Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
We have an adult Cane Toad, age unknown that was wild collected that has been at our facility for a few months. It has not eaten on its own for the entire time it has been here. We had been force feeding it 1x week with a pink and decided to give it a break and see if it calmed down and became hungry enough to eat on its own with no luck.
Any suggestions are welcomed.

K

Soaking might help impaction or constipation, and crickets and smaller prey might be taken. You may well have tried these, but they were the first two ideas that came to mind.

my marinus did not eat when first obtained. crickets worked best to begin with. now they eat anything that moves. cane toads love deep DRY substrate for burrowing, an object to hide beneath and a waterdish. My toads hate to be handled and so long as i leave them be they seem content w/ captivity.

These are excellent points, especially deep dry substrate. I used a deep earthen jar for the waterbowl so they could soak themselves and not tip it over, keeping the substrate dry. My cane toads also hated to be watched and I ended up moving the enclosure away from a traffic pattern because even walking past the enclosure seemed to stress them until thyey settled down.

how are you keeping it? substrate? temps on cool side and warm side? i would let it just chill for a while. if its large and has good body weight it can go a little while without eating....

Hi,
He is being kept on bark/coconut fiber/soil mixture with moss/hides/logs/rocks around the exhibit. Temps in the room are at least 75-80, but he has his own heater on one side as well so he can adjust as needed. He has not eaten on his own for several months. We let him go a month without force feeding to see if he needed to calm down, but that didn't work. He is burrowing at night and coming out during the day and appears fairly active. At this point he has lost enough weight that I'm beginning to be concerned.
I'm waiting for a fecal to determine if parasites are an issue. He went through our quarantine with no outward issues other than not eating.
Thanks for any and all replies.

K

What food items have you offered? People talk about what eating machines they are, because there are so many things that SOME cane toad, somewhere, will happily devour, but many of them have distinct likes and dislikes. Mine won't touch earthworms, for example. Your toad has had hundreds if not thousands of prey species in the wild to pick and choose from; you might have to go through a dozen or so to find something that it likes.
Have you tried big green hornworms? Have you tried a bowl of silkworms? I don't have frequent access to silkworms unless I want the apartment neighbors to catch me getting bugs in the mail, but when I found them at an expo my toad ate about a million a night for as long as I had them. Have you tried giant roaches? I use death heads as a staple, but I'm sure discoids would be at least as good. One guy here even had one that wouldn't take anything except beetles for a long time, although hopefully you'll find a healthier option.
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0.1 Coastal Carpet Python (Boots)
0.1 Western Hognose Snake (Bebe)
0.1 Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)

Thanks for the suggestions. As of right now his exhibit isn't insect escape proof so we've been trying food items that can't get out of a bowl. I'll push maintenance to modify the exhibit ASAP and I'll try some of the items mentioned.
Thanks!

K

If you want to try a cricket experiment sooner you might try putting the toad in a small shoebox feeding cage with some crickets. I have to admit that while most toads are easy with this, it took me several tries with one nervous marinus who simply flooded the cage with urine and ignored the crickets, but eventually this became her preferred feeding method and she continued not to eat in the main enclosure but had a vigorous feeding response placed in her familiar feeding cage.

Even with a bowl, nonclimbing roaches are an option. I use one twelve inches across and three or four inches deep, so the toad can jump right into it, and even full-grown death heads rarely are able to climb out. Discoids would certainly be trapped.
I like bowls. You can use naturalistic substrate more safely than with crickets hopping all over, and there's no stress from uneaten bugs crawling/ nibbling on them. The toad gets to approach them on its own terms, whenever it chooses to. So what food items have you offered?
-----
0.1 Coastal Carpet Python (Boots)
0.1 Western Hognose Snake (Bebe)
0.1 Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)

We have offered Crickets, Silkworms, Nightcrawlers, Earthworms, mealworms, waxworms, Live pinkies, and superworms.
At this point we are thinking he might be full of parasites and are planning treatment for that.
He is in a an exhibit open to the public and this stress may also be a cause, however, he has plenty of hides but still will move to the back of the exhibit and sit in plain view during the day.
Thank you for all the suggestions. I will try to get some roaches for him this week.

K

A quick question,
We have Madagascar Hissing Roaches in our collection and frequently have babies available to feed out. However, we must be sure that none escape. Would they be able to climb out of one of the bowls that was described?

K

hissers can climb

Hi All,
Well, he was treated with Panacur a week ago and he is still not eating.
Not sure what else to do at this point.

K