Species: Agalychnis callidryas | Difficulty: 3/5 — Intermediate | Hardiness: 2/5 — Delicate

Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply — Keeping Your Pet Healthy & Thriving

At a Glance

Why We Love Them: The Red-Eyed Tree Frog is the iconic poster child of the rainforest. During the day, they tuck their bright orange feet under their belly, close their massive red eyes, and camouflage perfectly on the underside of a leaf as a green lump. At night, they erupt into brilliant flashes of neon green, blue, and red as they hunt.

Housing & Enclosure

Enclosure Type & Size

• Type: Arboreal (Tree-dwelling). They require tall, vertical enclosures rather than long ones.
• Minimum for 1-2 Frogs: An 18" x 18" x 24" front-opening glass terrarium.
• Ventilation (CRITICAL): Do not keep them in a completely sealed, dripping wet box. Stagnant air causes rapid, fatal bacterial infections. Use an enclosure with screen ventilation.

Substrate & Bioactive Setup

• Recommended: A bioactive setup is highly recommended for all amphibians to manage waste and mold. Use a drainage layer (hydroballs), covered by a mesh barrier, topped with 3 inches of ABG mix (tree fern fiber, sphagnum moss, charcoal, and orchid bark).
• Clean-up Crew: Seed the soil with springtails and tropical isopods to eat mold and frog waste.

Décor & Enrichment

• Broad-Leaf Plants: These frogs sleep stuck to the underside of large leaves. You must provide broad-leafed live or fake plants. Pothos, Monstera, and Philodendron are excellent live choices.
• Branches: Provide horizontal branches, vines, and bamboo across the middle and top of the enclosure for nighttime hunting.

Heating & Lighting

Temperature Requirements

• Heating: They are very sensitive to heat. If the tank goes over 85°F for extended periods, they will die. If your house is cold, use a low-wattage heat mat stuck to the side (not the bottom) of the tank, or a low-wattage ceramic heat emitter, controlled by a thermostat.

Lighting & UVB

• UVB: While they are nocturnal, a very low-output UVB bulb (like the Arcadia ShadeDweller Arboreal) is highly recommended. It helps them synthesize calcium and regulates their day/night cycle while sleeping on leaves.
• Light Cycle: 12 hours on, 12 hours off.

Humidity & Water

• Target Range: 70% to 90%.
• Misting: Mist the enclosure thoroughly with a pressure sprayer 1 to 2 times a day (ideally in the morning and evening). Let the enclosure dry out slightly to 60-70% between mistings to prevent mold and bacterial blooms.
• Water Quality (CRITICAL): Tap water contains chlorine and chloramines that will instantly burn and kill amphibians. You must treat all water with a reptile water conditioner (like ReptiSafe) or use spring water. Never use pure distilled water, as it leaches minerals out of the frog's body.
• Water Bowl: Provide a shallow water dish. They cannot swim well; the water should only come up to their chin.

Diet & Nutrition

Red-Eyed Tree Frogs are insectivores and hunt purely by sight at night. If it doesn't move, they won't eat it.

Feeding Schedule

• Babies: Feed 3-5 small crickets daily.
• Adults: Feed 4-6 appropriately sized insects every other day.
• Size Rule: Insects should be no wider than the space between the frog's eyes.

Prey Items

• Staples: Gut-loaded crickets, small Dubia roaches.
• Avoid: Mealworms and superworms (their hard chitin shell is very difficult for tree frogs to digest and can cause fatal impaction).

Supplements

• Calcium: Dust insects lightly with pure calcium powder (with D3 if not using UVB, without D3 if using UVB) at every feeding.
• Multivitamin: Dust with a reptile multivitamin once every two weeks.

What We Stock & Use in Our Stores

These are products we carry and recommend for this species. Ask any associate for help finding them in-store.

Care sheet compiled by Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply. For questions, ask any livestock specialist in-store.

Last updated: 2026-08-04

How We Keep Them at Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply

• Beating Dry Oregon Furnace Air (and Summer Heat Spikes): Across the Willamette Valley and Portland Metro, running the house furnace all winter drops indoor humidity to 25–35%, which quickly causes stuck sheds and dehydration in screen-top tanks. To hold 70-90% (With good ventilation) reliably for Red-Eyed Tree Frog, our crew uses a deep 3–5" substrate bed (or our store-shelf 10-Part Bioactive Mix of ReptiSoil, Coco Fiber, Orchiata Bark, Sphagnum Moss, and Leaf Litter), a dedicated humid hide packed with damp sphagnum moss, and partial screen cover when needed.
• Thermostat & Linear UVB Standard: Every heating element in our Newberg and Gresham reptile rooms runs on a thermostat probe set to Day 75-82°F / Night 68-75°F on the warm side with a comfortable room temperature cool retreat, paired with false on a 12-hour day/night timer. In summer, if an upstairs room climbs above 82°F, a dimming thermostat automatically backs down the basking lamp so the cool side never overheats.
• Stocked at Newberg & Gresham: We stock reptile enclosures, thermostats, Arcadia & Zoo Med UVB lighting, bioactive substrate ingredients, live Springtails, Dwarf White, Powder Blue/Orange, Dairy Cow, and Giant Canyon isopods, and gut-loaded crickets, dubia roaches, hornworms, and frozen-thawed rodents at Critter Cabana (Newberg) and Gresham Pet Supply.

Common Questions (FAQ)

What size tank does an adult Red-Eyed Tree Frog actually need?

An adult Red-Eyed Tree Frog needs at least 18x18x24 Front-Opening Terrarium so you can maintain a true thermal gradient from Day 75-82°F / Night 68-75°F on the warm/basking side down to comfortable room temperature on the cool side.

How do I keep Red-Eyed Tree Frog humidity at 70-90% (With good ventilation) during dry Oregon winters?

Oregon winter furnace heat dries out thin bedding fast. Use a 3–5 inch moisture-retaining substrate mix (such as Zoo Med ReptiSoil blended with coco fiber, Orchiata bark, and sphagnum moss), provide an enclosed humid hide, and cover 50–70% of an open screen top with HVAC foil tape or a PVC panel if ambient humidity drops too low.

What is the best bioactive clean-up crew for a Red-Eyed Tree Frog?

Pair Temperate White Springtails with a humidity-matched isopod species (such as Powder Blue/Orange for semi-arid setups or Dwarf White / Dairy Cow isopods for humid forest setups) in a 3–5 inch bioactive soil and leaf-litter bed. You can pick up our 1-Page or Tri-Fold Bioactive Substrate Recipe Guide and live cultures at Critter Cabana (Newberg) or Gresham Pet Supply.

Where can I get Red-Eyed Tree Frog setup supplies, live feeders, and thermostats in Oregon?

We stock our full reptile, amphibian, and bioactive setup supplies—including enclosures, thermostats, Arcadia and Zoo Med UVB lighting, bioactive substrates, live isopods/springtails, and live or frozen feeders—at Critter Cabana in Newberg (514 E First St, 503-537-2887) and Gresham Pet Supply (2185 NW Burnside Rd, 503-665-7606).