Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
I have a question, I recently aquired a baby bufo americanus. He is around 1.5cm.(Very cute to say the least)I was wondering, I don't feed him pinheads,termites, nor fruit flies, as none are available at my Petstore. And why bother, when my little toad loves stocking down insects smaller than your average pinhead, or termite. Everyday I take my lil one, out near my composter. There I let him, go on the ground where he goes along eating tiny black ants, VERy small winged flies, etc.

WELL, my question is? Should I be letting my little guy out everyday to feast on as many bugs as he'd like(To help him grow strong,etc), and should I be monitoring how many insects he should be eating daily, or can he just go wild as if in nature eating as many bugs as he pleases?

Thanks in advance,
PS: I found this little one at a local creek, something stuck into his little toad side,(I now believe it was a piece of sharp crab grass.) LOng story short I wanted to have this little guy have a better chance of survival. I will release him, when larger, so he can produce toadlets of his own.

Steven

I would get a net and catch the bug to feed him in his enclosure for two reasons....

1. exposing him to the outside on a daily basis "could" invite perasites.
2. You'll want to watch how much he eats to help him not become overweight.

(We actually made our own net out of an old broom handle, a coat hanger and a pillow case.)
Offer him as much as he wants to eat maybe every other day and be sure to dust every third feeding with a calcium powder.

I could be way off, but that's the great thing about the forum... lots of oppinions
-----
Heather

hey i have like 20 american toads in a 20 gallon aquarium. the way i feed them is i just go outside on my back patio and collect black ants i but about 40 in every other day and i also dust the food sometimes but i make sure they do get enough to eat so the grow up to be strong and healthy. and if ur letting ur toad go on a compost pile make sure there arnt any chemicals that would hurt ur toad.

-Max

ya I would not let him go outside to eat food for he may get sick and die. Also if he is as small as you say he is and he is eating even smaller bugs then pin heads then I would let him eat as much as possable. Through all my frogs I have had Toads were the ones that would stop eating when they got full. I have to monitor my cubans and PIxies in take because they will eat until they burst. My American I had would only eat like 3 crickets and leave all the rest to crawl around. Let him eat as much until he stops and then take the rest of the bugs out, you also gotta remember he is still growing and they grow the fastest when they are babies like any other type of living organism. Make sure they are coming from a chemical free area.

Also letting him grow to adulthood and then releasing him to the wilderness is a VERY BAD idea. When you keep him in captivity he will produce bacteria that a wild toad would not have and could kill off many wild toads. Also the same goes for the toad you would be realesing as well. His body is not used to all the bacteria in the wild since you have kept him for so long so to let him go would be almost certian death to him because he would probably die either from creature eating him or by some type of bacteria infection that his body would not of been able to fight off from being in captivity for to long. so do not release him if you plan on keeping him a whyle.

Aaron
-----
Aaron aka Doofy

Knowledge is not power; APPLIED knowledge is power
What is Victory worth without sacrifice

np

You know I've heard a lot recently about how captives, even for a short while don't do that well. In fact here it's illegal to release captive herps. even natives. You might actually be better off keeping it. I don't know eastern species though, do they migrate. Most toads do I thought. If they do it's possible they learn orientation when there young and thus might not be able to find a home pond area well. (A theory out there.)

Feel free to correct me anyone if I'm wrong.

Anyway, back on topic. You'll read a lot about how you shouldn't let toads eat everything they want. But I've also seen a lot of toads that didn't look like they were getting enough to eat. Personally what I'd do is at this stage let it eat what it wants and when it's bigger try to limit it's diet especially since it would be hard to guess the nutritional value of what it's eating at this point.