# Dart frog food



## DayGecko (Jun 21, 2010)

Can you feed blue dart frogs mealworms or any type of worms or grubs as an alternative to crickets or flies?


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

Mealworms would be too big and tough and even the newly shed ones would prob be too big.
Other alternatives would be whiteworms or small waxworms (either lesser waxworms or juvenile greater waxworms from an established culture). Waxworms should really only be used as a treat rather than a staple. Other alternative is putting a film cannister of seeded fruit fly media and letting the frogs pick off the larvae


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## Biggys (Jun 6, 2010)

Could blood worm work ?


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

You could do I suppose if you put them into a very shallow dish - i do that for any worms I feed as they just bury themselves in the substrate.
I would be worried about the state of the bloodworms as often they are pretty manky and carry goodness knows what.
The other worm species are much easier to breed tbh


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## Biggys (Jun 6, 2010)

berksmike said:


> You could do I suppose if you put them into a very shallow dish - i do that for any worms I feed as they just bury themselves in the substrate.
> I would be worried about the state of the bloodworms as often they are pretty manky and carry goodness knows what.
> The other worm species are much easier to breed tbh


 
Fair enough mate


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## peterspets (Dec 17, 2009)

Bean weevils are a good standby, also really easy to culture.


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## sambridge15 (Nov 22, 2009)

peterspets said:


> Bean weevils are a good standby, also really easy to culture.


they dont seem to be enjoyed by the darts as much and escape even more then fruitfies!!!!:devil: soooo easy to breed though


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

Agree on how easy to breed they are lol
Have found my azureus will woof them down but the anthonyi wont always bother with them


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Unfortunately the staple diet seems to be fruitflies or hatchling crickets.These seem to be either the easiest to culture or easiest to buy.In my experience the others such as bean weavils and pea aphids are a treat rather than a staple.It really is a shame that some of these frogs dont eat larger prey compared to say an equivalent size Bombina.This seems to be the main drawback with keeping Dartfrogs.


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

You had much luck with pea aphids colin? Ive not managed to master a method and end up with cultures crashing quickly


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Not much luck Mike.They took a long time to breed and then I couldnt grow the peas quickly enough as they bred like rabbits.To be honest I have found them more trouble than they are worth.I was spending more time culturing them than with the frogs.


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

I must admit I did find them a bit faffy to sort out. Just gave up really after they kept crashing and concentrated on other cultures


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## deadmeat30 (Mar 29, 2008)

Pea aphids are really hard to culture. ive had many crash on me over the time.


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

I just use field sweepings from the garden now - much easier way of getting them!


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## soundstounite (Sep 6, 2009)

Guys although we have good stocks of aphid here because we have been organic for so long could you please outline how you attempted to culture them? are these aphids species specific?


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

You culture them on pea sprouts mate - dont use pea seeds for growing use the dried peas (much cheaper). I would get advice from someone that has had better luck! I aoaked them overnight then had them on kitchen roll in ventilated containers - the key i think is to ensure a constant supply of pea shoots as they reproduce.
I garden organically too so easy enough just to get them from the garden in spring/summer mate


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## soundstounite (Sep 6, 2009)

berksmike said:


> You culture them on pea sprouts mate - dont use pea seeds for growing use the dried peas (much cheaper). I would get advice from someone that has had better luck! I aoaked them overnight then had them on kitchen roll in ventilated containers - the key i think is to ensure a constant supply of pea shoots as they reproduce.
> I garden organically too so easy enough just to get them from the garden in spring/summer mate


 yeah Mike,i have clocked the pea sprouts, as alsways questing for detail,grow pretty much all our grub maybe 10 years nowblush: maybe more), so have deep thoughts about aphids through the cold months,and before i go out there just wondered how this was done,will the aphids not parisitise more mature plants than just sprouts,there are plenty of hardy peas that will easily grow out side through the cold months and with a bit of warmth the aphids should thrive it maybe depends on the age of the plants and the temp that the aphids go dormant. trouble is if one lets nature get on with it for long enough then one never sees the build up of aphids that one does when man gets envolved,hell had to chuck at least 2 parasitic wasps(ha love em) out of me first viv,seems wierd to be growing for aphids.That said it is a personal hunch that our darty diet is massively lacking,so want to explore every means of giving them good nosh. and being able to provide that through the year,any thoughts greatly appreciated!! 
Stu


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