The frog aesthetic movement has brought many to believe that it can be fun and cute to put hats on frogs. This trend has taken off on many social media platforms among frog fans, from TikTok to Pinterest, and Facebook. It certainly does look cute to see a frog with a hat – but is it really cute?
Placing textile hats on frogs can dry out their skin, cause irritations, and stress. Frogs breathe and drink through their thin delicate skin which is very susceptible to harm, damage, and pain. Plastic and fruit-based hats can be heavy, and paper can cause skin irritation or damage.
In this article I am going to cover a few examples of frogs in hats, as well as why it may not be the best idea to put frogs in hats, as well as safe alternatives – because frogs in hats are cute, but putting hats on frogs may not be so cute. Let’s dive in.
Disclaimer: No frogs were harmed in the making of this article – all the images are photoshopped versions of hat images placed on frog images.
The Debate: Is it OK to Put Hats on Frogs?
There is a lot of debate among cat and dog lovers as to know if it is a good idea to dress them up, dye their hair, and do other things that humans tend to do to themselves. No matter the outcome of the debate, cats and dogs are very different animals compared to frogs.
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The main difference is that frogs do not have fur protecting their skin. A frogs skin is completely exposed and is very delicate and thin. So then you may wonder why we can dress up and wear hats without harm since we also have exposed skin as well.
Humans wear hats on their heads, which are, for most people, protected by hair. Our skin is also much thicker than frog skin and has small hair follicles throughout, that protect us from many outside dangers.
But one of the main differences we have with frogs is that we breathe through our lungs only. Frogs breathe and drink through their skin. And so the lotions, oils, dirt, debris, residues, chemicals, and rough edges around paper, plastic, and textile hats can greatly harm a frogs ability to breathe, drink, and survive.
Even if in the short run, it only takes a few minutes to make a quick TikTok video of a frog with a hat on, the frog has no clue what is happening to it and this can cause it stress. Severe stress can lead to premature death in frogs.
Unfortunately, as cute as it looks to put a hat on a frog, when you think about it, nothing about doing it is really cute. But let’s have a closer look at some examples and alternatives, because there are ways we can still enjoy frogs in hats without harming them.
Frogs in Hats Examples
The following are examples of frogs in hats and why each may or may not be a good idea. Keep in mind that these are all Photoshopped images we made for the purpose of illustrating this article, so no real-life frogs were harmed in the making of the content below.
Frogs in Textile Hats
Textiles are some of the most popular materials people like to put on frogs as hats.
The first frog looks pretty smart and stylish in its top hat. But the hat looks to be made of molten wool, which can be a fairly scratchy material. This kind of hat would be dry and rough on a frog’s sensitive skin if used in real life.
The next frog is wearing a witches hat. That hat is probably made up of a strong polyester blend to ensure it can stand up straight and tall. Polyester is pretty much plastic, a material that goes through intense processing using harsh chemicals. No frog wants that on their head.
The last frog has a cowboy hat on. Sure, we could have done a better job photoshopping this one 😉 It looks like the hat is in the frog’s eyes. But if you were placing this kind of hat on the frog, just imagine the stress it would feel, closing its eyes trying to get something like this off of its head. We can wear hats like this because our eyes are not placed on the top and sides of our heads, like frogs.
Frogs in Fruit or Vegetable Hats
Normally, unless you are a cartoon character, strawberry aren’t supposed to be hats. There might be a time when you wore strawberry hats when you were a child. True enough, you were probably cute when you wore the hat back then. However, adults can barely pull off the strawberry hat look. And frogs even less.
Some people may think using fruits and vegetables are a better alternative to textiles, and they may be right. But fruits and vegetables are often sprayed with pesticides, chemicals and other harmful substances that can penetrate frogs skin. So let’s say you washed it super well, there are still other issues with placing fruits and vegetables on frogs.
Fruits and vegetables can also be heavy. When you compare the weight of a strawberry or broccoli to that of a frog, you are placing hundreds of times the weight of the fruit on to their small heads which are not meant to carry any heavy objects. Frogs do not have necks and their vertebrae are fused.
Frogs can feel pain and placing hats on them can cause frogs to feel fear and stress. Placing hats on them presents other risks, including them jumping away, possibly falling out of your hands and breaking a limb which is very difficult or impossible to repair.
So let’s have a look at better alternatives to potentially harming a frog for two seconds of fame.
Frogs in Hats Alteratives
Ok so I think you have understood by now that it’s not a good idea to dress up frogs in hats. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a virtual frog in a hat!
You can use software like Photoshop to create amazing frog hat montages, like the example of a frog wearing a mushroom hat below. We used the first two images below and merged them into one cute frog hat image using software (Photoshop in this case).
But if you are now excited to make frog hybrids (really cool ones here), mashups, and montages you need to know something.
I think it’s very important to include some kind of disclaimer and make it clear to whoever sees the image that it is for fun. Not everyone understands that dressing up frogs is not the best idea so it’s important to share that information with others and make it clear to them (CTNF).
Someone may see the image you made, think it is real, and replicate it in real life and we want to avoid that knowing it’s not good for frogs. Just make it clear to people that what you created did not involve and real-life frogs.
Like I always say on this blog, you can’t know until you know. And now that you do, share with others 🙂
More About Frog Aesthetic
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