With African clawed frogs becoming increasingly popular as pets all around the world, a disturbing trend has started to immerge where people will dye their African clawed frogs to change their color to a bright, candy like color.
Due to a number of photographs of dyed African clawed frogs going viral on social media recently, we have noticed a spike in the number of people reaching out and asking about these “candy frogs“.
We have decided to publish this article going over these dyed African clawed frogs in the hope that we will be able to help our readers realize the brutal way that these designer frogs are produced and hopefully discourage you from getting one.
They tend to be very rare in the west though due to tighter laws around protecting animals and are most commonly found in parts of Asia.
As we see a number of different questions being asked about the community relating to these dyed African clawed frogs, we have decided to add a table of contents to our article below as we plan to cover as many of these questions as possible in our article.
The table of contents will allow you to skip through the article to specific sections and get any specific information that you require.
Why Do People Dye African Clawed Frogs?
People dye African clawed frogs to create a unique looking pet with one of the main driving factors behind these candy frogs simply being that they look unique and have a higher chance of going viral on social media.
They are similar to a number of designer dog breeds that are essentially used as a fashion accessories rather than as an actual pet.
Certain parts of Asia have a history of during various types of amphibians to give them a unique look to treat the animal as more of a fashion accessory and the African clawed frog is simply the latest addition to the animals that this practice has been done to.
Thankfully though, fewer people are starting to purchase these candy frogs as more and more people are becoming aware of exactly how they are made as well as how few of the frogs survive the process of being dyed.
The trend of people responding to photographs of dyed African clawed frogs on social media has thankfully switched from people asking where they are able to get one to people calling out the owner for being cruel.
This is rapidly decreasing the number of people purchasing these candy frogs and thus, drastically reducing the demand for them so supply is also thankfully dropping.
How Are Dyed African Clawed Frogs Made?
The most common method of creating dyed African clawed frogs is to inject the animal with a brightly colored dye to change its appearance.
There are a wide range of dyes used in the process to provide unique colors for the dyed frogs with some people taking custom orders to dye the frogs the color that their customers want.
Dyed African clawed frogs and all other dyed amphibians are totally artificial and required human intervention to create their unique colors.
Once an African clawed frog has been dyed, its DNA does not change in anyway so it is unable to breed and produce baby frogs that are these unique colors.
Every single time that a dyed African clawed frog is created, they have to take an otherwise healthy frog and inject it with the dye.
As you can probably imagine, the process is painful, risky, and totally avoidable and due to tighter animal protection laws in North America and Europe, it is very rare that anyone will risk the process due to the jail time and fines available for anyone cought doing so.
What Is The Survival Rate For Dyed African Clawed Frogs?
It is estimated that around 75% of all African clawed frogs who are dyed do not make it through the process with the majority of frogs perishing.
Even if the frog does survive the dying process, there is a high chance of the frog developing other health issues that will cut its life short.
Due to the large number of African clawed frogs required due to the high perish rate during the process, illness and disease is common due to so many frogs being kept in such a small place.
This presents another risk to the frog as it may pick up an illness or disease that can cut its life short too.
Although these “candy frogs” may look unique when you see their photographs on social media, they really have been through a horrible process.
This is why people who post photographs of their candy frogs on social media are starting to get more and more negative comments from the community as more and more people start to realise the process that these poor frogs have to go through.
Are Dyed African Clawed Frogs Illegal?
Laws and regulations change from country to country but the majority of countries in North America and Europe have protections in place that prevent the creation of dyed African clawed frogs.
In some countries, owning a normal African clawed frog is illegal anyway so dyed African clawed frogs are also illegal by default.
Although this is technically not genetic modification of the African clawed frog, there are laws in Europe that specifically prevent tinkering with animals to change their colors or patterns too.
Most of these laws are specific to genetic modification though so there could be loopholes available as these animals are dyed, not genetically modified.
Some countries also have laws in place that could get you in trouble for simply owning one of these frogs too with the fines being surprisingly high. If you are in doubt, then avoiding this brutal practice is always the best route to take anyway.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over dyed African clawed frogs to an end. We hope that we have been able to help as many of our readers as possible better understand how these poor frogs are treat and that we have been able to discourage you from trying to buy one. Not only are these frogs treat very badly and put through a horrible process to dye them but there are laws in many countries that may result in your getting fined for owning one too so its just not worth the risk.
