12 Best Pet Frogs For Handling [Beginner’s List]

It will be a pretty common instinct if you can not hold the temptation of cuddling or touching your adorable pet frogs. But, frogs are not the type of pets to be handled often like dogs or cats. Because of having highly semi-permeable skin, experts discourage handling frogs.

In this article, I’m going to introduce you 12 best pet frogs for handling.

Several species of frogs do not tolerate handling at all. Some of them secrete toxins too. But, some pet frogs allow occasional handling. If you are interested to know details, I will urge you not to miss this article.

Do Frogs Like Being Held?

Frogs do not like to be held, petted, or cuddled at all. Handling frogs can make them stressed. Besides, there are risks to their health as well.

You might have already known that frogs absorb oxygen from the water through their semi-permeable skins. When you hold a frog, the frog may absorb the salts, chemicals, oils, and soaps from your hands. It may put the frog’s health at stake.

Moreover, the temperament of maximum frogs is shy. So, when you suddenly hold your pet frog, the frog may assume it as predation. As a result, it can lead to stress.

Can Handling Frogs Hurt Them?

If you do not handle your pet frog gently, your frog will surely get hurt. Several beginners are not aware of handling-etiquettes of frogs. As a result, many of them squeeze the frog hard.

Sometimes, squeezing-hard can cause dislocation of the legs of frogs. In consequence, that frog may get hurt due to such improper handling.

When you hold your pet frog, you should provide a little pressure on its back to keep the frog away from escaping.

But, pressurizing much can lead your frogs to get hurt.

What Frogs Are Safe To Touch?

Almost all frogs are safe to touch by taking essential precautions. Except for a few poisonous frogs, you can handle almost all frogs in emergencies. Besides, before touching frogs, you should consider their toxicity, bites, temperament, and so on.

There are mainly two species of frogs that are venomous to humans. These are- Bruno’s casque-headed frogs and Greening’s frogs.

Besides, it is too risky to have a physical encounter with poison dart frogs.

If you are curious to know more about such frogs that are safe to touch, let’s go through the following list.

List Of 12 Frogs That Can Tolerate Moderate Handling

1. White’s Tree Frogs

Scientific Name	Litoria caerulea
Temperament	Docile and peaceful
Toxicity Status	Non-poisonous
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella, Ranavirus, etc.

Among the frogs on this list, White’s tree frog remains at the top of people’s favorite frog for handling. These White tree frogs can get tamed fast. Besides, these frogs are peaceful and calm.

Hence, White’s tree frog can tolerate moderate, gentle handling. You might know that several frogs, like dart frogs, secrete poison sensing predation.

So, you need to be careful of touching those frogs. Since White’s tree frogs are non-toxic, these frogs do not secrete poison being stressed out.

But, you must avoid frequent handling. The experts suggest maintaining the duration of holding up to 10-15 minutes once or twice a week. To avoid catching diseases, you should take essential precautions before handling or holding your pet White’s tree frog.

White’s tree frog can tolerate moderate, gentle handling… these frogs are peaceful and calm.

2. African Bullfrogs

Scientific Name	Pyxicephalus adspersus
Temperament	Calm, but aggressive while defending territory
Toxicity Status	Having toxic skin which is non-harmful to human
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella, bacteria-caused infections

The African bullfrogs are one of the highest long-living frogs that can survive up to 35 years with proper care.

These bullfrogs can tolerate handling for a shorter period.

But, you must not hold these bulky frogs without any emergencies. Since these bullfrogs like solitude, these frogs do not like much handling. Besides, these frogs tend to bite whenever they feel threatened.

Unlike other frogs, you can handle African bullfrogs with bare hands. But, you must ensure that your hands are clean and wet.

3. Burmese Chubby Frogs

Scientific Name	Kaloula pulchra
Temperament	Timid and easy-going
Toxicity Status	Non-poisonous
Carriers Of Diseases	Ranavirus

The chubbiness of Burmese chubby frogs might allure you to touch these frogs. Since these chubby frogs can adapt fast in captivity, these frogs are pretty popular among frog lovers. Like other frogs on this list, Burmese chubby frogs can withstand skimpy handling.

However, you should carefully hold chubby frogs with a gentle touch. Make sure that your pet frog does not feel threatened or stressed. When Burmese chubby frogs get stressed, these frogs release a sticky secretion.

Although the secretion is not poisonous, you must handle these frogs wearing gloves. Also, you must wash your hands well after holding chubby frogs for your safety.

4. Tomato Frogs

Scientific Name	Dyschophus
Temperament	Docile
Toxicity Status	Non-toxic to human
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella

When there are emergencies of shifting, hand-feeding, and so on, these tomato frogs do not mind being handled. But, no frogs want to be held or handled for a long period.

In addition, tomato frogs tend to secrete a toxin secretion when these frogs feel threatened being handled. But, this toxin does not kill a human. However, it can lead to an allergic reaction.

5. Waxy Monkey Frog

Scientific Name	Phyllomedusa sauvagii
Temperament	Timid
Toxicity Status	Non-toxic to human
Carriers Of Diseases	Ranavirus

Because of the docile and timid temperament, it’s pretty much easier to handle waxy monkey frogs than other frogs. Although these frogs can tolerate slight handling, you must not frequently touch these waxy monkey frogs. Otherwise, it may lead to making them stressed.

Although waxy monkey tree frogs leave secretions from their toxin glands, this toxin does not affect humans. So, these waxy monkey frogs are not poisonous to humans at all.

However, waxy monkey frogs have permeable skin like other frogs. Your handling may pass the salt, oil, other chemicals to their body if you do not wash your hands well beforehand.

6. Red-eyed Tree Frogs

Scientific Name	Agalychnis callydrus
Temperament	Timid and easily startled
Toxicity Status	Non-toxic
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella

There is no harm caused due to handling red-eyed tree frogs for a short period. Several species of tree frogs secrete toxins that may cause discomfort to the human body.

For example- gray tree frog. But, red-eyed tree frogs do not fall on the same list as gray-tree frogs.

Since these frogs are not toxic, you can dare to touch them in necessity. But, red-eyed tree frogs can get stressed and startled easily.

Due to such a sensitive temperament, you should limit your handling session of this delicate frog. Click here to know more about red-eyed tree frog care for beginners.

7. White Lipped Frogs

Scientific Name	Litoria infrafrenata
Temperament	Peaceful
Toxicity Status	Non-toxic
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella, ranaviruses, etc.

White-lipped tree frogs can endure handling slightly more than other frogs. Besides, these timid frogs do not attack readily. Due to their calm and friendly nature, white-lipped frogs are a bit more open to human touches.

Although the handling tolerance is great for these frogs, you should avoid excess handling. Besides, you must wash your hands and gloves beforehand touching your pet white-lipped tree frogs. Also, keep in mind that white-lipped tree frogs carry salmonella that may cause severe illness.

8. Amazon Milk Frogs

Scientific Name	Trachycephalus resinfictrix
Temperament	Timid and peaceful
Toxicity Status	Poisonous to predators but non-poisonous to human
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella

If your pet amazon milk frogs are larger than 2”, you can hold these frogs occasionally.

But, the experts suggest not to handle the young amazon milk frogs due to their fragile bodies.

Otherwise, it is comparatively safe to handle these frogs as they rarely secrete sticky substances. Also, these secretions are not harmful to humans when these milk frogs are in captivity.

But, you must be concerned about their permeable skin like other frogs. So, you should touch or hold your frogs gently with powder-free disposable gloves.

Besides, you have to keep the gloves wet so that Amazon milk frogs can not get dried out. In case, you want to know about their care guide, you should click here.

9. Pacman Frogs

Scientific Name	Ceratophrys
Temperament	Timid
Toxicity Status	Non-toxic to human
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella

Pacman frogs are more sensitive in case of handling compared with other frogs. These frogs have extremely sensitive skin that discourages any type of touch. Hence, you must not hold your pet Pacman frogs without an absolute emergency like health monitoring, shifting from one tank to another, etc.

Pacman frogs tend to bite when they feel threatened. Besides, the bites of Pacman frogs are so strong that they may chomp off your fingers.

For this reason, you must not even dare to hold your Pacman frogs without wearing gloves. In addition, you should keep in mind that these Pacman frogs are carriers of salmonella.

Also, you should hold your Pacman frogs gently by correctly placing your thumb and index finger around these frogs. Make sure that your frogs do not jump out of your hands and make them injured. If you want tips for holding Pacman frogs, you should take a look at this article.

10. Vietnamese Mossy Frogs

Scientific Name	Theloderma corticale
Temperament	Shy
Toxicity Status	Nontoxic
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella, viral diseases, etc.

Although Vietnamese mossy frogs are social frogs, these frogs do not enjoy handling. But, you can certainly touch and hold these frogs when there is required must-handling.

Whenever you hold your Vietnamese mossy frogs, you must follow the general etiquette of handling frogs. However, it will be best to leave Vietnamese mossy frogs for display without touch or handling. It will reduce the risk of affecting by salmonella too.

11. Gray Tree Frogs

Scientific Name	Dryophytes versicolor
Temperament	Timid and skittish
Toxicity Status	Toxic
Carriers Of Diseases	Bacterial and viral diseases, salmonella, etc.

Gray tree frogs do not like to be handled often. But, you can surely handle these frogs taking an essential safety guide for any necessity like shifting them.

These frogs are pretty calm. So, their temperament allows them to tolerate handling for a few minutes.

But, a concerning fact about handling gray tree frogs is their toxin secretions. These gray tree frogs secrete toxins when these frogs get stressed out due to handling. So, you must not forget to wear gloves before holding your pet gray tree frogs.

12. Oriental Fire-bellied Frogs

Scientific Name	Bombina orientalis
Temperament	Highly social and active
Toxicity Status	Mildly toxic
Carriers Of Diseases	Salmonella, ranavirus, etc.

Oriental fire-bellied frogs are one of the most active frogs. Their liveliness may attract you to cuddle them a bit.

But, these fire-bellied frogs secrete a toxin that may be mildly poisonous to other predators.

However, this toxin does not cause much harm to humans.

Among all frogs on the list of this article, oriental fire-bellied frogs can tolerate moderate handling. But, the experts discourage excessive handling.

Which Frog Likes To Be Handled?

Due to the skin type and nature of frogs, frogs do not enjoy human touch. These frogs do not require any affectionate gestures like patting, cuddling, etc.

No frogs like to be handled.

Although a few species of frogs tolerate occasional handling, you should not handle your pet frogs without any emergency. 

Is It OK To Pick Up Toads?

Some pet lovers may have a misconception about handling toads. Although toads are slightly different than frogs, toads share similar handling conditions as frogs.

It is not alright to pick up toads. All toads secrete toxins from the glands behind their eyes as their defense mechanism. Although this toxin is not deadly to humans, it can cause a severe allergic reaction.

But, it can be poisonous in case the toxin enters your body through open wounds, mouth, etc.

However, you can pick up toads maintaining safety guides whenever necessary. Despite wearing latex gloves, you should wash your hands with antibacterial soap after handling a toad.

Can You Handle Frogs With Bare Hands?

Before concluding this question, let me remind you of the risk factors of handling frogs with bare hands. The very first concern is about getting salmonella and other infectious diseases from your frogs. Also, because of having permeable skins, handling frogs with bare hands increases the risk of passing harmful components.

If you wash your hands properly and keep wet, you can handle frogs with bare hands. But, you should wear non-powdered vinyl disposable gloves to ensure the safety of your and your pet frogs.

If you decide to hold frogs with bare hands, you must wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. Make sure to wash off the soap residues from your hands properly, as these may penetrate your frog’s skin.

Also, you must keep your hands wet to help your frog not get stressed and dehydrated. However, you can also pick up your frogs with a tight-knit net instead of using gloves.

However, you can click here to know more about the dos and don’ts of handling frogs for beginners.

What are the best pet toads for beginners?

Some of the best pet toads for beginners include the American Toad, Red-belly Toads, Fire-bellied Toads, and the California Toad.

What are some of the non poisonous frogs for beginners?

Some non-poisonous frogs that are suitable for beginners include the African Dwarf Frog, Gray Tree Frog, Tomato Frog, and Pacman Frog.

What are the most popular frog breeds for pets?

The most popular frog breeds for pets include the White’s Tree Frog, Red-Eyed Tree Frog, Pacman Frog, Tomato Frog, African Dwarf Frog, Dart Frog, and Amazon Milk Frog.

What is the best tiny frog for a pet?

Some of the best tiny frogs for pets include the Bumblebee Dart Frog, Painted Mantella Frog, Golden Mantella Frog, and the Strawberry Dart Frog.

Is it cruel to keep frogs as pets?

The question of whether it is cruel to keep frogs as pets is subjective, and it depends on the care and conditions provided. Responsible and knowledgeable pet owners who create suitable habitats, meet the frogs’ specific needs, and prioritize their well-being can keep frogs as pets without cruelty.

However, it is essential to consider factors such as habitat requirements, responsible sourcing through captive breeding, enrichment and stimulation, and the commitment to providing proper care and veterinary attention.

Final Words

It’s pretty obvious to want to hold your adorable pet frogs. Make sure that you are not making your frogs stressed or hurt while holding them. Lastly, you must follow the basic handling etiquettes and safety precautions for handling your frogs.