Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey folks, I have an eastern spade foot toad. I was wondeing if there was someplace I could go online to find some fact and care literature on keeping this little critter? I looked on kingsnake.com under caresheets but didn't see anything I could use. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanx, Dave

Hi Dave,

I was waiting for someone who has actually kept these toads to reply to your message but I guess your out of luck. I did a quick search to try and find a care sheet for them but I couldn't find one. That might be because there aren't very many people keeping them. I've heard that they don't make the best captives. For most of the year they are very inactive and stay burrowed under sandy soil. Once it starts to rain in the spring they come out to breed. If you caught the toad outside you may want to let it go and instead purchase a captive bred and more entertaining amphibian to keep.

I would assume that you could keep an adult toad in a 10 or 15 gallon aquarium with 4 or 5 inches of a safe soil mixture as a substrate. A few pieces of bark for hiding and a shallow water dish with clean dechlorinated tap water for soaking would finish off the tank. As far as temperature goes thats going to depend on the area where it was collected from. As with most amphibians, try to provide a thermogradient of 5 degrees or so so that your toad can maintain a propper body temperature. I would assume that these toads will take crickets, earth worms, wax worms and other soft bodied invertabrates just like most other toads. Good luck,
-----
Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com