# Frogs & Toads > Dart Frogs (Dendrobatidae) > Dart Frog Health & Illness >  Dart Frog Death

## Amphibians

I had a green and black dart in a very small container with moss and a water dish with some moss and a small pool of water, not near enough to drown in. he was about as big as my thumbnail. I would dust a bunch of pinheads and drop them in every two-three days. I dusted the crickets every time i fed him, do you think that's what killed him? he also had a light which gave off some heat, but a humidity level of about 75% was kept very stable. I heard later you shouldn't dust crickets every time you feed, i don't anymore, but what are your thoughts? I've heard to do it only once a month, my vet told me too twice a week for my WTF. I've also lost some FBT's and i suspected maybe it was the constant dusting.

----------


## Kurt

I severely doubt it was the dusting. It could've been a lack of vitamin A. Dart frogs are know to suffer from it. With darts dusting should be frequent and make sure the supplement has vitamin A. Also make sure they are getting vitamin D3 and calcium.

Fire-bellies are often wild caught and so they should have a fecal float done and then be treated  for parasites with either fenbendazole or metronidazole, depending on what is found in the fecal sample.

----------


## Mike

Just a side note, vitamin A competes for uptake with vitamin D3 so if you did have a sick frog and wanted to prevent it from worsening, you'd want to know which of the two was causing the condition (if indeed it was a nutritional issue / vitamin deficiency).

----------


## Tom

Mike you seem very experienced with dart frogs. Its good to have you on the forum. Do you think you are experienced enough to write a caresheet on them?

----------


## Mike

I'm not sure I would really call myself experienced with darts but I did have one group of  darts that suffered from a vitamin A deficiency when I got them and have spent the past year experimenting with different supplementation regimens to correct it.  That and I spend too much time reading  :Smile:  .  Currently too busy to write a care sheet but will definitely try to frequent the forums more often and maybe one day I'll get to it.  Thanks for the welcome!

----------

