Pteryx Has Lizards

Here we have the most elegant house tiger and the world’s sweetest old man

I have my fur cat ZXJKTKHTHSH The Fluffy, Striped Monstrosity Of Fur And Fang (Zix and Monster for short) here seen (1) begging sweetly for icecream and (2) neatly packed for shipping

my long cat Pierogies The Curious Rope, here seen (3) attempting to grappling-hook a hat (she succeeded) and (4) doing a passable gauntlet impersonation

Got any thoughts on my Zix? She’s female orange and fluffy but that’s all I’ve got.

The caveats:

Do your research. This is a basic “I love dart frogs” overview, not a care guide

CAPTIVE BRED. One, the wild populations are nearly all heavily endangered, two, wild dart frogs are very poisonous (they get their poison from their food so captive-bred are completely nontoxic). They breed readily in captivity though, so they’re usually pretty accessible!

They require bioactive terrariums with plants, leaf litter, and wood for climbing. They don’t have to be fancy plants though! Dart frogs will be perfectly happy with hardy greenery like spider plants and pothos, which I’m pretty sure would grow happily on the surface of mars if you watered occasionally (the frogs would not be happy on the surface of mars it is too cold and dry)

They have strict temperature/humidity requirements. It depends on the species a bit, but on the whole they can’t tolerate temps outside of a 17-25c range or humidity below 70% at the *absolute* driest, with ideal conditions being 18-23c and 90+% humidity. If you live somewhere temperate and humid (I’m in the pnw) this is easy to maintain! If you live somewhere dry, hot, or cold, it will take more work.

They are not for handling. If they’re captive bred they’re not dangerous to you, but they’re very small, delicate, and sensitive to chemicals: catch them in a cup, only when absolutely necessary.

Dechlorinated water only. Depending on local water quality tap is probably fine as long as you treat it first

…That sounds like a lot, but once you get their homes set up and stable with good environmental conditions their maintenance is extremely simple, it’s just, spray lightly once a day or so (or use an automatic mister), drop in some fruit flies ~3 times a week, go in with a brush/cloth once a month or so to clean the glass and spot-clean the substrate. Fruit flies can be tricky but they can also take teeny crickets and a couple other micro feeders so you have options.

They don’t need heat, they don’t need a water feature, they don’t need special lighting, they can be kept in same-species groups, and they’re really small, so you can give them a nice roomy enclosure without taking up that much shelf space: depending on species, a pair or trio will generally do really well in a 18x18x24 terrarium, with the smallest species even being happy in a 12x12x18.

Frog tax: this is my buddy Mint, he’s a Ranitomeya vanzolinii. He’s super brave and active, I’ve got at least one vid on here of him doing a full-on circus routine around his tank and he actually comes out of hiding when I come by to see if I have treats for him! He’s too small to easily hand-feed but he’ll take big springtails off the edge of a spoon it’s really cute.

Hey! Can I ask for care advice?

I caught this little jumper (Platycryptus sp…? in the PNW) on my windowsill about a week ago, set them up in this 8x8x8 terrarium with springtails and pruinosis isopods (idk if spider will hunt them but it’s fine if they do) and have been misting the terrarium and giving them a couple flightless fruit flies (glider or hydei) when I feed my dart frogs (~3 times/week). They seem pretty active, they explore a lot and I’ve seen them catching flies so I know they’re eating.

I haven’t kept a jumping spider before and all the guides I’ve seen are for different genuses, got any tips?

That’s good to hear, thanks! I always wanna do my due diligence with my pets to make sure they’ve got a good home but it’s tricky when there just isn’t much info on the species in general. They’ve molted as of this morning tho so they seem to be growing and healthy!

Your fruit fly food needs to provide four things:

Sugars, carbs, protein, and moisture.

It also needs to be soft enough for the larvae to burrow into, but not so soft/liquid that the adults get stuck in it.

In the lab, we made a mix of 3 sugars (glucose, sucrose, dextrose), cornmeal (carbs), yeast (protein), agar (thickener), and water (moisture). We would boil the mix for several minutes to sterilize and thicken it, then pour it into plastic test tubes we sealed with large cotton balls.

In the kitchen, I recommend using the following:

Lightly processed/"raw" sugar (could use brown sugar)

Cornmeal

Yeast or yeast extract

Gelatin

I can't give you measurements because I'm not sure what's ideal, but you'll want about twice as much cornmeal as sugar, and about twice as much sugar as yeast. I think. Again, play with it.

You'll want the texture to be like a firm jello.

Boil water. Add your non-gelatin ingredients and stir and let dissolve. Add the gelatin. Remove from heat and pour into your containers.

We use short jam mason jars. The only problem is they're a bit high-surface-area, so your food puck may dry out and you might have to add another chunk of food later.

Cheesecloth makes a good air-permeable cover. Adding a layer of parchment paper over that with just a few holes poked in it can help keep moisture in.

Fruit flies take about a week and a half to go from egg to adult. The adults will live for 2-4 weeks depending on temperature, food, etc. You can switch them between containers by sticking them in the fridge until they stop moving, then tap the loose adults into a new container. I suggest doing this after allowing them to lay eggs on a food puck for a day or two, so you have a brand new batch of flies in your container.

Just thought you might like the mental image because they were so cute irl

Hope you have a good day

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