Dart frog care?

[Crystal6]

If you have the time and space for culturing crickets, then by all means do that. I would advise you to go with fruit flies though. At least a fruit fly won't take a bite out of your $100 frog if it's hungry.

Back when I was raising mice for a science experiment I ended up with about 5 10-gallon aquariums. I actually did have some fruit flies from raising crickets though. It's just that they could fly. (Making them useless as a feeder)

My crickets also generally don't like to eat when they've just been put in a new tank. Gutloading them is sorta a pain this way... (I've also never had one drown. O_O I don't know what people are doing wrong but, when they come in contact with a large body of water they tend to back away fearfully. My frog's cage is half and half and yet, not a single death.)

Wow I write too much... Anyways. if I DID get a dart frog I'd get the 25-40 dollar kind. 100 dollars for a frog is a little more then I'm prepared to pay right now. (Unless it's a very rare very enticing frog with amazing durability and life span. But White's don't seem to be that expensive)

[Crystal6]

Since we currently don't have any dart frog care articles, I recommend you read Devin Edmond's excellent beginners guide.

Thanks for the reading. I was relying on Doyles Dart Den.

This makes me ask: Where do I get a heat pad? They were recommended for crickets for my new aquarium, and now for poison darts. Yet I can never seem to find one on the internet.

[John]

I keep the frog room at about 65 F (18 degrees C) at night and let the lights above the terraria warm them into the 70s (early to mid 20s) during the day - I use fluorescent lights. Actually the space heater is situated low down in the room, so the terraria, being above the heater, are more like 68 F (20 C) at night. A similar arrangement may work for you.

I've never heated darts using a heatpad so I don't know how that would work out. You certainly couldn't do it from underneath - instead you'd have to use a waterproof heat cable with a thermostat.

[Crystal6]

I've never heated darts using a heatpad so I don't know how that would work out. You certainly couldn't do it from underneath - instead you'd have to use a waterproof heat cable with a thermostat.

I couldn't? Why not? *curiosity for all things science*

[McLaura]

Just to chime in on another really good dart frog resource - Dendroboard.com has a lot of really knowledgeable and helpful members. My boyfriend started out with two leucomelas (the bumblebee dart frogs), and we've gotten a ton of information from there on raising them. Also, I would recommend the leucs as a beginner dart frog, as they are less shy than some of the other types and fairly easy to raise. The fruit flies can be a pain, but after about 6 months or so, we've finally gotten the hang of it and have a fairly steady supply.

[John]

I couldn't? Why not? *curiosity for all things science*

Well I mean that you would have to be careful because most people construct dartfrog terraria with a drainage/water layer at the bottom. It's always dangerous to use an unregulated heat mat/heat pad which is in direct contact with glass that has water on it. You could drastically reduce the danger by using a thermostat or just a "dimmer" on the heat mat.

Just to chime in on another really good dart frog resource - Dendroboard.com has a lot of really knowledgeable and helpful members. My boyfriend started out with two leucomelas (the bumblebee dart frogs), and we've gotten a ton of information from there on raising them.

You are quite correct. I have used dendroboard over the last few months and I have found it to contain a lot of information and some nice people.

However, the more I use it, the more I have come to realise that it has incredibly overbearing rules about what you can and can't say. For example, you can't talk about any vendor on that forum, you can't review any products you've used, and the moderators/admins are overzealous with the censorship button when they don't like where a conversation is going.

I've been winding down my posting over there lately because I don't want to be seen to be endorsing those policies. Some of the dendroboard moderators have tried to convince me that they believe it's necessary to run a big forum that way, not realising that I have run Caudata.org successfully since 2001 - a forum of comparable size to dendroboard and far older, yet without the overbearing censorship. Anyhow, I'll get off my soap box now .

[firefly]

My problem is my cricket population is getting kinda huge. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of ten gallon for them. You might think "just put some of them in a bag in the freezer" but... I'm not a fan of killing them.)

You could always do what I do when the food insects get too big, take them back to your pet store & let them have them back for their larger stock to eat. Sometimes they will give you something in return, but if not then at least they're not wasted.

My hoppers rapidly get too big for my tiny toads, so they exchange for a new tub of 3rd instars free which is great.

Just a suggestion