# p. terribilis diet of dubias?



## FwoGiZ (Jul 8, 2008)

I have no experience with pdf, and I am planning to have a few terriblis once I am done gathering information, and building their viv. I was wondering if a diet of springtails and dubias would be proper for them. I see no reason why it would be so but I prefer asking!


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## mongo77 (Apr 28, 2008)

Adults will need larger food than springtails. They can even take crickets.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

When I had them, they wouldn't touch the springtails in the tank.


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## mjahnke (Sep 8, 2008)

My group of adults won't touch springtails, the tank is loaded with them. 

They seem to enjoy anything they can fit in their mouth. Crickets, Hydei, Wax Worms, Isopods... etc. I even witnessed one take down an earthworm that was living in the tank. One of my males has actually tried eating my finger when I was trimming out some of the plants.


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

I'm sure a terrib will eat any size dubia they can stuff down their gullet, but an adult dubia is probably the same size as an adult terribilis, and roaches are notoriously escapey and hidey, so they can easily evade being eaten and colonize your tank.


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

I have not used dubia or lateralis for my frogs. I have however, the experience of our using them to feed 300+ tarantula. 

Of the 2 types, we prefer the lateralis. 

Here are my reasons for not feeding them to my pdfs:

1 - dubia will burrow - which makes them very successful escape artists. 

2 - dusting isn't as easy as with ffs - these are good for tarantula because the tarantulas' dietary need is for very low calcium. 

3 - colonies available are not small, so unless you were to use many, this might not be cost effective. 

4 - lateralis will hide behind things and move around a lot. 

5 - lateralis take about 3 months to reach maturity. dubia can mature more slowly depending on temperature.

6 - reproduction. Lateralis are harder to breed in our experience. However, for successful breeding of dubia, you would need a large colony - of 3-500 hundred with at least 10 pair of adults would be a good starting colony.

7 - with Hydei, the lifecycle is definitly shorter, more pdf keepers will have these in case you need a quick replacement. Start-up cost is less. 

roaches take up more space to maintain a colony.

These might not be a bad food source, but you may want to look at the various factors involved. As with any feeder insect, you may want to note that one source alone isn't the better way to feed your pdfs.


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## johnc (Oct 9, 2009)

Even my 3 month old terribilis completely (100%) ignore springtails - their small terrarium is swaming with springtails because of this. I have a large dubia culture - I can't imagine any dart frog being able to eat past a half grown one.


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## FwoGiZ (Jul 8, 2008)

Dragonfly said:


> I have not used dubia or lateralis for my frogs. I have however, the experience of our using them to feed 300+ tarantula.
> 
> Of the 2 types, we prefer the lateralis.
> 
> ...


well I was asking this because I already have plenty dubias and springtailsgoing on, so I wanted to know if they would eat any of these two, just to give me an idea of what else to feed them as I really want to give them a good diversified diet. I guess I will try it out with dubias. I can get around the burrowing problem by having some "escape proof" spots such as a deli cup dug to the ground level. This way the roaches can't get out and some of my frogs (treefrogs) will eat from this "feeding dish" everyday. It may not be good looking in the viv but I prefer this over haveing my viv overan by the dubias.

I will be giving them crickets, and maybe phoenix worms if they'll have them. I was also thinking about breeding phoenix worms as I heard they're easy to care for. Maybe some occasional wax worms or any other weird worms out there as a rare treat.


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