# American Toad



## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

I've done some research on these guys. I have a few toad species in my area, at least that's what this very helpful website says herpsofnc.org. Every year I see these guys, some huge and some tiny. I've decided to bring one in after reading about their very easy care. I'm not one for difficult pets . 

But I do have couple of questions that I'm having trouble finding. First, how long does it take them to grow? I understand, like most animals there are variables such as room temperature and amount of feedings but typically I'm curious if this guy will be a large adult in 6 months or 2 years? Second, just how humid is good? A tiny misting a day? I'm going to keep a water dish appropriate to size and make sure to check everyday and change every other. Do I really need to use a conditioner? Is Prime okay? It stinks though so I feel bad giving him that. 

Is it okay to use the reptile conditioner for the arachnids too?


If you can help with any of these questions I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks! 

Here's the little setup I just did tonight https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...27010011.48097.131619876967970&type=1&theater


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## MatthewM1 (May 23, 2013)

Yes you need to use conditioned water, alot of frog/toad owners use prime. Misting once or twice a day should be fine, (unless your from a more tropical area Tapatalk doesn't show me where your from) Growth will depend alot on diet, night crawlers purchased at a bait shop(making sure they are dye and additive free) make a great staple for these guy and you will see faster growth rates than crickets alone. Supplement with crickets/dubia. If using meal worms only feed freshly molted, amphibians are prone to impaction. If it hit 3"+ a pinkie mouse once a month makes a great treat, but not more often than that. Be sure to dust prey with calcium w/ d3 every other feeding and multivitamin once a week. I cant stress how important the calcium is expecially if yours is a toadlet. Metabolic bone disease isn't pleasant. Offer as much food as s/he can finish in 10-15 minutes daily, every 2-3 days for adults. 

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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

Thanks! I feel bad using the prime though. It stinks pretty bad. I could just get a bottle of r/o water too. Not sure if prime is okay for the spiders too since they'll be sharing the same spray bottle. Thanks again!


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## 3skulls (May 23, 2013)

I just let my water sit for 24 hours before I use it on my frogs and toads. 
If I need to use it right away, I'll use a reptile safe water conditioner.


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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

Wow, nice setup! Do they live together? My setup will definitely be a minimal set up but I'll make sure to have the basics such has multiple hides, couple of inches of substrate, large enough water dish for him to sit in etc... 

Thanks!


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## 3skulls (May 23, 2013)

Thanks 

Yes that is a communal setup. I call it my "native" tank but the substrate and a few of the plants are not native. I also have some dubia living in there as a food source / slight clean up crew. 

I have 4 toads, 1 frog and about 10 different salamanders from 4 species. 
Would like to add some local tree frogs but I need to make a new lid first. 

They seem happy and will come out to eat out of my hand now. 
I never see the salamanders 

Every couple of weeks I will add isopods, slugs, snails, worms.  
I feed them dubia every few days but give them plenty of extra to hunt on non feed days. Also throw in some crickets when I have them. 

Very fun to keep


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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

Very nice setup! I only have the one little guy. He's fat but very tiny so not sure what I'm going to feed him. I'm going to see if they have some fffs at PetSmart or at least some tiny crickets. Pick up some calcium too. Honestly, I should just let him go because I'm broke and still have to take my hamster(s) to the vet which is going to cost more money than I should or want to spend. But when check him out he looks so cute! I just want to keep him! Of course I'll care for him properly but I know I shouldn't be spending the money. 

How often do you clean out the tank?


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## MatthewM1 (May 23, 2013)

Letting your water sit out let's chlorine evaporate but doesn't remove heavy metals the water picks up working it's way through our pipe systems, which can build up in their systems and tox them out over time.

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---------- Post added 05-23-2013 at 12:14 PM ----------

That communal tank is sick 3skulls. 


You should post it up on some frog boards and see how many people have heart attacks when you give the species list lol

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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

Thanks for all you help guys! Yes, that set up is amazing looking. 

I have a question, why do they need calcium dust? They don't get it out in the wild, they also don't bask in the sun so why do they need the dust in captivity. Not trying to sound like a smarta$$ but seriously inquiring.


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## 3skulls (May 23, 2013)

Yeah I never thought of everything building up over time. I'll start using the conditioner and or filtering their water. 

Thanks! I love this tank. Have had lots of fun collecting and putting it together. 

I never clean it 
Besides the water dishes. 

The dubia, isopods, springtails and the other critters are my clean up crews. 
I just let everyone do their thing. 


Here are a few more pics. Hope you don't mind. 


























I'm really bad at IDing but I think I have 4 Fowlers toads
1 Pickerel Frog
2 Spotted salamanders
5-6 2 lined salamanders 
3 Jeffersons salamanders 

I thought I had 4 species but maybe not.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

Sweet! That looks awesome! If I had the room and dough for all of that I would be on that like white on rice! But, I'm struggling right now so I'm thinking I might just return him to where I found him.


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## 3skulls (May 23, 2013)

I do dust my feeders from time to time but I feed my dubia a pretty healthy diet. 

I hear you about the money. I have put about $75 into it. Most of that going for a new light for the plants. 
Had the tank sitting empty for years. 
A new bowl, some substrate and everything else I collected in the woods 

You can always get something going once you have some more funds to play with.


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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

3skulls said:


> I do dust my feeders from time to time but I feed my dubia a pretty healthy diet.
> 
> I hear you about the money. I have put about $75 into it. Most of that going for a new light for the plants.
> Had the tank sitting empty for years.
> ...



Very true. I think I'll return this little fat toad. He's cute and pretty small. But well fed for sure! I wish he could stay this small! 
Definitely going to keep this in mind when things pick up.


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## MatthewM1 (May 23, 2013)

The reason for the dusting is b/c in the wild the wide variety of insects they would eat would provide a more nutrially complete diet than alternating between 2-3 different food sources

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## Entomancer (May 23, 2013)

I disagree with a few things that have been said here.

Keeping amphibians communally (different species) can be a risky business. Most, if not all amphibians carry symbiotic/mutualistic/commensalistic bacteria on/in their skin, and putting different species to together can sometimes cause trouble, because of all the different species "skins" being in relatively close contact. There is not as much risk if the species are all native to your area, but it is still risky; they may share habitat, but that means that they distance themselves from one another (mainly to reduce competition for food/resources), not that they are in close contact.

Also, keeping toads with any other kind of amphibians is asking for trouble. Toads, as I'm sure everyone here knows, have toxic skin secretions. If that leopard frog or the salamanders are exposed to the toad's toxins, they _will_ die. I know that toads actually have to secrete the toxins (the toxins aren't on their skin all the time), but it wouldn't take much. Just a little bit in the water dish if something startles it, or a small amount on the soil, and any other amphibians in the same tank who come into contact with it could perish. It's kind of like driving without a seatbelt or riding a motorcycle without protective clothing; the chances of getting into an accident aren't that high, but if/when it happens, you're screwed.

Finally, about water conditioner and amphibians...I live near Portland, Oregon. The tap water here has been rated as some of the best in the country, mainly because as a state we do an excellent job of keeping our water clean. I do not need to use much water conditioner for my frogs at all, and I bet I could use straight tap water in an emergency. 

The same cannot be said about other parts of the US, though. If you want to keep amphibians, but you aren't sure about your water quality, you can have your tap water tested, or you could just call whoever is responsible for managing your city's water and ask about what they put in it. Granted, if I lived in almost any of the big cities near the east coast, I would be much more concerned about using tap water, and I would try to use good water conditioner, or maybe even just skip the water conditioner altogether and use well water or bottled spring water.

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## Galapoheros (May 23, 2013)

Toads are nice, cheap entertainment.  I collected them to feed a hognose, then I started getting interested in the toads.  Like you said, they should be easy to keep for you.  The most common around here is the Gulfcoast toad.  I found a smaller one and dropped it in the terr.  I turned around and I saw two toad legs sticking out of the mouth of a bigger one, had to save that one.  I should have fed them more I guess.  I kept them in a 120 gallon with Tiger salamanders, did one half land, and the other water, worked out OK.


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## 3skulls (May 23, 2013)

Mine have lived together for over a year now with 2 new ones added a few weeks ago. 
I'm in no way an expert and not saying they should be kept communal. I'm just sharing my setup and what has worked for me.


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## Galapoheros (May 23, 2013)

Oh wait, I remember now, the way one toad ended up in the mouth of a bigger one was when a small toad and a bigger one were eyeballing the same roach, the little one got it first.  The bigger one saw it sticking out of the smaller one's mouth and tried to eat it but happened to grab the smaller toad with the roach.  That was around 7 to 10 years ago but I remember now.

Reactions: Like 1


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## 3skulls (May 23, 2013)

Haha like when the people are reeling in a big fish and a shark comes up and grabs it


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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

Okay, well, I've decided to hold on to him for a little longer. I'm going to think of a name now. 

My deciding factor? He ate some crickets in front of me. That bought me. Love it! I have 3 aquatic frogs but it's cool to have a land toad. 

After doing the math and deep consideration the price to keep one toad will be very cheap. Like a buck a week for bottled water (now my arachnids will be enjoying bottled water too since I use the same spray bottle for both!) and a buck or two for crickets. PetSmart has these little packets of dust for 50 cents, on sale for 34 today. I might just buy the larger thing eventually but if I'm only going to be dusting every few days it should last awhile. 

I'm going to look for bugs for him too. Now, don't get mad at me spider lovers but I have an S. grossa who has laid 8 sacs so far and two are in limbo. I might feed him a couple of the offspring while he's still tiny. They may be too small though. 

We also have tons of moths at work that get into the food etc... Will be bringing some of those home as well. I think it's going to be fun! 

Thanks for all the advice!


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## Galapoheros (May 23, 2013)

You might not be able to where you are, but I catch rain water and use that for everything; plants, aquarium, misting, and water for all the animal things.  Really what I do is collect water off the roof into a container and a hose from that goes to an old septic tank I found in my yard from the 1970s(don't worry, it was dry and empty).  It's full of water now with minnows and a siren in there, then I put a pump in the bottom so I can fill up containers.  Anyway, if you collect rainwater and are afraid of mosquito larvae getting in there, you can use minnows(I get them from a local creek) or you can use "mosquito dunks", which is organic, only a bacteria that attack mosquito larvae, not fish or your inverts, I use both.  I don't worry about feeding toads wild caught things either, I feel people have gotten too worried about that kind of thing but for the extremely careful people, might make them feel better I guess.


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## Anonymity82 (May 23, 2013)

I could probably set up a rain barrel but that would probably be a pain in the but, plus, I'm not sure how to filter etc... It's fine, one bottle a week for toad and arachnids is great. I don't have any plants but I definitely would like to eventually start having some indoor plants for air quality plus some garden veggies. 

Sounds like you have a nice set up! Got any pictures? 

As for the wild caught foods, well, he's wild caught and free. I can understand not wanting to take the risk with something CB, not native and expensive.


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## 3skulls (May 26, 2013)

I catch all my isopods, slugs, snails  and worms. 
I would like to do a rain barrel one day. Sounds like a great idea. 

Glad you kept him. Toads are very fun


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## Anonymity82 (May 26, 2013)

3skulls said:


> I catch all my isopods, slugs, snails  and worms.
> I would like to do a rain barrel one day. Sounds like a great idea.
> 
> Glad you kept him. Toads are very fun


Thanks! 

He's really cool. I need to find him something bigger. He's always trying to escape! He has a couple of hides but he doesn't seem happy. He's eating though! The cup seems like a decent size for him because he's so small! We'll see what happens.


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## Anonymity82 (May 26, 2013)

I have another question, not sure if anyone will know this. Can I release the toad in a few months (when it's still warm, not in the winter and I'll do it at night) or will he become to dependent on me to live in the wild?


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## MatthewM1 (May 27, 2013)

He won't become dependant on you he will be able to hunt and survive. But I wouldn't release him if he seemed to be anything but healthy

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## Anonymity82 (Jun 3, 2013)

Well, he's been fun but I think it's time I release him. He just doesn't seem happy and hasn't settled in. It's fun watching him eat but he's always trying to escape. I'll definitely attempt to catch or find someone who breeds these toads again in the future when I have more room and possibly a roach colony. Crickets are a pain. Not so bad when I only have to feed 26 arachnids once a week but adding in 3 a day to the frog is a pain! I definitely think I will try out something like 3skulls has going on. Maybe I'll keep it a toad only tank but still I like the idea of live plants and isopods doing all the cleaning up!


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## 3skulls (Jun 3, 2013)

Crickets are a pain. 

Keep us updated if and when you get back around to keeping toads


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## Anonymity82 (Jun 3, 2013)

Will do! Every time I look at this guy I want to keep him lol. He's too cute and eats well. Spends a lot of time just chilling in one corner on the bark. Has burrowed numerous times too. If I could feed him larger cricket it would be less of a problem but since everything has to be so tiny for him to eat it's a pain in the rear.

I reread this and it is contradictory to my statements about him always trying to escape. I guess he doesn't ALWAYS try to escape. I even got him to eat two crickets out of my tongs tonight. I'm thinking I might be able to get him to eat larger crickets if I just cut them up a bit or other inverts too.


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## Anonymity82 (Jun 4, 2013)

It's hard to bring myself to release him when I see things like this https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...27010011.48097.131619876967970&type=1&theater

When he gets a nice fat cricket he buries himself haha. I was all ready to take him back down to the pond but I just can't bring myself to do it knowing that his chances for survival are low and his chances for being safe and fat if I keep him are pretty high.


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## Tarantula155 (Jun 4, 2013)

Oh lord. I have a private pond in my backyard, it is INFESTED with american toad tadpoles. They are everywhere! I am excited when they metamorphosis and turn into little toadlets.


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## Introvertebrate (Jun 4, 2013)

That's payback for sending us your Canadian Geese. :wink:

Reactions: Like 3


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## Tarantula155 (Jun 4, 2013)

Introvertebrate said:


> That's payback for sending us your Canadian Geese. :wink:


There is a pair of geese that have 4 goslings that go to my pond everyday. They oop: all over, it annoys me. I am currently trying to scare them away. They have slowed down thankfully. They come a little in the morning then they are gone. Trust me, I don't like Canadian geese either. I have one duck that practically lives in my pond, he is pretty spoiled. The duck has an entire massive pond that is the size of a lake. All to himself.


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## Anonymity82 (Jun 4, 2013)

Sweet^^^^ 

Lucky duck! 

Well, something awesome happened today that caused me to release the toad. I'm actually going to post another thread about it so I don't feel like explaining it all here. Basically, I finally made the decision because I'm not going to have enough room for everybody.

Oh, and thanks everyone for the help!


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## Introvertebrate (May 24, 2014)

I found these 2 guys in the woods today.  Can I assume they are American toads?  Are they a couple?  If so, the male and female look very different.


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## Smokehound714 (May 24, 2014)

Just get yourself a peregrine falcon   those ducks'll be gone. haha


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## The Snark (May 24, 2014)

Get a baby king corba. The tadpoles and toads will be gone too.


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## Introvertebrate (Jun 7, 2014)

They must be a couple.  Two weeks later, and they're still hanging out in the same place.  The fellow in the first picture was on his own.


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## bugmankeith (Jun 7, 2014)

Entomancer said:


> I disagree with a few things that have been said here.
> 
> Keeping amphibians communally (different species) can be a risky business. Most, if not all amphibians carry symbiotic/mutualistic/commensalistic bacteria on/in their skin, and putting different species to together can sometimes cause trouble, because of all the different species "skins" being in relatively close contact. There is not as much risk if the species are all native to your area, but it is still risky; they may share habitat, but that means that they distance themselves from one another (mainly to reduce competition for food/resources), not that they are in close contact.
> 
> ...


I agree I wouldn't mix species! Some may prey on the other and toxicity risks. In the wild the toad could prey on everything.


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