Hey, what are some suggestions some of you more experienced frog keepers have for dusting and feeding fruit flies to your little guys without too much fly loss and escape?
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Before I open the container to pour out flies, I have my ziplock bag with the calcium dust already in it and partially put the top portion of the container into the bag and turn it upside-down before opening it. I close the fly container lid before turning it right-side up again. The fruit flies are attracted to moist areas so they don’t normally leave my dart frogs’ enclosure, but you could setup a water dish near the enclosure to gather up escaped flies. Ones that escape will gather at my cat’s water fountain all the time
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Something else that I found is great is refrigeration. I first saw this being utilized for feeding spiderlings, but the concept is all the same, you put them in the cooler for 5-15 min, and once they “hibernate” it chills the flies out long enough to shake them into the container/bag you’re dusting them in and into your vivarium for your frogs! I lose the most opening the culture to get them dusted so that’s why this works so well for me. The frogs do a great job of keeping them in the vivarium, while they last, and I also keep a few carnivorous plants in the house, the sundews in particular are great for getting the strays that don’t make it in the dusting cup if I put a couple over the sink I shake them out over!
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Are carnivorous plants safe to keep with dart frogs?
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I don’t know. I wouldn’t try it out though, especially not pitcher plants. I don’t keep the plants with the frogs though, they’re just around the sink when I shake fruit flies in the dusting container to catch the runaways.
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You can also put a piece of fruit in a deli cup. Dump the fruit flies into the deli cup. Most of them will stay on the fruit. The frogs will also learn to come to the deli cup for food. So the flies stay in one place and the frogs will come to one place to eat. Also makes it easier to monitor that your frog/frogs are eating!
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Its official. I’ve decided to add dart frogs to my dream reptile/amphib list. Im thinking the usual suspects Dendrobates species (tinctorius, auratus and maybe leucomelas).
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@afagan90 what kind of dart frogs do you have/how many?
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I’m actually primarily keeping Oophaga Pumilio Nicaragua, the Strawberry Blue Jeans, and I’ve got a 1.2 breeding trio currently. If you don’t know much about Oophaga, check into them, they’re by far my favorite genus, for a variety of reasons!
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I currently don’t (and nvr have yet) any reptiles amphibs or inverts but hope to in the future. I just wish dart frogs were bigger like say pacman frog size or one of those big chubby toads because that would look amazing if they were sized up.
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If you’re interested in the larger species, check out the Terribilis and Tinctorius, they’re the largest and boldest (as far as behavior) of observed dart frogs in captivity. They need a bit more room and have different social needs than the smaller dart frogs, and there’s many different locales of them to choose from.
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Thanks but I already know about them. Been reading up on darts a lot lately. They are interesting little amphibs. I hope when I’m in a good position to I can maybe have some. I also still look forward to getting my 1st reptile (Ive chosen Uromastyx (prob geyri or ornata)).
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