Dart Frog Care:
-Avoid touching/ handling your frog. Dart frogs are fragile and sensitive to chemicals/ oils on your skin. Although not toxic to humans, frogs can carry bacteria. -Avoid placing them near sunlight or near sources of heat or cold. Do not place frogs near windows, air vents or sources of heat or cold. -You will essentially maintain a vivarium which is an ecosystem that has flora (plants) and micro fauna. (Plants and beneficial insects). -You will need to culture food for your dart frogs. This means culturing fruit flies. Frogs eat small insects which are tough to find at any local pet store.
Food:
To raise Dart Frogs successfully you need to culture fruit flies. Temperature, mold, humidity, mites and complaints from family members are a few factors that can cause issues raising flies successfully. You will want to practice culturing them until you have successful cultures that produce nicely. Otherwise, you might find yourself scrambling for where to find who or where has a fruit fly culture or appropriate substitute in time to keep your frogs from going hungry. Unlike many other animals we recommend not relying on a local pet store to provide frog food. Even if you had a reliable store (which is rare) you would spend a pretty dime in doing so. A culture store bought might run you $10-20. One culture will last a few weeks before it needs to be discarded. It will either crash (stops producing) or become inundated with mites. Cultures should be discarded after 30 days to prevent mite spread. Unlike other animals there is no flake, or commercial food product available. There are supplemental feeder insects such as bean beetles, flour beetle larvae, perhaps pin head sized crickets. These foods though are to supplement fruit flies and add a varied diet but not to replace fruit flies. Note, crickets if allowed to roam free in your vivarium might eventually damage plants and can harm frogs. Note, beetles contain chitin that is tough to digest. Thus, beetles should be fed sparingly to darts. Insect larva is a good rich supplemental food.
Vitamins:
Use Repashy Calcium Plus daily. Vitamin A twice a month. Carotenoid, and multivitamin weekly to every other week. https://dartfrog.pet/Feeding-Dartfrogs/
Environment:
In your dart frog vivarium you will need to maintain a tropical environment. The temperature will need to be maintained between 64-78 degree Fahrenheit range. Humidity will typically need to be kept at 80-95% levels. It basically comes down to adding room heat or cooling. Humidity is maintained by the enclosed vivarium and misting with pure water (not tap) several times a day. Use RO/ reverse-osmosis water, distilled or spring that has been reconstituted minerals and trace elements back into water. Look at Sea-Chem Replenish product. Key. Consider an automated misting system as this is vital and preferred over hazardous water dishes. Enclosing the top of the vivarium with glass instead of a screen. Do allow for ventilation protected against frog escapes. Add live tropical plants and clean up insects such as isopods and springtails to help clean the vivarium. 10 gallons per frog of vivarium space is recommended. Ensure the top is free of any gaps that frogs can escape from. Avoid anything other than LED lights. Other lights produce heat which can be hazardous. Do not use heat lamps. https://dartfrog.pet/Dartfrog-Vivarium/
Bringing home:
So if you ever had aquarium fish, you are aware not to just toss the newcomers into your aquarium. The same thing holds true for dart frogs. Your new frog may have issues that you need to identify and resolve before introducing into their final vivarium. When you bring home your new dart frog, it is important to quarantine them. Minimum quarantine time would be a week. You will want to observe your frog closely. Inspect it for any visual problems. -Movement issues (walking or coordination issues) -Sores -Eating problems. If your frog is not eating, you will want to observe it for problems. Does your frog seem to have a lack of interest in eating? It may be stressed or ill. Does your frog have difficulty catching flies with its tongue? (STS) Sticky tongue Syndrome is usually associated with a Vitamin A deficiency. Read more about vitamins and supplementation on DartFrog.pet. Isolate and quarantine your frogs if they have health issues to prevent other frogs getting those illnesses, bacterial infections, fungal infections or parasites. When in isolation your new frog will be better able to eat without competition from other frogs. A sick frog will not be able to eat as aggressively as a healthy frog which will lead to its quick demise. A quarantine enclosure can be as simple as a closed plastic shoe box container that is lined with moistened sphagnum moss and leaf litter. It is best to cover 3 of the 4 sides of an enclosure so that they are less distracted by motion or lights around them which may add to stress and stress related problems. Seek medical assistance for any such health issue. Once your frog is eating successfully you can consider adding to its vivarium.
Visit www.DartFrog.pet for more dart frog care information.