Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, about a month ago all of my flies died, and all of the places I would order them from were sold out or not shipping becuase of the heat. So I started feeding my auratus small ants Unfortunately he was very picky about the ants he would eat (the orange ones dont work). the tiniest (small springtail size) black ants were fine but it was so hard to catch enough of them every day. so finally I found a large colony of small but not tiny black ants. tried them and he gobbled them up. It was fun to watch too because after eating them he moves his mouth around a couple times to avoid being bitten. Finally I got a good ant farm started and he has been eating like a king ever since. Since I switched him over to ants he has DOUBLED in size.
So, my main questions are; if any one out there has done this in the past did your frogs toxicity level increase and did your frog become more shy? My frog used to be very active and not shy at all but lately he hops to his favorite hiding spot as soon as anyone enters the room.

Doubling in size could have been effected by a lot of factors. If he was a froglet before he will double in size as he grows older. He would also have gotten fatten because you are feeding him more not having to worry about a ff culture crashing. As for him being shy, more aurutus are shy. I know people that say theirs are very bold, which i think is great. Almost everyone on here will tell you they are shy it is just part of their personility. A pdf gets its toxic from termites and ants yes, but the termites and ants have to eat certain types of plants to produce the toxins for the frogs.

I really like your banded bromeliad. That's quite striking.

As for feeding your frogs ants, that makes up the majority of their diet in the wild, but I have noticed that my darts do seem to be picky about the ants they will eat (never tried the "orange" ants . . . just assumed the formic acid in them was too strong). As far as being a primary food source, I'm sure it must be fine, as the Shedd Aquarium feeds their darts a diet primarily of ants (my sister used to work there). I'm sure they're high in nutritive value, but I doubt you'll have a change in toxicity levels or behavior based on the diet change.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

That bromeliad was a home depot reject last year. When i bought it it had a shrivled stalk poking out of the middle and dehydrated leaved that had curled up into little cyliders. luckily after some tlc and high humidity it started to do much better. The main part that can be seen in the pic is actually a pup that it sprouted a few months ago.
I am very happy with it and so is my auratus which sleeps in it at night. My only regret is my placement of it in the vivarium. It is very large and blocks the view to much of the lower section.