[Guest]

I am a brand new dart frog owner. I got 4 Leucomelas from Black Jungle last Saturday, and I have noticed this odd behavior and am hoping someone knows what it is about.

At leat one, if not more of them are opening their mouths wide, over and over while sitting in one spot and not eating soon after I turn the light on in the morning. I have seen this three times now. I was thinking maybe the little guy was gagging on a dusted fly, like a pill getting stuck in your throat, so I dropped a few drops of water on him, getting his face wet. He continued to do it, and stopped after a bit.

They are all into hopping and eating, and seem pretty happy. I am just wondering what this is about. It freaks me out a bit, and looks uncomfortable.

Does anyone know or has anyone seen similar behavior?

Thanks,
Jessica

 

[Scott]

They are shedding their skin.

They do this every day, most often in the early AM.

s

 

[Homer]

Yup . . . classic skin shedding behavior. It is a bit freaky the first few times you see it. They actually swallow their skin--you can see it coming in the sides of their mouths and off of their legs if you watch closely.

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys. That is bizarre. I wonder if they have a coating over themselves to keep them dry at night, which gets pulled off... Or is this part of the growing process. Does this happen less as the get full-sized?

My guys are the size of grapes right now. One of my original 4 died in less than 24 hours, which BJ replaced promptly with a porky little hopper/eater. It is a bummer, because he had the coolest markings. Now I am a little paranoid as a result.

 

[Guest]

The markings change as they grow....

Don't they

 

[Guest]

Yup, they change. They get more spotted. This one had curved bands on his back. With the spots on his head it looked like he had a big smiley face on his back. I was hoping that the curved bands would stay, even if he got more spots. BJ had probably 50 leuc babies, and this is the only one that looked like that. Unfortunately, he is gone - probably due to Ca deficiency. The new one is much more generic, but very healthy.