Origin: Southern Ecuador, North/East Peru
Length: 1.5 cm (head-body)

Lifespan: On average about 7 to 12 years old.

The tricolored poison dart frog comes in various colors. The predominant color is red with white markings.

Care
Experience: This animal is an easy frog for beginner amphibian keepers.

Feeding adults: Offer food 3 to 4 times a week. This can be fruit flies, dust crickets, woodlice, or beetles.

Feeding young: Offer food every day (the animal may not want to eat every day). You can feed them almost anything you would give an adult.

Water bowl: Yes.

Water change: Daily

Nutrition: When feeding your frog, pay attention to the size of the frog and the size of the food. For example, for a young frog, give fewer fruit flies and smaller insects. You must also be careful with crickets, as their hard exoskeletons can cause blockages in your frog. This can lead to your frog's death.

It is also important that you properly supplement the food with vitamin and mineral supplements. Various powders for this purpose are available at specialized pet stores. Feeding itself is best done with feeding tweezers, but some animals will not be familiar with this and need to learn how to do it.

Water: Poison dart frogs absorb water through their skin. Therefore, a shallow water dish is essential. Ensure that this water dish stands firmly and cannot tip over. Additionally, the dish must be cleaned every day and filled with fresh water. If this is not done, the water can become dirty, and if the animal ingests this water, it can become ill.

If you create a water area in the terrarium instead of a water dish, you must ensure that there are resting places such as driftwood in it. The frog can then rest on this while lying in the water. Cleaning: You actually only need to completely clean your frog's enclosure once a month. Turning over the substrate every few days or once a week and cleaning up any droppings you find is sufficient. The water bowl, of course, must be cleaned every day. While cleaning, check that all systems and sensors included with the enclosure are still working properly to ensure the climate inside is right.

Handling: Try to avoid handling the animal as much as possible. Although the animals are fairly easy to handle, they can still bite hard. Additionally, the animals can become ill from dust and bacteria that we humans have on our hands.
If you really must pick up the animal, the best option is to do so with gloves and approach the animal from behind. This way, the animal cannot mistake your hands for prey. Then, grasp the animal around the belly and lift it carefully. If you pick up the animal without gloves, it is important that you have washed your hands with water beforehand. Do not use soap. After handling the animal, it is important to wash your hands with soap.
If you are bitten, it is important not to try to shake the animal off. The animal will only bite harder, and if it suddenly lets go, you could seriously injure it. Hold the animal under a running tap with lukewarm or cold water. Eventually, the animal will relax and let go.

Housing
Minimum enclosure size for 3 or 4 frogs: 40 x 40 x 40 cm.
Daytime temperature: 24 – 27 degrees.
Nighttime temperature: 20 – 24 degrees.
Hours of light: 12 hours of light. An extra heat lamp is acceptable, but choose a soft lamp that is not too bright. Otherwise, there is a risk that your animal and the substrate will dry out.

Humidity level: 80-90%
Substrate: Moisture-retaining substrate. Coco husk/cocopeat is best, but regular potting soil is also acceptable. Sphagnum moss is not recommended, as the animals can swallow it and become constipated. You can, however, use regular moss. Ensure the substrate is slightly damp, but not soaking wet. If you take a handful of substrate and can squeeze a few drops of water out of it, that is fine.
Setup: Because the animals are mostly buried underground, they do not need very much. However, it is important to provide them with a heating mat and a water bath or a place where they can lie in the water. Furthermore, they will greatly appreciate a hiding place. A lamp is therefore also an option, but ensure that it does not dry out the enclosure too much.

Lighting: If you want to hang UVB lamps for frogs, use a maximum of 2.5% UVB and no higher. This can harm your animals.

Behavior
Lifestyle: diurnal
Character: Apart from their eating habits, they are quite calm animals that will not move much. Therefore, they do not need a very large enclosure.

Points of attention: Many poison dart frogs (and other reptiles) in captivity suffer from metabolic bone disease (MBD). This means that the animal receives too little calcium and the bones become soft. In the tricolored poison dart frog, this is quickly visible through a drooping lower jaw, lethargy, muscle spasms, and deformities of the spine and hips. If you observe this, you must start administering extra calcium as soon as possible. This can be done by sprinkling it over the food as a powder or by giving it into the mouth as a paste using a syringe. If the animal has developed deformities, these will not go away.

Costs and Purchase
Legislation: A transfer document is required for this animal; you will receive this upon purchase. The animal falls under CITES II

One-off costs: One-off costs include the costs for the enclosure and all furnishings, such as the water bowl, heating mat, and hiding places. This can quickly run into hundreds of euros, depending on the quality of your equipment.

Fixed costs: Fixed costs refer to the costs for food and bedding. This often runs into tens of euros per year.

Unexpected costs: Unexpected costs may also arise. This refers to costs incurred when your animal is sick and needs to see a veterinarian, or if your equipment breaks down.