Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been trying to sex a small toad of mine for a while now.
Its underside is pretty spotted, but its throat is pretty much a light tan color.
Now I understand males tend to have darker throats, but will a young toad show a dark throat before sexual maturity?

Also, is there a general rule to determine a general age? Like could size give an idea of its age?

The toad is about 1.5 inches from nose ot butt.

>>I've been trying to sex a small toad of mine for a while now.
>>Its underside is pretty spotted, but its throat is pretty much a light tan color.
>>Now I understand males tend to have darker throats, but will a young toad show a dark throat before sexual maturity?
>>
>>Also, is there a general rule to determine a general age? Like could size give an idea of its age?
>>
>>The toad is about 1.5 inches from nose ot butt.

I wasn't able to tell the sex of my toads until about when they were 2 years old. I think they were about 2 inches long or nearly 2 inches long when I started to see the signs. Unfortunatly its usually hard to tell until then. My males didn't get all the signs until they matured and the dark throat was usually the last sign to emerge. To be honest, I wasn't really positive of the sex of any of my toads until late last year (my oldest then were 3 years old) By then, both the sexes had developed characteristics unique to that sex that made it easier to tell them apart.
This I'm not sure of and especialy would like any feedback on from anyone: I think I've noticed that in my male toads (while looking down at thier back) the hip area is formed more like a V (The folcrum of the V being the butt/vent area)whereas in the females the hip is more wide and square and doesn't come down to a point as sharp as the males back-sides do. But I'm not sure if this is true or not OR if in juveniles this difference exists. I hope this makes sense. Once I get my digital camera back from being fixed I'll try and take pictures of this and post them in the amphib gallery.
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-Laurah

I suppose it could be something. I mean many animals have morphological differences between sexes.
Its an interesting idea. I'm just a biology science teacher with basic knowledge on toads (this is my first), so I'm far from all knowing, but I'm curious why this differece might exist...

Humans obviously have very different pelvis shapes between sexes, however that is because females need to pass a fully developed child, not a string of eggs.

I suppose the female toads would need the room for egg space? This sound right? I can't imagine they need a larger exit for the eggs when they are full grown.

Yeah- that's exactly what I was thinking. That IF female's pelvic bones are wider that perhaps this is to accomodate for the egg space and add more protection to the back area. They do get so fat out the sides. I really wish I had my camera so that I could take some pics of this, but even at that, I guess differences couldn't be known for sure without x-rays, eh? Hmm. I suppose too that scientists would have already documented this, right? THOUGH, I've not been able to find ANY extensive research on the american toad so far. (That would be a dream come true since I want to know EVERYTHING there is to know about them.) When I say extensive I mean extensive. Does anyone know of any scientific publication in which someone has throughly researched this animal?
Are you keeping your toad for educational purposes or are you raising them for fun, or both? Just curious. They are very interesting creatures to have!
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-Laurah

Well I can't imagine there is alot of research done on the american toad. They're prolific, that aren't introduced species, etc.
I'd think the majority of research is done on threatened or endangered species, or species that are just plain shy and thus remain almost unknown to the general populace.

I'm keeping my little guy/girl as a pet, but I also tend to use many of my animals as small additions to the classroom. Not as part of my ciriculum, but just as little things to enrich the classroom and get the kids interested in wildlife.

To my knowledge in sexing them and through other people answering my same ? there are many factors in how to tell there sex. One in age I have been told and read on the net they have to be atleast the age of a year. Now as in there throats and the males forming there nupial pads; well they do not sometimes show those physican features until the mating season so you may think you have a female until one day she starts growing a dark beard on her chin, lol. Then I have found out again by reading on here and other people experience that toads will act different in habitat then in the wild. Meaning that they may never go into mating mode because if they have been in a tank all there life they will not expereince the season changes ( as in winter ending and the warming up in spring which throws them into mating mode) because most of us would not drop the temp and then pick the temp back up to simulate4 the season changes (atleast I never have and my frogs are doing fine ). Its just hard to tell the sexs of toads unless they have had some male features as in a dark throat from the get go when they been young Or by there size which females are larger then males.

Aaron
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Aaron aka Doofy

Knowledge is not power; APPLIED knowledge is power
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