lindsayshocking

I've come to realize that spadefoots all have very distinct personalities. I was reminded of this when dealing with the new colony. One of the female Plains spadefoots had not been acclimating well. She wouldn't eat, and was always burrowed. I know that moving to a new home can be a very difficult thing, so I try to leave them alone as much as possible when I get new toads. However, one day when checking on them I found her semi-burrowed next to the water dish, and she looked like a dead dried frog husk. I thought I had lost her, and I immediately reached for her. When I grabbed her, she lethargically moved one leg. There was still an ounce of life in her, so I set her up in a bath with a pedialyte mix. I wasn't optimistic, but over the course of the night life came back to her. I carefully set her up in a separate home, and she began to act normal. Moreover, she'd act healthier. I saw her being more active, and she even started eating within 24 hours of being in her new home. She's inquisitive and watches me. I named her Imogene. Nothing seems wrong with her at all, and all I can come up with is that she just didn't like living with the other spadefoots. She is anti-social, but she seems so happy being alone. I feel like she was trying to hurt herself so she wouldn't have to be around those other spadefoots.

This is in contrast with The Impostor. He's been overcome with loneliness since Obdulia died and Kaeru and Hat went to live with The Colony. He croaks on a regular basis, waiting for the ladies who never come. He needs the companionship, which is why I even ordered the new spadefoots. He's very social and thrives when there are roommates. They're on complete opposite sides of the spectrum, those two.

Why spadefoots act the way they do is hard to explain. Aspartame is snarky, but she loves me. She spends hours with me being snuggly...but she hates my fiancee. Once, he was poking at Hat and Aspartame hopped from the other side of the cage to bite him. She just hates him and there's nothing he can do to change her mind. But most of them aren't as warm towards me as she is. Kaeru really hates being handled by everyone (she puts the "plains" in "complains").

That's why I'm always worried when people say they want to get pet spadefoots. I admittedly talk a lot about Aspartame being cuddly and sweet. I have a ton of pictures of Mr. Doctor Wiggles posing with Lego hats and accessories, because he's photogenic. A lot of people think that these toads will be like those two, but what if they got a Kaeru? Sure, she's cute...but she doesn't want to hang out. She hates being photographed. She's whiny. The problem is that you have no idea what you'll get when you adopt a spadefoot. The key is to keep that in mind.

In short--spadefoots are weird.