Blue Poison Arrow Frog Care Sheet

Blue Poison Arrow Frog (Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus") are an interesting choice for dart frogs, they have a dark blue body with light blue and black highlights across the back and head making them one of the more visually captivating species of Dart Frogs. While known as Poison Dart or Poison Arrow Frogs, their poisonous secretions come from the food source in their natural habitat so this would not be an issue in captivity.

Blue poison arrow frogs do well with a glass terrarium as their enclosure. This is because glass is great at allowing heat to escape, ensuring that the enclosure stays cool enough. Other enclosures, such as wooden vivariums, are far too efficient at retaining heat.

The blue poison arrow frog's vivarium should be at least 450mm in length and 300mm in height. The blue poison arrow frog is going to grow to around 1-2", so they need a space large enough for them to move around in.

Blue poison arrow frogs require a near-constant air temperature of 75°F. This is best achieved by sticking a heatmat on one side of the glass enclosure. This heatmat is regulated using a thermostat to make sure the temperature stays constant.

As the glass is only being heated on one side, this also creates a small temperature gradient within the enclosure, allowing the frog to warm itself up or move away to cool down.

If the enclosure is not able to get up to temperature with the heat mat alone a small basking bulb may be implemented in the canopy as long as the temperatures do not exceed 75-80°F.

Dart Frogs will be in partial shade but naturally, UVB is still available throughout most of the day. UVB lighting used to be considered an optional extra but we now know a lot more about the species and their natural habitat and understand that it should always be provided.

The terrarium has a mesh lid, which will reduce the strength of UVB being put into the enclosure so we would recommend a wide covering of 5% UVB or a smaller covering of 6-7% UVB. Terrarium canopies are currently available in 2 forms: compact top canopies or T5 canopies. Compact top canopies typically hold E27 screw-fit lamps and can be matched with compact UVB lamps or low-wattage basking lamps.

T5 canopies are a newer solution and will normally hold a single T5 UVB tube.The effectiveness of the lamp can vary by manufacturer but in general, compact lamps have a range of around 9-12 inches and must be replaced on average every 6 months or so. T5 UVB tubes have a range of around 24 inches and must be replaced once per year.

Whichever lamp you choose, we would advise mounting it above the terrarium towards the front or back of the enclosure. This should provide a nice UV gradient from the back of the enclosure towards the front. In this configuration, we achieve a temperature gradient along the length and a UV gradient along the width meaning that whatever the frog's requirements, they can find the perfect position within the enclosure.

Blue poison arrow frogs are terrestrial frogs, but still need to be kept moist. The best way of doing this is by lining the floor with a mixture of bark chips and damp moss; the substrate can be taken out and resoaked or replaced as necessary.

The frog's vivarium can be decorated with artificial plants for a more natural look. Natural wood ornaments look very effective and also provide further perches for the frogs. Trailing plants are very good at disguising electrical wires and equipment, as well as providing cover for young amphibians.

Blue poison arrow frogs are insect hunters. These Frogs will not eat anything bigger than their mouth.Live insects like micro Crickets and Fruit Flys are particularly nutritious. Your pet deserves the best foods possible, so look after your live foods.

Keep your crickets fresh, plump, and full of vitamins by feeding them with BugGrub and fresh vegetation. Remember, your blue poison arrow frog also eats whatever is in your live food's stomach. Also, don't allow your live food to dehydrate; you don't want to give your animals dried-up, half-dead insects for dinner! Hydrate them with Bug Gel to keep them alive longer and mouth-wateringly juicy. Care for your live food in their own enclosure, such as a Cricket Keeper. Live foods should be coated in a vitamin and mineral supplement such asNutrobalto ensure the blue poison arrow frog is getting the best nutrition possible. Water should always be made available to the blue poison arrow frog by using a water bowl or a water feature and checked daily to ensure freshness.

To provide the blue poison arrow frog with optimal nutrition and to keep them in the best of health, they will require dietary supplementation in the form of calcium, vitamins, and minerals. These are most commonly available as powders

Any live food for the frog should be 'gut-loaded' with an insect food. This basically involves feeding the live food a nutrient-rich diet before they are fed to the blue poison arrow frog. Our live food is delivered to you already gut-loaded, but this should be continued at home.

If you keep a male and female together, they may breed. You do not need to do anything to encourage this. As long as they are healthy and the conditions are good, it will happen naturally. You need to consider whether you want this to happen before introducing the pair.

Blue Poison Arrow Frogs as with most pets, require a clean environment to thrive. We recommend a spot clean as often as possible (every day) and a full clean every 4 weeks or so. If you are keeping the gecko in a bio-active enclosure you can spot clean and monitor the enclosure. It may still be a good item to change out the bedding a few times per year.

When cleaning the enclosure you should remove your animal, all decorations and all of the bedding. Once the enclosure is clear you can spray it all over with a reptile friendly disinfectant. These usually work very quickly and only need to be left for around 30 seconds, instructions can normally be found on the disinfectants packaging. Once the disinfectant has done its work it can be wiped away from the surfaces with a paper towel. In some cases you might want to repeat this process a second time to ensure that the enclosure is thoroughly cleaned.

Your decorations can be cleaned in a similar method, simply spray them down with the disinfectant and rinse thoroughly with water before drying them off and putting them back into the enclosure.