# Lack of frogs for sale



## kirklandj (Feb 10, 2010)

I recently moved halfway across the country so I sold all of my Ranitomeya before making the road trip. I figured I would set up new tanks, get them planted and then start over. But it seems there are way fewer thumbnails for sale in the classifieds here and elsewhere. Used to see even sexed pairs or groups pretty often. I wonder what is going on. Are there fewer people working with Ranitomeya than 2 years ago, or have they all found other outlets for selling frogs? I don't have some grand point to make here and there is likely no clear answer but I guess it is going to take me much longer to get back in the game than I had planned.


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## Chris S (Apr 12, 2016)

I'm up in Canada, so it may differ, but I have actually had trouble selling my frogs over this summer, so I stopped trying. Maybe similar sentiment down there.


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Chris S said:


> I'm up in Canada, so it may differ, but I have actually had trouble selling my frogs over this summer, so I stopped trying. Maybe similar sentiment down there.


I've had the same experience as Chris. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. 

I have a group of froglets available that I've listed on multiple sources, at what I consider a fair price (less than the price I paid last year when I bought what turned into my breeding group), and have had a very hard time selling them.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

fishingguy12345 said:


> I have a group of froglets available that I've listed on multiple sources, at what I consider a fair price (less than the price I paid last year when I bought what turned into my breeding group), and have had a very hard time selling them.


Compared to many other herps, the prices of most dart frog species are so low as to make them not worth going out of one's way to breed. I wholesale mine, since nickle and dime sales online are much more trouble than they're worth. That's just my own personal reason for not offering frogs online, though.

I suspect that as dart frog keeping gets mainstream, one of the many bad things that's going to happen (or, is happening) is that larger vendors are going to prioritize 'beginner' species over thumbs for volume sales, and hobby breeders who are in this for some sort of profit are going to move to high-dollar species. Most of the thumbs in the middle are going to get pushed aside; a $35 frog that's kind of a pain to breed relative to some others doesn't offer motivation to many breeders. 

One good way to hunt up what you're looking for is to search the classifieds archives, and get in touch with people who were offering the species you're looking for to see if they're still producing them. Starting with making connections like this is better for the whole situation than pushing this all onto whatever social media platform is popular today that has no useable archives.


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## FrogPrince (Sep 20, 2018)

kirklandj said:


> I recently moved halfway across the country so I sold all of my Ranitomeya before making the road trip. I figured I would set up new tanks, get them planted and then start over. But it seems there are way fewer thumbnails for sale in the classifieds here and elsewhere. Used to see even sexed pairs or groups pretty often. I wonder what is going on. Are there fewer people working with Ranitomeya than 2 years ago, or have they all found other outlets for selling frogs? I don't have some grand point to make here and there is likely no clear answer but I guess it is going to take me much longer to get back in the game than I had planned.


I find sales tend to be seasonal and always will find thumbs by searching google and keep scrolling down until the more links and/or species are available.


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## crbonade (May 13, 2021)

Check out Ruffing's Ranitomeya on Facebook too. He has many ranitomeya species, and posts new availability regularly. I just bought a trio of sirensis "orange" from him (hopefully arriving next week if the weather cooperates), and he just had some sirensis "Rio Pachitea Yellow" and variabilis "Southern" available. Those may already be purchased, but he also posted a photo of dozens of tadpole cups with tads popping front legs, and in the comments has Santa Rosa and Rapidos in that group (and probably others, those were just the species someone asked about).

ETA Saurian.net (Patrick Nabors) also has a few ranitomeya species regularly. Just checked and he has sirensis reds and amazonica iquitos in stock right now 👍

Also ETA that I kind of hate you right now, because now I'm looking at frogs again and I do _not_ have space or time for any new ones 😂


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## Chris S (Apr 12, 2016)

crbonade said:


> Check out Ruffing's Ranitomeya on Facebook too. He has many ranitomeya species, and posts new availability regularly. I just bought a trio of sirensis "orange" from him (hopefully arriving next week if the weather cooperates), and he just had some sirensis "Rio Pachitea Yellow" and variabilis "Southern" available. Those may already be purchased, but he also posted a photo of dozens of tadpole cups with tads popping front legs, and in the comments has Santa Rosa and Rapidos in that group (and probably others, those were just the species someone asked about).


One of the best sources...in the world.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Y'all, some of this is straying into 'vendor review' and 'advertising other forums' territory. Vendor reviews have their own section on DB, and advertising other forums isn't allowed (and social media is pretty good at poaching traffic without anyone's help). 

Please keep it on the topic of the overall lack of frogs for sale. Thank you.


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## crbonade (May 13, 2021)

Oops, sorry! I guess thw shorter and more on-topic of my previous post is, they're out there and even from some reputable breeders if you know where to look 😉

But more on topic I suppose - when I was looking for frogs earlier this year and contacted UE to see what they had (I think I was looking for imitator varaderos in fact), they weren't importing any in 2021 because of the pandemic. I suspect the pamdemic may have had an impact on what's available out there too, maybe more so than we realize. Obviously it affects imports, but smaller breeders might have had to leave the game for a bit after being affected by their local economy or shipping service issues early on, larger breeders may have had issues keeping people at work and could still be recovering, etc.


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## kirklandj (Feb 10, 2010)

Sorry for posting this and then disappearing. Grant deadline was calling.

Thanks for the suggestions. It does seem that some frog sales have moved to venues that I don't use. The Dendroboard Classifieds had been great to me in the past, to go along with local breeders (that aren't local anymore). Then a few of the people I have gotten frogs from in the past have gotten out because, well, life gets really busy or also sold all before a move. I will keep my eyes out and keep checking the classifieds here since I am so partial to them because of past great experiences.


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## kirklandj (Feb 10, 2010)

Socratic Monologue said:


> Compared to many other herps, the prices of most dart frog species are so low as to make them not worth going out of one's way to breed. I wholesale mine, since nickle and dime sales online are much more trouble than they're worth. That's just my own personal reason for not offering frogs online, though.
> 
> I suspect that as dart frog keeping gets mainstream, one of the many bad things that's going to happen (or, is happening) is that larger vendors are going to prioritize 'beginner' species over thumbs for volume sales, and hobby breeders who are in this for some sort of profit are going to move to high-dollar species. Most of the thumbs in the middle are going to get pushed aside; a $35 frog that's kind of a pain to breed relative to some others doesn't offer motivation to many breeders.
> 
> One good way to hunt up what you're looking for is to search the classifieds archives, and get in touch with people who were offering the species you're looking for to see if they're still producing them. Starting with making connections like this is better for the whole situation than pushing this all onto whatever social media platform is popular today that has no useable archives.


This makes a lot of sense. The middle ground always gets squeezed by the two extremes.


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