Is something wrong!?

[Poly]

I'm kinda worried about my toad... I normally feed it 2 grasshoppers a day, and it's growing great!

It ate 7 today, why such the large increase in appetite?

Thanks,

~Royce

[frogluver]

I don't think anything is wrong, but you may want to keep an eye on him just in case he gets an impaction.

If given the chance, frogs and toads will eat nonstop and gorge themselves. It's like they don't have a turn off button when it comes to food. Maybe its instinctual, as in the wild frogs and toads will devour anything they can, for they don't know when their next meal will be.

[Lacibeth]

Because he can. Have you changed anything heat/light/enclosure wise over the last couple of days?

My cope's grey is down to something like 2 small crickets every other/third day. Personally, I think he's pissed at me b/c I've become a stickler about not feeding him huge crickets which is what he seems to prefer, so he's just decided that he'll make me twitch by not eating. If he doesn't eat the small guys before they hit adult sized then they go in to work.

[Nabced]

If he doesn't eat the small guys before they hit adult sized then they go in to work.

Go into work?

[Lacibeth]

Go into work?

I'm a naturalist and we have several education animals at work. The lady nominally in charge of animal care and I have a deal. I bring in my extra crickets (and the frog when we need an extra amphibian) and I get to steal day old pinkies when I need to feed the snake (since she refuses to make my life easy and do f/t yet).

[Nabced]

What do you do with the frogs?

[Lacibeth]

What do you do with the frogs?

Roast them slowly over an open fire. It's a difficult process because they jump. :P

We do education programs with them. We have a toad and a couple of salamanders but occasionally it's handy to have the tree frog to talk about their adaptions in comparison with the others. Sometimes we have enough programs going at once, or in enough different locations, that we need the additional amphib.

[Greg M]

Royce: The huge increase in appetite may be associated with a growth spurt. My toads all hit a point in their "teens" (say 1.5 inches for the Woodhouse's toads) when they all started gorging and growing like crazy. This continued until they hit their (more or less) mature size and then their appetites decreased to a "maintenance" level. My albino Woodhouse's toad is just finishing off her growth spurt and eats about ten 1 inch long Dubia every day or two. By comparison, her older cage mate, who is still much larger eats less than half as much. In general, hungry toad=growing toad. The thing that tends to worry people (me included) is when the growth phase ends and there is a drastic decrease in amount eaten...

PS. so I'm 99.9% sure that nothing is wrong, and in fact, everything is good!