Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello again,
my frogs are, like all my amphibians, very greedy!!
Currently feeding them on fruitflies, my question is, how many flies would u expect a dart frog to get through in a day??
At the moment, i'm feeding them twice a day, a few flies each.
Would you consider this to be enough??
Are they as prone to obesity as other amphibians??
Would you suggest feeding them anything else, micro crickets perhaps??
Thanx again!
S

Steve,

How many flies to feed depends on whether you are feeding melanogaster or hydei, and whether your frogs are adults or froglets. I used to feed my froglets about 10-15 melanogaster each 2x per day (dusted with Rep-Cal and Herptivite mix). If they are eating hydei, you can probably get away with only feeding about 5 flies each 2x per day. My adult tinc gets about 20-30 hydei once per day (still dusted each time).

Micro crickets are certainly acceptable fare, but don't overfeed those, as crickets left in the tank can quickly grow to be too big to be eaten. Springtails are another good cultured food to add variety, as are flour beetle larvae (look like TINY and soft mealworms--super easy to culture).

You might have to watch out for obesity in adults, but you really want to pour the food on with the juvi's to ensure proper development and rapid growth. They need to look quite plump. It's absolutely amazing how much chow those little guys can put down!
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

snip

nah...just throw in a terribilis or 2 and spook that cricket out of hiding with a misting...bye bye crick!!

haha..I just had to post that.
-Bill J.
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Watch you are not over feeding. I was and it is taking me a long time to get my azureus back to a normal size. I feed 1 time a day, and just ff's right now.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

Yeah, Kyle's putting his azureus on the Atkins diet. No more powdered flies and cream filled springtails. Just meaty larvae and termites.

He's gotta keep their form nice so that they can fit into those two piece swimming suits in March for Spring Break. Man, Kyle, you're really hard up for some tad's aren't you? lol
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

I do want some damn tads... From any of my frogs will do. JUST GIVE ME SOME EGGS FOR X-MAS!
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

the first successful breeding is always the one most remebered and anticipated. My first bred were 'Bri-Bri' pumilio and they produced several nice size clutches but only 3 froglets ever made it to morphing all of which died from stress being so damned small. I parted with the pair in favor of other breeders so that I could get my hands a little 'dirty' and work with tads. Once those azureus and imitators of yours breed, you'll have lots of fun I'm sure! Best luck with them and when you morph out some imitators, maybe we can trade for some of my vents. Take care!

p.s. I'm still hoping for eggs from the pair of azureus I've been posting pics of. Female should be up soon.

-Bill J
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Your on for the trade if I get some tads. We will see, I think I am sure I have a pair, but until I see eggs, i'm not 100%. They love the new broms and sleep less than an inch from each other. My azureus are still a bit young, I got them in April, but they were a good size then so my guess is that they were couple months old. Now my leucs are just about a year old. So things should get interesting next year, as my luck they will all start breeding at the same time. Which is fine with me!
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators