I need advice raising my toads

Its been months since I've been here. My toads have been doing great!
Here's a couple shots of Tad from yesterday.

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I Moved them into a 40 gallon terrarium and all four of them eating like pigs and digging in the coco fiber bark and bathing in the water dish. Tad is still noticeably larger than the others (between golf ball and tennis ball size) while one is kinda smaller than the other two. Anyways I throw in some crickets and notice the smaller toad rush in and dive on Tads back! turns out Tad...is a she! this went on for about 2 minutes until they finally broke up. Even got some video of it at the end. I hope Tad didn't suffer any bruised ribs!

Bufo Boreas toads mating - YouTube

Anyways, my concern. What if Tad lays eggs?! Is there a way to collect them or what should I expect? I know they lay thousands of eggs so it seems like this could be a terrible thing since the water dish is only about the size of a shoe or smaller.

Here's

Those are some nice lookin' toads! I don't think you have to worry about her laying eggs yet. I haven't gone through this since this is my first year with toads & frogs, but I've read that they don't breed the first year, & that they need to go through a hibernation period to kick in the breeding season. I'm curious to see what an experienced toad breeder has to say though.

oh how fun to watch these little guys! thanks for sharing i am interested in what ppl have to say about the crickets....i too thought my toads would be a cheap fun pet ~ shows what we know eh?! and really, crickets last longer in the fridge?! its so annoying having to stop at petco for 15/sm crickets every other day, and damn it adds up fast $$!! i have 3 toads (1 hasn't been eating much lately though).....anywho - good luck with your survivors, they are awesome!!! and good musical taste btw

Toads sometimes will latch onto each other like that if they are scared or over stimulated. Male toads will often do it to your hand if they are being handled. Unless both of them are sitting in a large enough water source I don't think you have to worry about them laying eggs. The pool you have now is much to small to even stimulate them to mate.

Originally Posted by Wormwood

Toads sometimes will latch onto each other like that if they are scared or over stimulated. Male toads will often do it to your hand if they are being handled. Unless both of them are sitting in a large enough water source I don't think you have to worry about them laying eggs. The pool you have now is much to small to even stimulate them to mate.

very interesting that they wouldnt mate in captivity. I guess it was just some jabs to the ribs then. probably cause tad gets most of the crickets.
thanks wormwood.

I've started to feed Turkish roaches to the Grey tree frogs and toads. I got 2,000 shipped to NC w/heat pack for $33.00 w/no DOA. I don't think I'll ever go back to crickets for their staple food, just toss them in occasionally to add variety to the diet.

Originally Posted by Pandora3d

oh how fun to watch these little guys! thanks for sharing i am interested in what ppl have to say about the crickets....i too thought my toads would be a cheap fun pet ~ shows what we know eh?! and really, crickets last longer in the fridge?! its so annoying having to stop at petco for 15/sm crickets every other day, and damn it adds up fast $$!! i have 3 toads (1 hasn't been eating much lately though).....anywho - good luck with your survivors, they are awesome!!! and good musical taste btw

Originally Posted by kueluck

I've started to feed Turkish roaches to the Grey tree frogs and toads. I got 2,000 shipped to NC w/heat pack for $33.00 w/no DOA. I don't think I'll ever go back to crickets for their staple food, just toss them in occasionally to add variety to the diet.

If only roaches were legal in Canada....

Royce, I know, you're kinda stuck on what you can get, but I was more or less directing this to Pandora3d in CO.

Originally Posted by kueluck

Royce, I know, you're kinda stuck on what you can get, but I was more or less directing this to Pandora3d in CO.

hmm...do you have the info to where i could get those? geez, 2000, where do you keep them until feeding time? gross little buggers! i dunno if my guys are big enough to eat roaches, they still seem to struggle with the large crickets...but if means less trips to the store i'm all for trying it!

ack, nasty! - i'm not sure i could do the roaches, just the pictures are creeping me out......lol. at least if a cricket manages to escape i wouldn't be as freaked out...bleh.

I'll send ya a PM on this.

Originally Posted by Pandora3d

ack, nasty! - i'm not sure i could do the roaches, just the pictures are creeping me out......lol. at least if a cricket manages to escape i wouldn't be as freaked out...bleh.

Sorry, I just wanted to say I've always thought Blaptica dubia's are pretty, they can have some cool orange spotted patterns. and comparably to crickets, I think they have a more attractive faces. Dubia's sorta remind me of giant Pill bugs, but crickets on the other hand resemble the dreaded locust...

Haha! Had to chuckle .

They grossed me out a bit too at first but wow, do my pacs love them. I just use the tongs to pick them up and carry them in a ziplock bag to where my frogs are. Ha ha! I'm getting used to them and can pick up the little ones now .

I have to say they are way less smelly and less messy than crickets.

I've sent Pandora3d some video on the roaches. I feed the red runners at this point, and they do give me the heebeegeebeez but the frogs love them. The dubias as Squirp pointed out, are like giant pill bugs and are almost to nice to use as feeders. They look like little bull dozers moving through the coco fiber. But the toads seem to enjoy the movement of the turkish. Once the toads stop this silly underground treatment & get back on their eat anything I put in front of them I'm going to try the dubias. Anyway. I hope she moves to the roach side.

sorry to be an *** but it seems like my 6 month old thread has been hijacked. maybe we could keep the roach talk over here What's a cheaper food source than crickets? or anywhere else? thanks

Sorry to crash your thread, I was just trying to help Pandora3d out.

anyone know what temperature toads like? not sure if they need a heat source or not and googling it gave me no results.