Anorexia in Poisonous Dart Frogs

"Hi! My name is Richard Reavis. I am co-owner of Black Jungle Terrarium Supply and I am here today on behalf of expertvillage.com discussing the proper feeding and supplementation of poison dart frogs. Another problem that can result from improper feeding is not nutrionally based, it is simply volume based. Insufficient numbers of feeder insects can cause anorexia. Here you can see with these dendrobates tanktorius, they have a very good body weight. They are neither thin nor obese. This particular species has a very hunched back and should have somewhat of a pronounced backbone but you want to avoid anything that would show a more pinched in or hollow look. With adult animals, emaciation can occur during the warmer months as their metabolism speeds up if the amount of feeder insects is not increased as well. Additionally, froglets are very easily underfed because of their rapid growth rate. Typically you cannot overfeed a froglet of any of the dart frog species. Once they are done eating, they won’t continue eating and obesity is not a problem as long as you are not feeding fat rich foods. With adult frogs, you should make sure that you are always keeping a steady body weight on the animal. If you notice weight loss, first thing to do is just try feeding more feeder insects or maybe increasing the fat content of the insects that you are offering. If the weight loss continues, at that point you would want to seek professional help to make sure that you are not dealing with a parasitic problem. It is also important to be careful that you don’t error too far on the other side as well. As overfeeding with higher fat content foods such as wax worms, can lead to obesity in adult animals. Typically signs of this include brings fat around the neck, increase lethargy and decrease breeding. If this does occur, it is best to cutback on both the fatty foods and the quantity of foods until the animal reaches his more natural weight."