Calling all Southern California Froggers

[ToadPaparazzi]

How many of you here on FrogForum are SoCal'ers? Where are you from? Anything you'd like to share about how you came to be a frogger? What amphibians are you working with?

Any interest in forming a regional group? I'm part of a Dart Frog group out here in SoCal and we meet up every few months to trade/sell frogs, supplies and ideas/husbandry practices.

My name is Christian Powell and I live in Redlands, CA. I am going to college for biology with hopes of someday becoming a high school biology teacher.

My fascination with critters started when I was just a few years old. As a child, I spent most of my free time in the backyard, flipping over stepping stones and pieces of bark in search of bugs. I never found action figures very interesting or fun. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would respond "An Entomologist"...

I always had snakes and lizards as pets growing up. When I was 18, I joined the Army and had to take a break from keeping herps for the almost 7 years of service.

As soon as I was out of the Army, I took up snakes again and LOTS of field herping. I was primarily interested in Rosy Boas; it's pretty easy to find them in the wild here in SoCal. Eventually, I broadened my collection to geckos (uroplatus and rhacodactylus)... It wasn't too long after that I acquired some Red Eye Tree Frogs after a buddy of mine showed me how easy and fun it is to build backgrounds.

Divorce led me to having to get rid of my collection. A few more years went by and my buddy talked me into taking home my first poison dart frogs (a trio of dendrobates leucomelas). I was addicted within a few weeks of watching their behavior and next thing I knew my collection grew from a single vivarium to three... A little over a year later, I have about a dozen vivariums, each containing species/morph specific groups of different poison dart frogs.

Currently, I am only working with Poison Dart Frogs and some backyard jumping spiders. I'm hoping to expand my collection to have more amphibian diversity... I really want to start working with tree frogs and salamanders.

I would love to learn more about the rest of you SoCal Froggers here on FrogForum

-Christian Powell

[John]

Historically the SoCal dartfroggers are quiet/keep to themselves, but there are some well known folks I believe!

[ToadPaparazzi]

Historically the SoCal dartfroggers are quiet/keep to themselves, but there are some well known folks I believe!

I'm hoping they speak up I'd love to get something organized.

Edit: I just noticed you referenced DartFroggers... There are about 30 of us that are on another forum that is DartFrog specific (DendroBoard) that meet every few months. The group calls itself SCADS. I was hoping to get a group including other frog-hobbyists together that's not DartFrog specific.

[flybyferns]

Hi Christian,
It's nice to know more about you.
Just wanted to take this opportunity to say 'thank you' , personally, for all your help.
Your set ups are awesome.

My newly acquired little group of leucs are very entertaining! I'm hooked
Lynn

[ToadPaparazzi]

Hi Christian,
It's nice to know more about you.
Just wanted to take this opportunity to say 'thank you' , personally, for all your help.
Your set ups are awesome.

My newly acquired little group of leucs are very entertaining! I'm hooked
Lynn

Lynn,

You're welcome Welcome to an awesome addiction!