American Toad

[Anonymity82]

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

 

[MatthewM1]

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]

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!

 

[3skulls]

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.

 

[Anonymity82]

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!

 

[3skulls]

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

 

[Anonymity82]

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?

 

[MatthewM1]

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]

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.

 

[3skulls]

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.

 

[Anonymity82]

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.

 

[3skulls]

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.

 

[Anonymity82]

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.

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.

 

[MatthewM1]

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]

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.

 

[Galapoheros]

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.

 

[3skulls]

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.

 

[Galapoheros]

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.

 

[3skulls]

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

 

[Anonymity82]

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!