Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some help. I was changing out my toads water just now and I noticed its back legs were twitching. I've had my toad for a little over a year now, and this is the first problem I've had. I inspected the toad closely and I don't see any redness, skin discoloration or any abnormalities. When I picked my toad up it chirped, something its never done before. I'm not sure what's wrong. Any help you can offer would be great.

>>I need some help. I was changing out my toads water just now and I noticed its back legs were twitching. I've had my toad for a little over a year now, and this is the first problem I've had. I inspected the toad closely and I don't see any redness, skin discoloration or any abnormalities. When I picked my toad up it chirped, something its never done before. I'm not sure what's wrong. Any help you can offer would be great.

Toads in the wild often chirp when you pick them up. And sometimes they urinate! They also seem to tremble. So it could be that the leg twitching is just part of the fear reaction.

But it also might be a dietary problem. Insufficient calcium and other minerals can lead to muscular problems. Are you dusting the feeder insects with a calcium/d3 supplement? Do you also gut load the insects (gut load = feed the insects good foods before giving them to the toad. feed the bugs greens, carrots, fish flakes, etc.)?

So if the twitching is only when you pick him up, and he's otherwise OK and getting his vitamins and minerals, then maybe you don't have a problem.

Thank you for responding. I looked more online and I'm thinking you're right. He's a very picky eater and I've been mainly feeding him crickets. So he wasn't getting an assortment of insects. I'm changing that by offering him different worms. I've also invested in some vitamins you sprinkle over the crickets. He appears to be doing fine now. You never would have known.

I've heard of gut loading, but have never done it myself. How much more beneficial to the toad is it?

>>I've heard of gut loading, but have never done it myself. How much more beneficial to the toad is it?

From articles I've read, dusting the insects is more important than gut loading, but since you have to feed the insects something to keep them alive, you might as well feed them something good.

With crickets, mealworms and superworms I throw in greens and carrots, and maybe some fish food or tortoise pellets (crushed up).

But do dust the bugs with a calcium/d3 supplement. Most commercially available insects are calcium deficient.

Gutloading is essential. Most of the nutrients come from what is inside of the cricket not the cricket itself. Dusts provide vitamins and minerals but there are other essential things that gutloading provides.

Was it possibly feeding time for your toad? Also what species of toad is it? When my Egyptian toad knows its dinner time and gets moved to his empty tank for feeding, he gets excited and is toes twitch and wiggle. I've never seen him do it at any other time except feeding time.

I've observed that most species of toads that I've kept over the past 27 years have all done that toe tapping thing, especially when they are lining up to catch food with their tongue. It seems to be an amphibian thing. My one pacman does it too sometimes.

I feed our crickets with potatoes, carrots and greens, and also a commercial cricket food powder. I also dust the crickets for the babies every feeding, but for adults, I dust less often because I've heard that too much is bad, too.

The toad chirping is because he is a male and males have what's known as a release call. When another male mistakes him for a female, the release call is to let that guy know "Hey!Get off me! I'm another boy".

In bad cases of metabolic bone disease, serious muscle twitching can occur but its more extreme than would be seen with the toad tapping the toes thing which usually is only done when they are hunting.
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