Ageing in a small, delicate frog
Green tree frogs are among the shorter-lived animals in this category, and old age can look unspectacular: the frog that once sat at the glass at dusk, bright and round-eyed, now keeps to one leaf or corner, hunts a beat slower, and sleeps through disturbances that used to wake it. Colours may sit duller through the day, and the body looks a little less plump behind the eyes. Because these frogs show so little, the keeper's nightly glance is the monitoring system — which is why small changes in appetite or posture deserve more weight here than they would in a hardier animal.
Feeding a slower hunter
Feed the frog where it sits. An older tree frog that has to cross the enclosure and out-aim a moving cricket will quietly eat less and less, so present appropriately sized, calcium-dusted insects with tongs a few centimetres from its snout at dusk, when it is naturally waking. Smaller, softer-bodied prey is easier for an ageing frog to take and digest than large hard-shelled items. Feed a little more deliberately and watch each item get eaten where possible; uneaten live food left in the enclosure stresses a resting frog and fouls the space. If appetite fades, note it night by night rather than relying on a general impression.
Water, humidity and handling
Tree frogs drink and breathe partly through their skin, and older skin is thinner armour. Keep the water dish filled with clean, dechlorinated water changed daily, mist with the same clean water, and wash your hands and wet them before any necessary handling — dry, warm, lotioned hands damage frog skin, and oils and salts are worse for a senior. Better still, make handling a rarity: move the frog by coaxing it into a damp cup rather than picking it up. Hold temperatures and humidity in the species' normal range with no experiments; an old frog's whole budget goes on coping with change, so give it none to cope with.
Signs to act on quickly
Small frogs give short warnings. Act promptly on a frog that stops eating across several evenings, sits on the enclosure floor in daylight instead of up on its perch, loses its grip and slides, develops redness or sores on the belly and thighs, or looks bloated. Any of these in a senior green tree frog justifies a fast call to a vet who treats amphibians, because the gap between first sign and crisis in a frog this size can be days. Take your notes with you — when it last ate, how the posture changed, recent water or temperature readings.
A tree frog's senior season is short and quiet, and its record should be kept with matching care: a KinsLe Pet Passport holds the feeding notes, weights and vet visits in one packet, so the smallest patient in the house gets the same organised history as the largest.