The toe twitching discussion comes up every once in awhile. Nearly all of my dart frogs do it when they're feeding. I don't think anyone has divined the purpose of it, but it is indeed normal. I've had occasion to think it may sometimes be communication oriented, at least when a particular frog gets extra excited over a "find." I one witnessed an orange galactonotus that captured a platy fish fry from the top of the aquarium portion of their paludarium, quite accidentally. She was after floating flies that had fallen in the aquarium portion from a recent feeding, and was gobbling up anything that moved. Apparently the accidental capture of a fish fry on top of a leaf was extra delicious, so she drummed like crazy. Within seconds, the whole gang was lined up on the bank beside her "fishing." In their orange "jump suits," all they needed was a six pack of Budweiser to look just like our local fishermen. No one else caught anything, since this was a freak accident, but I do think that the especially excited drumming this frog did must have attracted the others. On the other hand, it may serve the purpose of scaring up hidden organismsi nmost cases. Or it may merely be a tremble reaction of excitement. To my knowledge, no one has done a PhD dissertation on this or any controlled studies. We just have our subjective observations to share. All we know is it happens with nearly all dart frogs, and it isn't a sign of disease to be concerned with.
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Patty

Pahsimeroi, Idaho



D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

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