Something of interest. Yesterday I found one of my yearling sliders dead. Not bloated. Not drowned. No trauma. It had some unusual white stuff all over its mouth. I couldn't imagine what it was, but figured the turtle must have eaten something bad. Usually its a case of some sort of blockage from ingesting a foreign object. Something like that usually takes quite a while to kill a turtle. This was not the case.
Well, today I went out and found a toad (Bufo valiceps) sitting on the turtles' dry sunning area in the center of the turtle pond. The toad's legs were somewhat damaged and scarred from recent wounds. That same toad may be responsible for the disappearance of some of my smallest hatchlings, by the way. They will eat anything that moves, if they can get it in their mouth.
That answers that question. The white stuff on the slider's mouth was the toxin from the toad's skin.
Just be aware of the potential for poisoning by toads in outdoor situations.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer
