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Thread: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

  1. #1
    Poly
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    Default Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    I have read in many articles that toads "do their business" in there water bowls, and the toad I had prior to my current one did, but this one won't.

    It urinates and defecates on land, for an example, tonight, it hopped in it's water dish and soaked for roughly 2 or 3 minutes, then when I came back about 20-30 minutes later, I seen a huge wet spot on the rock where it must have urinated, and it normally defecates on the rock or sand.

    Is this normal?

    Also, is "loss and gain" of appetite normal, or is that just my perception of it? Again, "for an example", I normally feed it at 12:00pm (lunch). It will eat one or two grasshoppers (lightly dusted in calcium) normally. Yesterday, It would not eat at 12, but it decided to eat at 5:00pm. I left that day, and got back today at 7:00pm with (it's favourite) WORMS!

    So, it hadn't eaten yet, I proceded to cut a worm in half (it loves worms!) and put it on the floor in front of it, and it acted comepletely dis-interested, I found this... shocking, seeing as how it loves worms. It just ignored it!

    Could it be, the day before([yesterday] it's kind of confusing because I'm writing this at 1am, but when I refer to yesterday I mean monday and today was tuesday, but now it's wenesday ), when I fed it at 5:00pm (as previously stated) it ate a fairly large grass hopper, much larger than normal (it also ate a large wolf spider) that it was still "full", and this is the reason it was not interested in the worms?

    I have had the toad for almost a month now, it's growing in "width" (getting fatter), but I don't notice it getting much larger, it is roughly an inch accross the back right now.

    Will a growth spurt come!? I have seen some pretty huge american toads on this website, like I said, mines fat, but just, small.

    Thanks

    ~Royce

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  3. #2
    Poly
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Bump!

  4. #3
    Greg M
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    My toads usually defecate in their water dishes, although they will go on land as well. Toads are very much creatures of habit and individuals will set their own consistent pattern of eating and defecating. Appetite can vary considerable day to day, and with temperature. It is not unusual for toads to skip a day after a large meal. My general impression is that newly transformed toadlets eat and grow steadily (but unspectacularly) until they hit their growth spurt. Then they eat like crazy and attain most of their mature size. After the growth spurt, appetite and growth slows quite dramatically. I despaired about one of my babies - she ate consistently and modestly every two days (I couldn't interest her in more food) - but grew very very slowly (if at all). Then she hit her growth spurt and now she is my largest toad - much larger than her mate who hit his growth spurt much earlier...

  5. #4
    ToadPaparazzi
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Poly View Post
    Will a growth spurt come!? I have seen some pretty huge american toads on this website, like I said, mines fat, but just, small.

    Thanks

    ~Royce
    Can you post a photo?

  6. #5
    Wormwood
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Does it chirp when you pick it up and grab it's back legs? That's usually a sign of a male and they are much smaller then the females of most bufos, including american toads.

  7. #6
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Quote Originally Posted by ToadPaparazzi View Post
    Can you post a photo?
    I will get one today.


    Quote Originally Posted by Wormwood View Post
    Does it chirp when you pick it up and grab it's back legs? That's usually a sign of a male and they are much smaller then the females of most bufos, including american toads.
    It does not chirp (or urinate for that matter) when I pick it up, but I am very gentle with it, should I maybe try an grab it's back legs to see if it chirps? I don't want to hurt or stress it! I had assumed it was a male, because it's "thumbs" look larger than it's "fingers" (anyone know what exactally you call amphibian extremities?).

    Maybe this will help to determine it's gender?: When it's in hunting "mode" and the insect it's stalking has stopped moving because it has noticed the toad, it twitches it's "toes" on it's back legs very fast, and sometimes the insect will notice this and move toward the toad, effectivley getting itself eaten. Does that help at all?

    Thanks for all the info, I'll get a photo today at lunch!

  8. #7
    Pete
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    The toe twitching is supposed to distract the prey. My toads do it, too. There are a few recent threads that discuss this topic.

    On doing their 'business' mine don't seem to have a preference where they go. Land or water, if nature calls.... the deed is done.

  9. #8
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Here is the photo when I got him compared to a penny: Name:  007.jpg
Views: 448
Size:  66.2 KB

    And here he his now compared to a quarter:Name:  010.jpg
Views: 543
Size:  80.2 KB

    Do you think he's growing good?

    The photos are roughly a month apart.

  10. #9
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Not sure how it's working for others, but it took ey about 6 tries and photo uploader finally uploaded the photos.

  11. #10
    nicodimus22
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Wow, that is crazy growth! I am jealous. Mine seem to have stopped growing for the last month, right around 1 inch in length. They still eat plenty and seem healthy though.

  12. #11
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Poly, that little one is growing wonderfully! Mine defacate wherever they happen to be hanging out. All my toads are toe twitchers too!
    2.0.3 Hyla versicolor "Eastern Gray Tree Frogs"
    2.2.0 Agalychnis callidryas "Red Eyed Tree Frogs"

    0.0.3 Dendrobates auratus "Turquoise and Bronze"
    0.0.1 Anaxyrus fowleri "Fowler's Toad"



  13. #12
    Poly
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Good to know he's grwoing fine! So, ToadPaparazzi mentioned to me, that if this is a male, this is likely as large as it will get, man, females get huge, too bad males don't!

    Also good to know the toe twitching is normal!

    Thanks guys, I appreciate all the help!

  14. #13
    ToadPaparazzi
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    The a. boreas halophilus that are in my area range from 2-5 inches. I don't encounter females often, but the average females I see here are usually 3-4 inches. Males 2-3 inches.

    Do you know if yours is a. b. halophilus?

  15. #14
    Poly
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    No clue? I just know it's an american toad, how do I tell if it is an "a. b. halophilus"?

  16. #15
    Lacibeth
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Quote Originally Posted by Poly View Post
    No clue? I just know it's an american toad, how do I tell if it is an "a. b. halophilus"?
    Anaxyrus boreas halophilus is a primarily Californian (and a smidge Nevada, maybe a smidge Oregon) subspecies of the boreal toad Anaxyrus boreas. The american toad is Anaxyrus americanus and I would agree that's the toad you have.

    ETA: There are three recognized subspecies of A. americanus: A. a. americanus Eastern american toad; A. a. charlesmithi Dwarf american toad found in the southeastern US; and A. a. copei Hudson bay american toad which is very rare.

  17. #16
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lacibeth View Post
    Anaxyrus boreas halophilus is a primarily Californian (and a smidge Nevada, maybe a smidge Oregon) subspecies of the boreal toad Anaxyrus boreas. The american toad is Anaxyrus americanus and I would agree that's the toad you have.
    Haha, most likely, considering I live in Northern Canada!

  18. #17
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lacibeth View Post
    ETA: There are three recognized subspecies of A. americanus: A. a. americanus Eastern american toad; A. a. charlesmithi Dwarf american toad found in the southeastern US; and A. a. copei Hudson bay american toad which is very rare.
    Any idea how I can correctly identify my toad from your above list?

    I googled a Hudson Bay toad, and the images I got looked JUST like my toad, it looks more similar to the Hudson bay toad than the Eastern american toad, because my toad contains a small ammount of reddish pigments, and many black stripes to it's rear. What do you think?

  19. #18
    Lacibeth
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    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Quote Originally Posted by Poly View Post
    Any idea how I can correctly identify my toad from your above list?
    The dwarf american toad is way out of your range (think Alabama) so we can cross that off the list. The Hudson bay is a rare species and from what I understand tend to be right around the southeastern portion of the bay. My guess is that you probably don't have one of those. Some of the members here are in academia and might have acces to whatever paper was published regarding the subspecies that should have identifying characteristics. I don't actually know what the distinctions are between the hudson bay and the regular ol' eastern american toad.

  20. #19
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    Oh, alright, well thanks for the information.

  21. #20
    Poly
    Guest

    Default Re: Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

    I seen images of Hudson Bay toads found in southern Quebéc, and I am only 40kms for the Quebéc border, so I don't think we could rule out HBTs either.

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