# Dart frogs and holidays?



## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

I was just wondering this morning: What do dart frog people do when they go on holiday?

I don't mean like sunbathing or hill-walking, I mean that, as far as I understand it they need feeding pretty often with live food, and you need to keep the cultures going.

With tarantulas, if the heatings fine you can leave them for two weeks with no problems usually. If you're away longer they might need watering, but that's it.

With the salamanders and leo, for a week at least you just feed them a bit more before you go and make sure the water is topped up.

But what do you do for darts? Do you just go on shorter holidays? I'm guessing it's harder to find someone to care for your darts when you're away than it is a cat or dog...


----------



## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

Lights on timer. Mister on timer. Leave culture in tank. Get mum to check every 2 days and feed when required.


----------



## clairethorn (May 2, 2008)

Don't take holidays! I can do one night away but that's all :whistling2:


----------



## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

Thanks, how long can a well fed adult dart go without food for (comfortably/healthily that is)?


----------



## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

Get someone to look after them, get them to come to your house and make sure they are ok. I never leave any of my reptiles for a few days without someone checking in on them what if something went wrong? 

I wrote out a to do list for my friend, gave her a run down and then went on hol for 2weeks came back and everything was ok, and due hasn't a clue about reptiles she done well!


----------



## sambridge15 (Nov 22, 2009)

most care sheets say they are fine without being fed for a week a dart viv should always have a woodlouse or springtail wondering about this along with a culture in the viv and prehapse heavy feedings the weeks running up the holiday the dsarts should be fine for a fair while!


----------



## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Lou makes a good point though; I regularly leave my guys for the weekend, but only recently I came back to find a bulb had blown in one of the tanks- a couple of days didn't really make any difference, but a couple of weeks in this weather could be serious.


----------



## Gaz1987 (Jan 28, 2008)

Dartfrogs can be left for a week without food no problem providing they are fed more regular a week or so before you leave and are healthy to begin with. On the day/night of leaving give a heavy feed to ensure some extra food will be about for a few days. Not a stupid amount though as this could stress the frogs out, just a little more than a normal feed. 
Dartfrog vivs usually have micro fauna in them such as woodlice, springtails etc. which will all be food if the frogs see them.

Froglets on the other hand are different they need feeding more often so require someone to feed at least twice a week minimum.

Providing a viv is setup correctly you can leave the frogs alone for at least 2 days without food or misting possible more .

With regard to lighting this is not essential for 2 weeks so could be left off providing the temperatures will stay correct or they can be put on a timer along with any other form of heating and misting.

I dont like the idea of leaving cultures in vivs so any longer than a week you really need someone to just check on and feed them once or twice the following week.
Fly cultures really need to be done about every week or two depending on the species so you have to be careful when leaving these if you are not sure make extra ones just before you leave that way you are bound to have a fairly fresh fly culture to come back to and this can also be used to create another new culture.

Hope that helps.


----------



## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

Pet shops sometimes do a pet boarding service - I know of a reptile boarding service near me that would happily cater for darts.


----------



## Gaz1987 (Jan 28, 2008)

Unless the pet shops are not experienced with dart frogs I would not use them as dart frogs are not very forgiving if they are wrongly cared for. Also you would have to be willing to take the complete viv to the shop as it's not advisable to remove the frogs due to stress issues. This would not be the easiest thing to do especially if you have more than one viv.


----------



## sambridge15 (Nov 22, 2009)

check my out of viv mister thread that in a timer would cost about 10£ and keep the viv damp and humidity high for a low price:2thumb:


----------

