food.
You feed the frog at the wrong time
Grey tree frogs eat mostly at night, but they can get used to eating at other times. If you feed them at a time which they don’t use to, they may not eat the food.
They are not used to that food
Grey tree frogs are usually not picky eaters, but there are cases where if you give them food that they are not used to eating, they will not eat it.
Inappropriate food
As we said before, grey tree frogs are carnivorous and eat live food. So if you give them dead insects or human food, they will not eat.
If your frog doesn’t eat food try to Provide live food to encourage frogs to eat, and try to offer as many different foods as possible so they can choose. If they don’t want to eat, hold the food in front of them with a pair of tongs and shake it to encourage them to eat. Finally, if none of these methods work, there is a possibility that your frog is sick.
What we learned
Grey tree frogs are one type of amphibians that are interesting animals due to their ability to change the color of their skin and many people keep them. Grey tree frogs have a two-stage life. At the beginning of their life as embryos, they feed on the yolk of their eggs. When they grow enough, they break their eggs and come out.
They are completely aquatic and cannot move or swim. They first feed on the rest of their eggs. Their growth rate is very high and they can move after a few days. At this time, as a tadpole, grey tree frogs are herbivores and their intestines are suitable for digesting plant material. They feed on aquatic plants and algae.
As they grow, their intestines become shorter, which is suitable for digesting protein materials. The tadpoles are omnivores at this time. At the end of their larval period, they become carnivores and feed on dead animals, insect larvae, worms, insects, and small aquatic animals. After reaching maturity, grey tree frogs leave the water and enter the land.
They are obligate carnivores after puberty. They hunt with their sticky tongue. Grey tree frogs are very mobile, and because they live on trees and plants, they feed on animals they can hunt, such as spiders, worms, mollusks, butterflies, flies, mosquitoes, ants, termites, and other insects. Grey tree frogs in captivity should be fed food similar to what they eat in nature.
Due to the lack of access to insects that grey tree frogs hunt in nature, their food is limited to a few items. In captivity, they feed on crickets, cockroaches, worms, and other cultivated foods. For them to get the nutrients they need, they need to use supplements. Grey tree frogs are prone to obesity and should not be overfed. Feed them foods that contain a lot of fat, such as wax creams and slugs, occasionally.
Grey tree frogs are very mobile and should move easily on tree branches. If your frog has little movement and is lazy, it can be a sign of obesity. If your grey tree frog is not eating, there may be several reasons, such as a change of the place of living, the prey being too big, unusual foods, giving food outside of their eating time, low ambient temperature, and feeding them inappropriate food are some of the causes of gray tree frogs not eating.
FAQ
What do grey tree frogs eat as tadpoles in nature?
They feed on the yolk of their eggs during the embryonic period. After hatching, they eat the rest of their eggs. At the beginning of their life as tadpoles, they are herbivores and feed on algae and aquatic plants. Then they start eating protein materials and are omnivorous, and at the end of their larval life, they become completely carnivorous and feed on worms, insect larvae, dead animals, insects, and small aquatic creatures.
What do adult grey tree frogs eat in nature?
Grey tree frogs leave the water after reaching maturity and live mostly on the branches of trees and plants. They hunt any living thing they can swallow, such as spiders, flies, worms, butterflies, slugs, snails, mosquitoes, ants, termites, and other insects. About 70% of their food is ants and termites.
What do grey tree frogs eat in captivity?
Frogs in captivity should be fed food similar to what they eat in the wild. But due to the wide range of insects that they eat and the limitation in their preparation, the food of grey tree frogs in captivity is limited to a few items such as crickets, cockroaches, worms, and other live breeding foods. For this reason, you must use supplements to provide them with the food they need.
How fat should a grey tree frog be?
Grey tree frogs are prone to obesity. They have little exercise space in captivity and will get fat if you give them extra food. The weight of grey tree frogs should be enough to be mobile and able to move easily on tree branches. they shouldn’t be lazy and sedentary.
Why my grey tree frog does not eat?
Frogs not eating can have several reasons; Their living environment has changed and they have moved to a new place, the temperature of their living environment is low, their eating time is different, their food is big and they cannot swallow it, and their food is inappropriate, such as dead insects or their food has changed and they are not used to it. All these can cause the frog not to eat. It is also possible that your frog is sick.