Found some tadpoles...

[lizardminion]

Can anyone tell me how often I should feed the baby toads? Quite frankly, they refuse everything I try to give them.

 

[bugmankeith]

I've raised tadpoles on a mix of crushed goldfish flakes but only a tiny bit or it will cloud water, sinking algae wafers, frozen bloodworms/daphnia, and there favorite, boiled romaine lettuce! Boil pieces for about 10 minutes until they have a mushy feeling, let cool, then feed to tadpoles you'll know there eating when you see holes in the lettuce.

 

[lizardminion]

I've raised tadpoles on a mix of crushed goldfish flakes but only a tiny bit or it will cloud water, sinking algae wafers, frozen bloodworms/daphnia, and there favorite, boiled romaine lettuce! Boil pieces for about 10 minutes until they have a mushy feeling, let cool, then feed to tadpoles you'll know there eating when you see holes in the lettuce.

What I meant by baby toads is that they had already passed their tadpole stage. Thanks for the advice anyway!
The tadpoles eat like swimming pigs- nibbling on algae and fighting over fresh dead bugs I throw in there. They seem to prefer pill bugs I dig up from my backyard than smashed cricket, but we'll see. However, with the addition of two more metamorphosed toads- totaling in to 11- I have a growing concern over their odd eating habits. They refuse to eat anything I give them and I have to see them eat. They shake off fruit flies and ignore two of the smallest crickets I threw in there. (although a little smaller than the toads themselves. Gee, thanks petco...) Yet, they are all still alive. I'm beginning to blame my poor husbandry tactic, although I still lack a proper container to place them in. Once again, I'll see into that today. I do have peat moss though, although it's still in package, just waiting to be settled down in a 10 gal... I'm hoping to go to the store today and buy some fruit flies and a vivarium. I plan to set it up with 1/3 water, a water dish, peat moss substrata, and a few rocks. Later, I'll see into planting some pothos if our two plants don't die. (Thanks dad for bringing them home but not taking care of them... hmm...)

 

[ZergFront]

Pellets in warm water worked good with my bullfrog tad in getting him fat. He also enjoyed lightly boiled spinach. You don't want to boil it too much or it will lose much of it's nutrients and be messy. You just want it to be easy to tear for the tadpole.

Oh, you got toadlets now! LOL! Can you order stuff online, like do you have a credit card? You can try pinhead crickets. That's the smallest you can get.

Maybe they just enjoy crunchy stuff. You said they like pillbugs? They might like Gammarus, also called scuds. Popular crustacean with fishing. I used to have a colony for my pufferfish. I kept them in a 6 gallon with a light air pump with some calcium supplement coating the bottom. Unfortunately with how big the colony was, they didn't survive a black out when the air pump stopped. I was fast asleep.

 

[lizardminion]

Well, 2 just died, and I saved 3 more from dying by dunking them in water. Added peat moss to the jar. I'll nag the Hell out of my parents to get me some proper equipment to care for them to avoid situations like this in the future.
Really upset over the loss...

Alternatively, I release them after a good rain.

 

[lizardminion]

Got one bugger to sit still long enough for a good pic.

From the previous post, the two I accidentally released last night were actually alive. They just needed some water or humidity. Lucky for them, it drizzled, got super humid later, then rained. Now, they have vanished. All well, they're local, at least. (Lucky for me, I still have 29 tadpoles.)

 

[lizardminion]

For some odd reason, another toad has died off. It was plump and healthy, but somehow managed to die anyways. I suspect a disease, and has made me resume my thought on the previous 2 toads I thought survived. I actually do believe they died and were carried away by ants.
What can I do as far as this disease? I have no clue as to what it is, although I do suspect Bb. They are WC as tadpoles so I'm not too surprised as it being a disease, if true. I don't have all the money to get them inspected by the vet. One body had excessive skin attached to it, as if it was overly molting. The others just died. When they die, they lay in a position with their hind legs sticking straight out behind them. Please share advice as to what I should do!

 

[myrmecophile]

I have no idea what is killing them, and veterinary intervention is likely to be very costly. But what ever it is DO NOT discard the bodies outdoors or release the toadlets

 

[lizardminion]

I have no idea what is killing them, and veterinary intervention is likely to be very costly. But what ever it is DO NOT discard the bodies outdoors or release the toadlets

I'm considering euthanizing them. Alternatively, I plan on treating them for the chytrid fungus and seeing if that'll work. If not, I'll consider the former option., or other options. I'd never think they'd be so much trouble. After this dilemma, I'm just going to stick with CB stock!

 

[Galapoheros]

Fruit flies are good. I bet it's the Gulf Coast toad simply going by odds here. You'd have to get your parents to take you to Petsmart or something like that and get you some wingless fruit flies. Releasing them should be a non-issue imo, even if some of them appear sick. There have been a lot of environmental scare tactics in this area in the last 15 to 20 years imo, environmentalism is on a rampage right now. Even this sounded radical to me thinking back to when I was a kid, I agree with the non-native talk about it though. http://exoticpets.about.com/od/frogsandtoads/a/tadpoles.htm

 

[jayefbe]

I'm guessing you're missing some kind of nutrient in the diet, or there is something insufficient about the setup that is leading to all the deaths. I would avoid jumping to the conclusion that it's chytrid or some kind of disease. The more likely answer is that the husbandry is missing something.

 

[lizardminion]

I'm guessing you're missing some kind of nutrient in the diet, or there is something insufficient about the setup that is leading to all the deaths. I would avoid jumping to the conclusion that it's chytrid or some kind of disease. The more likely answer is that the husbandry is missing something.

Yeah, probably. I'm looking into it.

Edit: Checked on the little guys (metamorphosed toads) this morning. They're all dead. A little pissed off knowing I've done a s----y job. I'll learn from this and let it not repeat. Now I've got time to work up a proper terrarium, seek out some future homes, as well as let the fruit flies populate. All the tadpoles are still doing exceptionally well.
Time to get serious...

 

[Arianji]

if you're looking for something you might have in your cabinet to feed them, spirulina is always a good choice. Its just dried blue-green algae, its almost always organic and its quite healthy. I supplement my birds and inverts with it occasionally to add some variety to their diet. Last I had tadpoles I did not have any spirulina and mainly fed them shrimp pellets (which they grew fine on but I didn't give them much, plus they were bullfrog tadpoles so they more readily accepted larger food sources. But for your little toad tads I would give spirulina a try. Their diet is mainly comprised of algae anyways, plus spirulina is a complete protein. So dietary it seems like it will fill your gap quite nicely. Plus it comes in tablets, flakes, or powder, convenient for feeding any size animal. It's good for you too, so if it is an issue of your parents don't want to buy animal food, just explain its a healthy dietary supplement for y'all, you wont be lying. Then everyone eats healthy and your tads get fed.

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Very small insectivores may prefer tiny springtails to either fruit flies or pinhead crix.
Since springtails feed on moist organic debris in most of the United States studying them online before you try to acquire any might improve your chances to culture enough of them to grow your toadlets to sizes that can actually eat the foods you tried.