Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been keeping darts for about 3 years.
I started breeding my frogs with great success about 2 years ago.

Id like to become a commercial breeder, but i have never shipped frogs before.

Is the shipping of frogs difficult?
I wouldnt ever want to stress darts out, or even worse send someone a frog that is stressed and ruin the hobby for them.

Is it difficult? Is there a real market? Or would you recomend keeping darts to a local supply.

Thanks for your honest advice

Their pros and cons to every thing here are a few example

Shipping
pro
1. much bigger market area
2.you get in contact with more people witch help increase your collection in most case's

Con
1. Shipping does stress frogs but it very rarely kills them provided you do it right
2. Take more time to do (packing, paper work, getting shipping supplies)

Locale supply
pro
1.minimal stress
2. pet store tend to buy weekly if they can move the product

con
1. you market size is a heck of allot smaller then if you shipped
2. less contacted with other breeders

personally I would do both if you wanted to make this your profession
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Brian Ferriera JR
Plympton, Ma

P. Terribilis (orange)
P.Bicolor (soon)
D. azureus
D. ventrimaculatus
E. hahneli
D. tinctorius (Oyapok )
D. Fantasticus
D. leucomelas

Im alllready breading localy
Just looking at the aspects of going national

Hi,
I have shipped 10 frogs to different places and the thing that bothers me the most is when they are in route.It can cause an ulcer wondering if they will be ok on the other end.I have sent them through airborne express and through express mail through the local post office.Airborne is faster and more expensive but express is just as good and about 1/2 price,the only thing with express is it usually is 2 days.All the frogs I have sent showed up ok but it can freak you out some.Good luck......Mark W.

I have never shipped frogs, but have received quite a few via Airborn Express and they have all arrived in excellent condition in separate little vented plastic cups of damp oak leaves packed carefully in a styrofoam container within the shipping box with a cool pack. Since I am located in the boonies, I have to drive 100 miles to pick them up at the Airborn office or risk an extra day with more bumping around and handling for truck delivery. As a customer, I don't mind the extra bother, nor the extra expense of faster, safer delivery. I think most people who are into this hobby are willing to foot the extra expense and effort.

I think breeders should also be open to further communication with the customers for extra advice and support, especially with their first frogs. First frogs can be pretty scary, no matter how much research and preparation one has done ahead of time.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

Wow thanksmark and patty for yoru excellent posts.

Thanks Patty for your insight, stuff like that really helps a lot.

What else would everyone like to see from breeders via net?

I think i may actually be getting my act together and doing this

some folks do this but some things i would like to see are the pictures of both adult breeders and picture or so of offsring from different litters.

if they have (very) different characteristic types then other darts.

a chart of whats breeding, if there are tads, froglets, and frog ready to ship. most do that already.

just a few things nothing picky.
aj
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Click Here to See My Dart Tank In The Making UPDATED 6.15.03 SPOILER! Still Needs Moss View At Your Own Risk

I like those things too...we are in the process of updating our site to reflect many of those suggestions. Hopefully we will be able to add pics in the next couple of weeks.

Putting up a website will pull in a lot of traffic into your site - that is one of the best things to do.

Our what's breeding page...still working on it.

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Quality Captives

Thanks for the feed back.
I will have a site set up for sure.

Ok Is there anything that breeders u currently work with dont offer on there sites?
What would u like to see that u dont currently see on any sights

As RC said I would also like to see pictures of the parents and the offspring. Also, I like seeing some of the tanks where the frogs are bred and raised to make sure that they the frogs are living in good conditions.
Mark
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my tanks and frogs

i like that one mark, i was thinking that about the tanks, but forgot to type it. when i was typing i knew i forgot something and that is what it was, lol.
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Click Here to See My Dart Tank In The Making UPDATED 6.15.03 SPOILER! Still Needs Moss View At Your Own Risk