New to Western Toads. Please Help!

[Toadowner]

I recently required three young Western Toads, and need advice on how to care for them. They are currently in a Sterilite 32 quart bin, is this enough room? I have been feeding them about 20 mealworms every other day. I am using plain dirt from my backyard for a substrate (Clean of chemicals), and am wondering if beach sand substrate or a beach sand and dirt mixture would be better? I am also hoping to keep one of them through winter, can they survive in below freezing temperatures? Once again, the is my first frog or toad, so any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[daybr4ke]

Hi! Welcome to the forum. I went looking for this the other day, and now it's coming in handy again: here is a basic care sheet for most species of toad by John P. Clare, the administrator and owner of this site:
http://www.frogforum.net/content.php...ytes-Pelobates
While the guide covers substrate, sand isn't a good substrate. A pure substrate of Coco fiber is usually the best option, and is available in brick form under a number of brands. I find the best(cheapest) retailer to get it at is Pet food Express, at 2.50 a brick versus as much as 6 at some retailers. Often a bulk deal online is even better.
Considering your sterilite bin, I personally would suggest you pick up a 90 qt bin, as they are pretty cheap(8$+tax near me.), as it will give the three of them more room to move around. Really, you can keep these toads permanently if you like. Most Toads burrow and wait out winter, basically hibernating, but I believe I've read young toads have lower survival rate than adults. They can tolerate temperatures as low as 60°f(I personally prefer to keep them around 65 at the coldest), so as long as your room(or whatever room you're going to keep them in) doesn't get too cold you can keep them comfortable year round. If it does get too cold, a heating pad or low wattage heat lamp should do the trick. If you have any more concerns, please don't hesitate to ask! I hope this helps.
Edit: I would suggest crickets or dubia Roaches over mealworms. Mealworms contain a lot of chitin/shell.

[Toadowner]

Thanks!!! While you say Coco fiber is good, will the dirt work temporarily?? Also, how many bricks will I need? You say they can survive 60°F temperature, but I live where it dips well below 32°F in the winter, can they survive? They survive in the wild up here too. Should I attempt to breed food? And is the 20 mealworms every other day enough for now?

[John]

Dirt is fine and actually will stick less to the toads than coconut fiber. 1 brick will probably do for that size of container but they are pretty cheap, especially if you get them online (I buy mine from amazon). I wouldn't risk the toads at those temperatures. In the wild they go into refuges like animal burrows and under rocks so that they don't deal with freezing temperatures - not so easy to do that with a terrarium left outside unless it's purpose built. Do you have a garage or unheated room in your house? I have a garage that gets down into the 40s (it helps that I took a glass pane out of a window and replaced it with screen mesh).

[Toadowner]

Thanks John! Should I get coconut fiber, or just stick with dirt? I was worried about how easy it would be for them to burrow into the dirt. I'm keeping my terrarium inside, but the room it is in will not always be heated. If I got a deeper container, would they be able to burrow and survive? Or would I have to pre-dig burrows for them? Thanks again!

[daybr4ke]

You can probably keep using the dirt. There are a number of reasons to use coco fiber, but one main one is that you don't want to expose a non-local frog to whatever is in local soil. Since your toads are a local species, that's not a big concern. As for the burrows, John would know if you could make that work, but I personally would recommend just picking up a heat lamp and a night time heat bulb to help them stay warm instead. That being said, I find the idea of letting them burrow and wait out the cold in captivity interesting.