The giant spiny frog (Paa spinosa), a typical amphibian, can exhibit abnormal hibernation caused by disturbances in energy and substrate metabolism, and can suffer decreases in egg quality during the following breeding season, especially for individuals spawning for the first time. Hibernation which is formed in the long evolutionary process of poikilothermal animals can be considered as a survival strategy and self-protective method to avoid starvation, cold, diseases and other adverse environmental factors for amphibians. Overwintering difficulty of amphibians is a widespread consequence of global climate change and habitat modification that result from human activities, and the following breeding can be influenced by abnormal hibernation with regard to the sub-adult female giant spiny frogs, which is common under the circumstance of artificial domestication. The aim of our study was to investigate the changes in viability and substrate utilization under the condition of artificial cold exposure (4 ℃,90 d) and during recovery (22 ℃,7 d) in the sub-adult female spiny frogs (1-2 year old) which were chosen as the objectives in the study. The results indicated that the survival rate of sub-adult female giant spiny frogs appeared to be a decreasing trend during the period of cold exposure and the mortality rate turned to be zero in the stage of recovery; the relative fatness (K) and the ratio of body weight to body length (Kwl), which presented to be ascendant during cold exposure, both returned to the initial levels (P > 0.05) in the recovery stage; ascendant trend was found in both stomach and spleen coefficient during cold exposure (P<0.05), particularly the both appeared to be higher in the 90^th day in relation to the initial levels (P<0.05), and the liver coefficient decreased dramatically in the recovery stage (P<0.05). During cold exposure period, no statistical differences were observed in the lipid content in liver and muscle compared with the initial content levels (P >0.05); the moisture content in liver (P<0.05) and the non-lipid dry matter content in muscle both decreased during cold exposure; the moisture content in muscle and the non-lipid dry matter content in liver (P<0.05) increased during cold exposure; hepatic glycogen content increased by the 60^th and 90^th day of cold exposure compared to the initial level (P <0.05), with the growth rates of 59.4% and 60.1% respectively, and returned to the initial level during recovery (P > 0.05). We might draw a conclusion that the sub-adult female spiny frogs made use of the non-lipid dry matters in muscle rather than lipid, or the non-lipid dry matters in muscle were transported in the tissues in order to adapt to cold exposure, which was concluded from the facts that the body condition indexes (K and Kwl), liver coefficient, non-lipid dry matter content in liver and hepatic glycogen content emerged to be ascendant to some extent, however, non-lipid dry matter content in muscle proved to be remarkably decreasing (P <0.05)and no significant changes were detected in the lipid content in liver and muscle during cold exposure.