With news exotic pets are on the rise one Fenland family talks of their experiences of sharing their home with unusual members of the animal kingdom

Fenland family embrace life as exotic pet owners - including some ‘deadly’ frogs

Keepers & Breeders of captive bred Poison Dart Frogs. DENDROBATES TINCTORIUS ‘COBALT’ DENDROBATES TINCTORIUS AZUREUS DENDROBATES LEUCOMELAS EPIPEDOBATES ANTHONYI We also design & build dart frog vivariums as well as breeding equipment.

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When Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown and closure of all non essential businesses last year. The Baker family of Elm in Cambridgeshire thought the proposed 3 weeks of lockdown would give the family of 4 a opportunity to grow as a family.. Little did they know that as the 3 weeks extended longer &amp; longer, that growing would be an actual start of a fantastic business idea. Former rugby player Malcolm Baker, who had his career cut short due to a injury that turned out to show he had actually been born with a genetic degenerative spinal disease that has left him using a wheelchair, tells us how when his wife Amy was forced to close her mobile Beauty Business due to the restrictions and not being self employed long enough to be eligible for government assistance (and still is not) life looked very bleak.. In fact if it was not for "Newspage"(then named "The Great British Bounce Back") help in getting her story out in front of the media, the couple were facing not being able to feed themselves and their two adorable children Toby, eight and six-year-old Lily, as well as the prospect of not being able to reopen Halo Beauty and Holistic Therapy when lockdown ended. To help keep the family occupied during lockdown with teaching important life skills to Toby &amp; Lily, and they decided to research and enter into the world of exotic pet keeping. Starting with a Harlequin Crested Gecko called "Charmander" followed by a bearded dragon, named Elliott - after the character in the children's film Pete's Dragon. Then in May, Lily decided that daddy should have a Frog for his birthday present.. A strange thing to want to buy for your dad but after seeing some YouTube videos Malcolm soon fell in love with the little thumbnail sized Poison Dart Frogs.. Malcolm spent a lot of time researching the various different types of Dart Frog, including the optimum habit requirements etc The world's most deadliest creatures - the poison dart frog. No bigger than a THUMB, the frog's skin is covered in a toxic slime - so deadly there is enough on its tiny body to kill 10 fully grown men, when in the wild. The are the only creature on earth that can kill without attacking.. Just touching a Poison dart frog can be fatal. However, the family need not worry about the potential dangers of their pets as they are in fact perfectly harmless when bred in captivity. Malcolm, who was forced to end his rugby career in 2008, said: "The poison comes from a type of bug the frogs eat in the wild and that is what causes the toxic skin, they are perfectly harmless to keep if captive bred and obviously as long as you don't feed them that particular bug!" Lily and Toby (with help from mummy) brought daddy his first 2 poison dart frogs a male and female Epipedobates anthonyi Malcolm was soon hooked and in July decided to get a different species.. 3 Dendrobates leucomelas or bumblebee dart frogs. Soon followed by 4 Dendrobates Tinctorious azureus or blue dart frogs. To make the new hobby even more enjoyable, malcolm designed and made each of the vivariums himself to the spec of each species natural habitats.. After joining a few Facebook groups for people with the same interest, he started to build more vivariums and started to offer rescue to no longer wanted dart frogs, he said "the pandemic has really hit exotic pet owners hard and with people losing jobs and having to live on reduced wages and benefits, people had to make hard choices and get rid of their pets" the family had already rescued a Staffordshire Bull Terrier a few years previously. "I am such a softy when it comes to animals in need" he added. Now the family own a total of 12 adult breeding dart frogs and have 15 baby froglets, 16 tadpoles and about 20 spawn.. "The breeding happened purely by accident" malcolm said "both Toby and Lily have learnt so much about the life cycle of frogs and love helping dad with the care of them" Just recently Malcolm has started to sell breeding huts to fund the care of the rescue frogs he has. "I found Karl on the social media platform "Nextdoor" who stated he had a 3d printer and did anyone need something made" malcolm added "I reached out to him and was shocked to find out he only lived on the next road and daily walked past my house taking his son to the same school that my two attend" The huts have been a big hit for UK breeders so much so that YouTube star Joe Smith from DIY Herps purchased two of them and was so impressed with them that he made a video to advertise them.. Since then Halo Dart Frogs have been getting orders almost daily and receiving 5 out of 5 star ratings.. From what was a just a hobby is turning very quickly it a dream of making it a business.. Malcolm would love to open a Dart Frog zoo for educational and conservation purposes but unfortunately does not have the financial ability to do it. He hopes that someone or a company may like to assist him with making the dream a reality and help to educate children and adults about the conservation of these beautiful animals especially as they are an endangered species due to the deforestation of the rainforests in South America. You can talk to malcolm on 07702124808 or email him on halodartfrogs@outlook.com
<blockquote>Ex Rugby Player dreams of owning an educational dart frog Zoo</blockquote>

Malcolm Baker

A Lockdown hobby could leapfrog into an exotic business. 

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