The largest difference between keeping this guy and the anoles does come down to heat and light. The toad does not need to bask so you don't need a heat lamp and while a UV light wouldn't hurt anything (that I'm aware of), they don't need that either. Toad's are mostly nocternal in the wild so they don't normally encounter much natural sunlight on a night to night basis and have adapted accordingly. Most toads that people find in the day are found because their hiding places were disturbed.

What you use for a substrate is really up to you -- paper towels have the advantage of being very easy to clean and you can keep them slightly moist without a problem. One thing to be aware of is that toads have a capillary bed between their hind legs (that reddish patch of loose skin). It's how they "drink". Toad usually try to find a pool of water to sit in and they absorb their water through this capilly bed. It's why your toad sits in the water dish so much. When they are picked up they often "pee" on you but it's actually just their reserve of absorbed water. Anyway, the point is that water can diffuse out of the capillary bed as well so whatever the substrate is, it should not be bone dry. I like soil because of the natural look.



10 gallons should be fine for your average Fowler's. How long is it exactly?



Also, nice to hear that it's eating readily. With any wild caught animal it's hard to predict if they will eat at first or pretend they have no interest in food at all. The stuff in my last post about trying different foods and forceps was under the assumption that your new arrival would be one of the hard cases (which is what I usually get dealing with snakes). It would be best if you at least dust the crickets every other feeding but doing it every time is even better.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]