Gold Tree Frog

Golden Tree Frog
Golden Foam Nest Frog
Golden Gliding Tree Frog
Asian Tree Frog

Polypedates leucomystax

Description

Gold tree frogs are attractive, medium sized tree frogs with colors ranging from white to golden yellow to burnt auburn to dark brown. Even among individuals they exhibit a lot of variation. Some animals can appear almost white with an absence of pattern and later be a brilliant yellow with subtle tan to dark brown longitudinal patterning or spots. They are sexually dimorphic, with females obtaining sizes of four inches (10 centimeters) or more and males reaching a maximum size of around 2 ¾ inches (6.3 centimeters). They can live in excess of 6 years.

Natural Habitat

Gold tree frogs are found extensively throughout Southeast Asia. They are found in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Within this range they thrive under almost any conditions that provide adequate moisture and food. Naturally they are found in forests, rainforests, monsoon forests, and wetlands. Where agricultural disturbance has occurred they can be found in rice fields, sugar cane and fruit plantations. In urban settlements they can be found in gardens, pools, ponds and even in buildings. Clearly they are highly adaptable and thrive in even the most disturbed of habitats.

Artificial Habitat

With warm temperatures, gold tree frogs are extraordinarily easy to keep. They have adapted to virtually every type of habitat within their range (or lack thereof) and subsequently are quite accommodating with regards to enclosures. Ideally, an enclosure would be vertically oriented (at least twice as tall as wide), heavily planted and moderately humid (+/- 60%). Whenever possible, limbs, sticks or plants should be placed so that they hang over the water dish or aquatic portion of the enclosure, so as to mimic the gold tree frogs preferred habitat. Water should be well-filtered or changed frequently.

Diet

Gold tree frogs are carnivorous and voracious and will eat most things that move and that they can fit in their mouths. They will eat worms, wax worms, mealworms, crickets, roaches, flies, spiders, moths and small snails and slugs. We have not noted them being overtly cannibalistic, but care should be taken to house similarly sized frogs together. As always, prey items should be gut-loaded prior to feeding and should be dusted with a vitamin/mineral supplement once or twice a week.

Caveats

Gold tree frogs are part of the Polypedates genus of gliding frogs. They are accustomed to being able to leap (or “glide”) large distances and, as such, should be provided with spacious enclosures that incorporate clearly distinguished visual boundaries.