The central technique for making White's tree frogs happy consists simply of making sure that their environment suits them. Any attempt to adopt the viewpoint of an amphibian is, of course, quixotic at best and quite possibly futile. This section is highly subjective and reflects the author's best attempts to understand anuran thought, but it should not be taken as an authoritative source. White's priorities, roughly in order, are food, food, water, food, security, climbing, and food. Satisfying the desires for security and climbing is less straightforward, and offers many opportunities for interesting vivarium design.
Security is offered primarily by shelter.
White's tend to favor vertical shelters, and captives often pass the day in an upper corner of their enclosure, but various sorts of ground cover also seem to be quite satisfactory. White's often like to feed from their hiding places, especially during the day. Such an arrangement satisfies the desires for food and security, while requiring minimal effort from the frogs. Providing climbing places offers considerable opportunity for variety in an enclosure. A dense thicket of branches will turn out to be an unwanted obstacle, and of course any climbing surface needs to be strong enough to support a heavy frog jumping onto it, but these requirements are not very restrictive.