Spring Peepers and Chorus Frogs

[peter]

I'm currently interested in getting some Spring Peepers or some Chorus Frogs, and was wondering if anyone knew where a care sheet might be, or if they'd had experience keeping them. I'm mostly worried about habitat, and while I can do my best (I've lived around them for 15+ years), I'd rather have suggestions from someone that's kept them.

Also, has anyone had success breeding them? Thanks.

 

[edward]

Hi Peter,
In general there is little interest for most people to breed either of those species as they are not of much interest to most herpetoculturists. I may still have a care sheet around here somewhere that described the method used by a Zoo to breed one of the chorus frog species.
I have worked with crucifer at work (although I did not try to breed them) and the basic care is much the same for any temperate hylid only requiring smaller prey items. However they are prone to corneal lipidosis as they get older and on average seem to live between 4 and 6 years. If you have known breeding sites nearby and it is legal I would suggest going out and collecting tadpoles or metamorphs as the adults are going to be very hard to locate at this time of the year plus this will give you a better chance at having a better sex ratio. I would not be concerned about collecting them as they are one of the anurans that does not seem to be declining to the extent unlike most other anurans.
Hope this helps,
Ed

 

[peter]

Thanks for the info, Ed. What is this corneal lipidosis disease? Any way to treat it?

I've got a few tadpoles, I caught them accidentally when looking for salamander larvae. As for adults, I saw one today when I was making a quick trip to the pond I drive out to, and I've never had any problems finding them in the past. Unfortunately, I don't have a tank set up and I'm not ready with my information (or food cultures) to keep them yet.

The interest in breeding them came about when I was talking to Mike G about Blanchard's Cricket Frog. They're almost entirely extirpated in Wisconsin, though they're common in many places elsewhere. I expressed a major interest in breeding them in the future if I somehow could do so (legally) and somehow or other, I wound up deciding to try and breed p. triseriata or crucifer.

In any event, I don't see why there isn't an interest in breeding similar species (if it's doable); they can really snap you out of a winter depression with their early calls. And as for being common with no monontary value, well, being able to sell a species should never be an issue. Just go with what you love. =)

 

[meghan]

Peter, I am currently keeping 8 spring peepers. If anything, I really enjoy the sounds in the dead of winter winter of them calling and of the crickets. Last year, there was a bumper crop of them in our yard, of all places. All I do is feed them very small crickets and keep the tank clean. I have a semi aquatic/terrestrial setup and you'd be surprised how much they use the water side. I actually enjoy housing them and they're very easy to care for.

 

[edward]

Hi Peter,
Corneal lipidosis is where fat is deposited on the eye resulting in blindness and difficulties in feeding. Commercially raised feeder insects are high in fats and have been documented to cause this in many hylids. (This is often attributed to feeding rodents to amphibians but is also commonly documented in anurans fed only on insects).
Despite having a large breeding aggregate of crucifer next to the house, I tend to only find a couple of individuals outside of the breeding season.
Ed

 

[peter]

That's interesting, Ed. Would something such as gutload help prevent this? My plan was to feed them mostly on springtails, fruit flies, and pinheads. What kind of food would be available during the winter (or culturable) that would vary this up a bit?

Meghan, I never would have expected them to use an aquatic area; I never find them in water outside of the breeding season. Thanks for the heads up, I'll see how that works when I set a tank up.

 

[edward]

Hi Peter,
Gutloading will not change the lipids that cause the problem to any real extent. When you mean gutloading are you planning on feeding a high calcium diet to the insects or are you just feeding the insects a nutritious diet?
I had them set-up semiaquatically also and they were not observed to enter the water except as an escape manuver. Here is a pic of the problem in the early stages in a squirrel tree frog (Hyla squirella).

 

[peter]

Well, when I bought this tank, intended for lizard use, it came with this Jurassi Diet cricket food stuff. It doesn't say anything about Ca, and ingrediants list everything from krill to fish meal to spirulina, and a variety of vitamins, so do you think that'd work, Ed?

What do they eat in the wild to prevent this problem?

I feel real sorry for that tree frog, if it's not avoidable, I'd rather not keep such an animal. If it isn't avoidable, are there any other small treefrogs that don't get this condition?

 

[edward]

Hi Peter,
Unless there is a breakdown analysis on the container I really can't answer that question.
But I asked about the high-calcium diets as these can severly affect the manner in which you keep your feeder insects.

There are a couple significant differences between wild and captive animals that may play (I'm guessing here) a part in the prevention of the problem
1) wild populations are more active and do not get as fat as captive animals (obesity problems)
2) there is a significantly larger variation in the diet in wild populations
3) reproduction tends to deplete fat reserves in wild populations helping to prevent fat problems (mind these are suppositions here without any hard corroborating proof).

This is an older squirrel tree frog about four years of age. It has been documented in many different genera (from Ceratophrys, Lygodactylus, to Phyllomedusa and Smilesca) so the type of frog is a moot point.
The problem may not affect all animals in a group and most commonly the affected frogs are female (at least in my observations).

Ed

 

[edward]

Here is a picture of a grey tree frog with a more advanced case.

Ed

 

[peter]

That's really sad. Do they die because they can't see to eat, or can they still smell their food if you feed it to them? Also, is there any possible way I can prevent this? Releasing them as they get old might help the frog, I'm guessing, but wouldn't help where they were released to. Perhaps some sort of "middle aged frog exercise regimen" during feeding time, have them work for their food a bit more than usual?

 

[edward]

Hi Peter,
It becomes difficult for them to catch food items. Some of them learn to grab items that run into one of their front feet or are hand fed but not all of them succeed in learning this trick.

If you keep an animal for a pet it is not recommended that you then release it unless you keep no other herps and maintain it is a quarantine like set-up to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

Ed

 

[mark]

when one of my grey treefrogs developed this i managed to hand feed it, well using tweezers. just make ure the cricket moves its arms alot and generally shake it in front of the frog. it can also smell it so it should be able to eat well. only problem is that because it can see very well if at all it didn't move a lot so eventually gets quite fat. but then there are ways to get round that.