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Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

Can Dart Frogs eat Crickets or other feeders ?
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Can Dart Frogs eat Crickets or other feeders ?
#1
I want to try and feed my Dart frogs crickets - can I do this ? I find the Fruit fly culture thing really weird. Is there any way I can do this ? Can they eat mealworms or any other things ?
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#2
Crickets are ok - occasionally and only if they are extremely small. They are called pin head size, and this is with good reason. They are hard to buy in this size, it is best to breed them yourself.

Do not attempt to feed them mealworms. Mealworms are too large, and their skin is too tough.

They also eat springtails, but those are more of a snack, springtails are not meant to be an only food source.

Fruit flies are extremely easy to take care of, and very cheap. I only spend $1/week to feed 4 frogs, and always have more than I need.
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#3
Where can I get a cheap culture kit?
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#4
Most on line retailers offer fruit fly starter kits including us, Vivarium Concepts.

http://www.vivariumconcepts.com/content/view/43/25/
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#5
Are you sure ? I think my local pet store might have been selling them.
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#6
We've been feeding our PDF's pin-heads, but these guys are correct - crickets are hard to find in this size, unless you have a pet store in your area that has a very good reptile/amphibian section like we have. If I lived outside of Virginia Beach, I might think about going the fruit fly route.
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#7
Dartyman Wrote:Are you sure I think my local pet store might have been selling them.

Selling what, pinheads? I think that the reason that they are hard to find is because they do not ship well. Perhaps if your local shop does sell them it is because they raise them there self or they are just appearing in the regular cricket enclosure were breeding would be inevitable or maybe, and even better for you, there is a cricket/live food breeder near you that your local shop is able to order from. I am not sure where you are located but it would probably be worth your time to see if there is a breeder in the area near you that you can just order a steady supply of the crickets you need. If they are close you could probably pick up or at least the shipping would be low. For me I am too far away from any cricket breeders that I know of so I have to pay more for shipping than the crickets would cost me. Because of that my stable food for the frogs I am getting next month will be fruit flies and I will supplement with other live foods on occasion.
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#8
I'm feeling very lucky right now that the place where I purchased my precious gems carries pinheads, as well as the fruit fly cultures. I had a look around at a couple other stores in the area & have yet to come across anywhere that sells the pinheads. And even though my husband comes across a lot of termites (he's an exterminator), Confusedhock: he absolutely refuses to bring home some healthy, pesticide-free ones for my newest babies. What's up w/that? He's also adamant that I am not to try to raise any springtails in the house. :roll: He's having a tough time accepting that we now have "pet" crickets & will probably end up w/the cultures during the winter to ensure a steady supply of food. Good thing he didn't know all this before he let me get them... well, not w/enough advance notice. I think he was busy reeling from the prices of the little darlings.

:? Is it true that crickets are the most nutritious food for them? And is feeding the crickets a calcium rich food a good thing for the froglets?
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#9
Fruit Flies should be considered the staple for most all species of dart frog. The are much easier to obtain, culture, purchase, dust...than crickets.

If you are unwilling to culture fruit flies, then I would say, Dart Frogs are not a good animal for you to consider owning.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#10
The downside to crickets is:

1) Finding the appropriate size. Most pet shops carry larger sizes because the larger crickets are easier to have shipped in (less die offs) and most pet shops cater to larger reptiles, like bearded dragons, chameleons, etc If you need to feed crickets, the crickets should be no larger that the distance between the frogs eye.

2) Crickets can carry coccidia, and can pass it on to the frogs.

3) Crickets are nocturnal. As soon as you put the crickets in the frog tank, they run and hide. So unless the frog is sitting their ready to eat, it will miss it's meal. Then when the light are out the crickets will come out of their hiding spots and feed on your plants, and there have been stories of crickets nibbling on the frogs.

So for these reasons, as well as the cost factor, fruit flies are a much better option.
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#11
I just caught about a dozen big houseflies and threw them into the P. bicolor viv. They were literally jumping in the air trying to catch the flies. They don't exhibit that kind of feeding response with just ff's.
Jon
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#12
Is it the perceived difficulty with raising FF ?

Do people constantly push for the ease of just buying crickets and dumping them into the viv ?

I always enjoyed (greatly) the 'mad science' aspect of growing the tiny flies.

I still belong to the 'if you don't want to feed out FF, then you shouldn't try to keep dart frogs' faction.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#13
Philsuma Wrote:I always enjoyed (greatly) the 'mad science' aspect of growing the tiny flies.

HA! I feel exactly the same way! I think it has to do with the fact that you're carefully growing animals that are just going to end up as prey for your other animals. There's something delightfully (and harmlessly) sadistic about it.

I'm having ridiculously good luck culturing flies since I started. They boom like mad and keep producing even when the media is almost totally gone. (Just in case, though, I always have at least two active cultures and usually one old one and one new one at any given time; the older ones are moved into a different drawer to avoid possibly spreading mites.) I have to say I was very relieved when I found out that FFs are better than crickets. Crickets are a pain and I find them nasty. Flies are so easy, and not gross, and as for escapees? Nothing in my life has ever worked as well as that apple cider vinegar/dish soap trick
A girl named Joey.
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