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Thread: Sonoran Desert Toads. One toadkeepers opinions.

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    Default Sonoran Desert Toads. One toadkeepers opinions.

    Here's some things I've learned after keeping these for over a decade. Some are things I wish I knew right away but instead took me way too long to figure out. Hope this helps somebody someday.

    1. How much to feed your toad?

    Not as simple as it sounds. Obese toads are no good. It will shorten their lives. I've seen pics of toads with major "sausage-fingers" on their fore-limbs and toads wider than they are long.

    Starving your poor pet in not an option either so how to keep them at the ideal weight? They are sneaky and will get much bigger looking by inflating and can shrink away significantly when they pee out everything they can hold. This complicates visual assessments and also weight assessments. I always weighed mine when fully hydrated and with empty stomach and this was fairly accurate and consistent but it involved an expensive scale I no longer have.

    The general rule I've heard to feed them as much as they will eat in 15 minutes is fairly good but adults would do this 7 days a week if you gave it to them so just twice weekly 15 minute feedings works. This again assumes they are being fed in small container where bugs are easily caught for 15 minutes. It doesn't apply if the bugs won't move or disappear out of sight.

    alvarius toads seem to have two main modes those being ambush-predator mode and active hunting mode. When toads are not hungry they are quite sedentary. They happily sit here or there and wait for more food to come to them. When toads are under-fed and hungry they will actively roam about the tank looking for prey and jump to get out the top while looking for prey. Not good to have your toad bashing its poor head of the lid.

    My major rule-of-thumb is Watch Your Toads Behavior. Feed them the minimum amount that keeps them sedentary and in ambush-predator mode. This rule works great keeping the toads as lean as possible without being under-fed. My 4-1/4" toad needs about 30-36 large crickets a week and my 4-1/2" toad needs 36-40 a week right now. My big female needed about 50 a week when she was close to a pound and a half

    Feed up your sedentary toads then cut back a bit each week until you notice them hunting (wiggling their big back toes and searching around) before your scheduled feeding day then increase it a bit until they are always sedentary again.


    2 How to sex my toad?

    This one made me play the fool for about 8 years. My first toad was sold to me as a male and I was told it had "barked" before being shipped to me. This was good enough for me and although it never made a sound when I had "him" I told everyone he was a male.

    OOPS! Fast-forward a number of years and I get two new toads. Turns out these are both males and my 1st toad was female the whole time! I felt pretty foolish but there weren't any other sexed examples to compare with in my Canadian city and I had read some bad info about "no sexual dimorphism" in this species. Now I have had both sexes and know the differences.

    Sexing mature alvarius toads is easy. Males "cluck" their release call very consistently. If you give them the targeted "bad-touch" simulating amplexus or often when you just pick them up they cluck incessantly. Sometimes they make each other cluck. Sometimes if a male just leans against something the wrong way it will cluck. Both my male toads will cluck often and regular whereas my female not once in a decade.


    The most obvious visual difference? Nuptial pads! Males have big, gnarly, rust-colored thumbs. Their thumb is twice as thick for the half near its base then as thin as the "fingers" the rest of the way to the "nail" (tubercle). Female thumbs more closely resemble the fingers and have more of the lighter cream color.

    Other visual cues are bigger "Popeye" forearms on males and significantly more loose skin under their chins and over their "chest". It is easy to picture this fully inflating and when the males really "puff up" this pouch inflates as well. No inflating throat pouch on fully inflated females. It swells a bit but not much.

    Two things I wish I'd known right off the bat. Cheers!

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