How to get Your Dart Frog to Call

Did you know that different species of frogs have unique calls? And if you keep frogs, you can actually encourage them to call. It can be a fun way to interact with your amphibians, providing them and you with entertainment.

Dart frogs, in particular, make a call that sounds like prolonged chirping, though each particular type of dart frog has a unique call.

Here are some tricks to get your dart frog making noise…

Know why frogs call

Frogs typically make calls because they are exhibiting breeding behaviors. That means that if you keep a single frog, you won’t likely hear much noise coming from it because it has no one to talk to. But if you have a terrarium with a combination of males and females, then they are likely to engage in breeding behavior and call to each other.

That being said, competition over mates causes aggression in most amphibians. So you need to know which sex to restrict in your shared habitats. For most species, it is the males who become aggressive, and you’ll see care sheets advising to only put one male in with a group of females.

For dart frogs, however, it is typically the females who exhibit aggression during breeding opportunities. That’s good news for you if you’re interested in hearing their calls because the males are the ones who make courtship calls. And you can keep multiple male dart frogs in a group.

Which leads me to the next tip…

Keep multiple frogs

One of the best ways to get frogs to call is for them to hear other frogs calling. If you keep multiple frogs, they may interact with each other, encouraging calls. Once one male starts his call, others may join in to compete.

Just don’t mix different species or color morphs.

Play a video of frog calls

If you don’t have multiple frogs, or your frogs just aren’t interested in calling to each other, you can encourage vocalization by playing sounds of other frogs making noise. It’s easy to find footage of dart frogs with audio.

In fact, here’s a video of bumble bee dart frogs that can help encourage your frogs to call:

And here is one of tinctorius dart frogs:

You may notice that bumble bee dart frogs and tinctorius dart frogs have quite different volumes, with the bumble bee frogs making loud, noticeable calls, and the tinctorius making quiet, subtle calls.

Keep your frogs healthy and happy

Frogs that are well-cared for in general are more likely to engage in courtship and mating behaviors. If they are stressed, hungry, or dehydrated, they are unlikely to waste energy on mating. So if you want to hear those calls, you need to be a good keeper.

If you’re looking for supplies for dart frogs, at The Tye-Dyed Iguana, we carry substrate, crickets, and isopods, as well as other amphibian supplies.

Diedra Blackmill is head copywriter and content marketer at Telepath Writing Services. She specializes in writing blog articles, newsletters, and scripts that generate more revenue for businesses.
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