Feelin' Froggy

Welcome back and glad all frogs are doing well Faith !

Hi Faith,

You seem to know a lot about fire belly toads. Well if you don't mind, could you answer a question for me?

So I got my fire belly toad about one and a half weeks ago, and it has a great appetite for earthworms and crickets. I'm rather new to keeping an amphibian as a pet, and the same question kept bugging me over and over again. So after a couple of days, I had expected to find frog poop somewhere in the tank, but as I cleaned it the week after I got the toad, I found no feces. How often do fire belly toads poop? Is mine constipated? I have a semi-aquatic terrarium, a carbon filter, and plants/gravel all in just 5 gallons. My toad does seem healthy though, and my temperature in the tank ranges from 72 degrees to 78. It is still eating a lot and even seems a bit skinny. I feed it every two days usually, and it only takes two minutes for it to pounce on its prey. The only thing that worries me is the poop, because I haven't found any or even seen it execrate waste. Unless I'm hallucinating, I'm a little alarmed, and any help would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
SoldierBoy1052

Thanks Mentat!

SoldierBoy, I'm by no means an expert on this but I'll tell you what I've noticed. Mine eat a mix of crickets and meal worms. The tank is 50/50, the land side having a moss mat (not highly suggested by most but I've had no issues in a year +), a plant, log and other misc. items to get up on. With having 3, I don't find a whole lot of poop when cleaning the tank monthly. Their are small pouches (for lack of better word) that I find in the bottom of the water in the black rocks I put down there. They are camouflaged until I clean (not sure what you have down in the bottom of your water.) I also have a carbon filter and never see any feces floating around it or in the water (one at most.) My tank stays around 74 as well. Mine were skinny until I started giving them a few meal worms every few weeks (I will feed them mostly right after the worms shed, so there's less chance of compaction.) I also feed mine once every 3 days. They were getting so fat at 2, I was concerned it would cause issues (but they are by no means skinny.) I have never given mine earthworms nor do I know much on feeding them (I know I've read others do but that's about all I know.) Not sure that helps in the least, about all I have

Meant to include, I wouldn't worry about constipation, if he's pouncing, lively and isn't engorged looking, that's very unlikely from what I've read.

Ok thanks Faith,

By the way, what do you mean by pouches? I have a bundle of plants in one side of the tank, but does the feces get sucked up into the carbon filter? And how often do they poop? My toad's stomach is a little chubbier than the rest of the body, and I plan on giving it a bath with honey and warm water, in case it is having a hard time pooping. I'm not convinced that that is the case, but better safe than sorry.

The feces themselves remind me of little pouches (so I refer to them as such since hubby always knows what I mean, lol.) I've never had them sucked into the filter but a few float around it (the rest are too heavy I guess and sink to the bottom.) Not sure how often mine go but its a lot less than I expected (each cleaning I expect at least twice as much as I find.) So sorry for the delay, we went on vacation out of state. How is your FBT doing now?

My fire belly toad is actually holding up pretty well, and I plan to get it a calcium D3 supplement to boost it's nutrients. As winter comes, I'm also a little concerned that there may be lack of earthworms and pill bugs in my backyard that I can throw in to feed my toad. Though I haven't exactly seen it poop, I'm almost positive that it has pooped, because there is no way it couldn't have, as I have had it for about 3 weeks now. The toad's very inactive during the day and usually just mopes around in the water, but when I go to sleep at night, it always climbs the carbon filter, as if wanting to get out. All in all it seems to be adjusting to it's new home and eating just fine (seconds after I dump a juicy cricket in). Since I don't plan on starting a cricket farm or anything, what should I do? The little container of medium sized crickets I bought with the toad is doing good because I put some fruit in it, but the crickets are turning into adults! Their pretty scary-looking when they grow wings, and I really don't want to feed them to my toad. Any ideas on how to dispose of them? Thanks!

Sincerely,
SoldierBoy1052

So glad to hear he's doing well! I must admit, I've been breaking down and buying all my crickets/mealworms at Petco. The mealworms that I supplement with last me months - we get the large container of them and I don't know if they're breeding or what in there but it takes ages to run out of them (we start out with the small ones so they live longer and don't get too big to feed before they're gone.) Your FBT sounds like mine, they are most active at night, love to attempt to climb and stay in the water a good bit. I tried to start a cricket farm myself, failed miserably. Get ripped off pretty good paying $7 every 2 weeks at Petco for more (that's how much it costs for for 2 weeks to feed my 3.) That's another reason I supplement the meal worms. You can get like 500 for under $5 here (I just try not to make a big habit of them and risk impaction.) I'm not much help in the food department I'm afraid, I'm sure I'm spending too much but so far its the only thing that has worked for us! (Oh and on the note of crickets, I've never bought more than 50 at a time, so I've never had the joy of seeing those scary looking suckers with the wings!) We live way out in the woods so when I dispose of any, I just let 'em loose in the yard. But I know that's not a option for everyone

Hmm.

Well I was planning on buying a cricket keeper so I wouldn't have to visit Petsmart every week, but I guess I shouldn't? Anyways the container of crickets I bought were large ones, and I plan on getting small ones next time for multiple reasons. By the way though, how many crickets does each of your frogs eat? I feed mine a giant one every other day, but I'm going to stop doing that, as it seems to have trouble digesting it. Do you dump all your crickets in when feeding it, or do it moderately?