[Guest]

I am thinking of getting back into the herp hobby after about a ten year break. I used to keep Jackson's chameleons and had some success breeding them. I am now interested in dart frogs. I have read this board a lot and am ready to start setting up my terrarium. The one thing I haven't found good info on is how much food they need. I've read about all the varieties of food but how often do most people feed their frogs and how much. I have no experience with fruit flies and how many a frog needs per serving.
Before I get any frogs I want to have some stable fly cultures going so I have food for them. My local pet stores only have crickets (not pinheads) mealworms and waxworms. I want to make sure I don't run out of food before I can order more cultures. Also how long can the frogs safely go without food if they have been well fed?
Sorry for the long post and thanks for the help,
Tom

 

[khoff]

The average size juveline frog will probably eat about 15-20 melangaster fruit flies a day, and adults will eat over 50 flies a day each (these are for tinc or azureus sized frogs). I would not go more than one day without feeding them. Although two days would work if you overfed them by about double the one day and put a piece of banana in the tank so the extras gather on this instead of bugging the frogs. Your concern is definately in the right place, food. That is usually the number one downfall of the beginner dart frogger. I would say get about 3-5 fruit fly cultures established before you get any frogs. This will let you get the hang of fruitflies and should give you plenty of food. Keep in mind, no matter how good you are at fruit flies, some cultures will always die. Its better to have way too much food than not enough because the local pet store probably won't be able to help you out. You should get the tank set up and start fruit flies about a month before getting the frogs. Hope all this helps.

 

[Guest]

I have large 32 oz cultures and 16 frogs I go through 5 cultures every 3 weeks. I agree adult darts will usually eat about 50 a day. As tom253 says you need to attempt cultures before getting your frogs. Luckily I have a breeder nearby that makes 200+ cultures a week so I just buy extra off of him if i need any.