1. They aren’t old enough. Most thumbnails can breed as early as 6 months out of the water, but larger frogs most often will not start breeding until they are over a year old. Tweaking variables to get them to breed sooner is at best futile and at worst unhealthy for the animals.

2. They aren’t a pair. Be very wary of people selling “sexed pairs” of frogs that are younger than the ages in #1 above.

3. You are bothering them. Once a year we clean off the slime on the front of our tanks for our open house. It takes most of our frogs about a month to start laying eggs again after this. Frogs love privacy, so provide lots of hiding spots and consider covering most/all of the sides of the tank.

4. Your humidity levels are too low. At Josh’s Frogs our breeders are setup with zero ventilation. Dart frog eggs need very high humidity and the frogs will not lay when they know their eggs are just going to dry out.

5. They aren’t healthy enough. Dusting your feeder insects with a calcium and multi-vitamin dust is important to prepare your frogs to breed.

6. Your breeding spots aren’t in the right condition.

   1. Most frogs will turn down a dirty petri dish. Make sure you use are cleaning/replacing your petri dishes regularly.

   2. Film Canisters get dirty fast. We dump the water out and refill 2 times a week as it gets pretty nasty fast.

   3. Different frogs require different breeding spots. Some like petri dishes under cocohuts, some like empty film canisters, some prefer the sides of the glass, and others prefer film canisters full of water.

One of the joys of keeping Poison Dart Frogs is breeding them. I have taken what I have learned from other froggers and read many books and articles to develop my methodology for breeding Poison Dart Frogs. I tweaked this method based on what I observed as I have bred thousands of frogs over the years. The following is my methodology.

Getting Frogs to Breed

Sometimes I think this is the hardest part of the whole process. It begins when you buy froglets. I recommend that you ask tons of questions when you are purchasing your froglets. You want to make sure that the frogs are healthy and that they were not weak frogs that were allowed to live. Buy frogs from reputable breeder. When buying frogs, keep in mind that most species of frogs do not produce a 1:1 ratio of males to females. The ratio can be as much as 1:8 with some species. And either sex can be the majority depending on the species of frogs. So, I recommend that people buy at least 5 froglets if they plan on breeding. After the frogs have matured and can be sexed, a pair can be separated and the others sold or traded. This is also a great investment as sexed adult frogs can be worth as much as double what you paid for them as froglets.

Once you have a pair of frogs, you must setup a tank that is conducive for breeding. This includes:

• Heavily planted tank – Frogs feel more secure in more cover and have less interruptions.

• High Humidity – We do not have any vents on most of our breeding tanks. We want humidity as high as possible in those tanks.

• Breeding spots – Note that it is plural. I find that frogs breed better when there are more options. They know the best places to lay eggs that lead to the best chance for healthy frogs. You don’t want to force them to breed in a mediocre spot. Breeding spots for larger frogs is a cocohut over a Petri dish and for smaller frogs, a film canister is the best option.

The next step is for you to induce breeding. In the wild, some of these frogs are seasonal breeders. While frogs will usually breed right after a storm, it is also possible to “trick” the frogs into thinking the wet season has arrived. There are many theories out there on how to do this. I have found a method that works pretty well. What I do it mist the tank once every other day for two weeks and follow that with two weeks of misting twice a day. I will also not feed as much during the light misting and more heavily during the higher misting frequency.

The best indicator of breeding success is the health of froglets. Froglets that are strong and healthy will be better breeders. Therefore, it is important that you acquire healthy froglets and continue the regiment of supplementing the frogs.