Mossy frogs squirt water

[bumper]

Hi everyone. I thought I would report an interesting discovery. My Mossy frogs seem to squirt water out their back end when I attempt to pick them up. I was wondering if anyone else has had the same experience.

[JohnEDove]

LOL, I have not experienced that with any frog species but it is a common defense of toad species. I suppose that there must be a bad taste there that mignt cause a predator to release them but there is no way I want to taste it to be sure.

[Green Ghost]

Frogs will do that. It's pee. It's a normal response. They pee when they're nervous or startled. Kinda like a bird.

[froggsong]

My golden tree frog got out once when I first got her... I had opened the screen to put in some crickets and she was like, "Bye! I don't want to be in there anymore!" My cat, Soot, was still a kitten at the time, and IMMEDIATELY went after the frog, before I could even get close to catching it. This frog is a SUPER jumper, btw, I mean like ten feet to a SHORT jump. I was running trying to catch the frog when the cat got to it, and promptly tried to eat it. I was soooo upset, and then i hear the most hilarious noise I have ever heard coming from a cat... I can't even reproduce it in type it was so odd. What happened was my frog (Joe, I used to think she was a boy), peed in her mouth, she didn't like it (it must have been TERRIBLE, from the sound she made, lol), and she spit Joe out. Joe came through with only a small cut on the nose (she has a scar now), and I have been much much more careful when I put in crickets (I prefer front doors to top ones for just this reason). However, I know if the frog DOES get out, and I can't get her in time, the cat will likely spit her out again (I think this would have been a much worse situation had it been a smaller frog).

Long story short, like Green Ghost said, it is urine, and a natural startle/defense mechanism.

I would recommend that if they get so startled (a clear indication of stress) that you do NOT pick them up. I have had tame frogs that I could handle in the past, but my golden is NOT one of them, because I know it stresses her so, and I know by that response. If you MUST pick them up, it would be best to do it with a soft brine shrimp net (the white ones) that is damp. This will be the least harmful to their skin, and the least stressful.

[captaincarot]

mine do it all the time, especially when i'm spraying the tank. as do my green tree frogs and barking tree frogs.
they usually just sit there waiting for me to spray them then. then they start posing and stretching up so that they can get a good wash. unlike the tree frogs who hide.