I need advice raising my toads

[Curb71]

I've had about 30 little tadpoles for about 5 weeks now. I'm 95% sure they are bufo boreas. one of them got his front legs days a head of any others. now about 5 of them have front legs while some of them are still tiny tad poles and every stage of growth after that, up to the tail finally starting to disappear.

What I've noticed is once they get their front legs they don't want lettuce anymore. they ignore it while all the small and especially fat tadpoles love it. I got this cage seen here,
http://cse.f3images.com/IMD/feeds/LE20156_50.jpg
none of the ones with front legs have ventured outside of the water yet, (maybe they just don't know how to use stairs). they can't drown right? even once they are toadlets? what should I feed them once they stop eating lettuce but still seem to want to live in the water?
toads 1
toads 2
toads 3

[LilyPad]

Flightless fruit flies or pinhead crickets are what they like once they're ready to move out of the water. I've read that they don't always eat much right after morphing. They can drown, so I would put a rock or something in there for them to be able to climb out on. Good luck!! I"m sure others here have a lot more advice than that.

[Pete]

So what I did with my toads was to remove them from the water when they're tails were about 50% gone. Then I put them in a container with a coco fiber/stone substrate with a water dish (clay pot bottom). I've used wingless fruitflies, wild caught aphids and wild caught ants.

Most things that I have read say normally they don't eat until the tail is fully absorbed. This is not what I found. Mine were trying to eat when their tails were at about 25%. I didn't see any successfully eat at this stage, but the point is they were trying and I'm sure they ate soon after.

Good luck

[Wormwood]

You might want to try some fish food in place of the lettuce. I raised my tadpoles on that back when I was a kid and they did great.

Can't see plain lettuce having much value health wise actually...
________________________

I agree with Pete though, remove them from that tank once they start to climb onto land. Coco fiber and a shallow dish with some water is all they'll need to prevent them from drowing.

If you are unable to supply pin head crickets or fruit flies at this stage they simply won't make it as they are to small to eat anything else.

[nicodimus22]

If you are unable to supply pin head crickets or fruit flies at this stage they simply won't make it as they are to small to eat anything else.

You could also try aphids or very small ants, if you have some in your garden, although I would caution you against taking them from any area that might have been sprayed with pesticide or other chemicals. My toads live mostly on ants right now. Flightless fruit flies are great, but they don't last very long and it gets expensive quickly.

[Curb71]

update. good and bad. mostly bad.
A store bought "tadpole/frog food I bought killed every tadpole I had. About 23 of them.
I must of put to many in and the next morning they were all belly up laying on the bottom of the fish bowl. I did have 5 toadlets that are now in a terrarium with a coco fiber substrate and a water dish. they have been eating expensive fruit flies and the biggest one, tad, has started taking down small crickets. I have 3 other little toadlets that are doing fine chomping down fruit flies.

However one toadlet I named baby is real small and skinny and has never ate anything. I've tried everything but not even an attempt. I finally got a flash light and a magnifying glass to see if there was something wrong with her face and it doesnt look good. I'll attach some pictures and hopefully I can get some advice. water and a q-tip doesnt seem to "wash it off". I think she never fully formed or has a disease or something. I only see one eye which still looks more tadpole than toadlet. I don't see a mouth or her left eye and the stuff is all over her face/neck. I'm not sure what to do since she has been out of the water for just over a week and never ate a thing. Please help!
http://www.imagebam.com/image/2dc7e1138048795
http://www.imagebam.com/image/ec5100138048927
http://www.imagebam.com/image/961b3c138048954
http://www.imagebam.com/image/5173ef138048976
http://www.imagebam.com/image/07b133138049013
p.s. with the pics once you click it, it should open another tab and if you click the pic itself it will show original resolution which is real big.

[nicodimus22]

I can see the left eye in the last photo, it's just mostly covered with whatever that stuff is. It could be algae or fungus or something else. Someone more knowledgeable will have to tell you what that is. If it's stopping her from being able to eat, time is important though, since they don't have much body mass to fall back on at such a young age.

If she was mine, and a vet was not an immediate option, right or wrong, I would probably take her in one hand (hold all your fingertips together with her in between, facing out) and take a soft damp cloth like a cotton diaper firmly in the other hand and try to rub it off. I don't know if a Q-tip would be too abrasive and possibly scratch the eye. The way I look at it, if she can't eat, she's going to die anyway, so there isn't much to lose by trying to help. You might want to wait for other responses and see if I'm way off base though.

It's a bummer about your tadpoles, but if you think about it, most tadpoles in the wild don't live to see adulthood either. There's a reason toads lay hundreds of eggs at once! If you help 4 or 5 toads out of 25 live to see adulthood, that's better odds than they would have seen in the wild.

[Curb71]

It's a bummer about your tadpoles, but if you think about it, most tadpoles in the wild don't live to see adulthood either. There's a reason toads lay hundreds of eggs at once! If you help 4 or 5 toads out of 25 live to see adulthood, that's better odds than they would have seen in the wild.

you're right about that part for sure. I went back today with boiled lettuce to see if they were still alive I could maybe help them out. It was the first time I'd been back for about 6 weeks and it dried up and they were all dead. NONE of them made it past the tadpole stage or escaped alive . so like you said, thousands of eggs and looks like 4-5 survivors. here's a before and after pic of where I caught them.
before - ImageBam - Fast, Free Image Hosting and Photo Sharing
after - ImageBam - Fast, Free Image Hosting and Photo Sharing
It is a man made concrete "area" with about a 2.5' tall wall and it only had a inch or two of water from the start. all the water dried up and so did they.
Don't want to get to far off topic though, I got a baby toadlet that needs help! let the advice flow peoples.

[nicodimus22]

However one toadlet I named baby is real small and skinny and has never ate anything. I've tried everything but not even an attempt. I finally got a flash light and a magnifying glass to see if there was something wrong with her face and it doesnt look good. I'll attach some pictures and hopefully I can get some advice. water and a q-tip doesnt seem to "wash it off". I think she never fully formed or has a disease or something. I only see one eye which still looks more tadpole than toadlet. I don't see a mouth or her left eye and the stuff is all over her face/neck. I'm not sure what to do since she has been out of the water for just over a week and never ate a thing. Please help!

Any updates on this toadlet? I've been wondering about it all day.

[Curb71]

Any updates on this toadlet? I've been wondering about it all day.

Yes actually. I took her out and tried what you said but it didnt want to come off even with a wet q-tip. I decided to get our out of the coco fiber terrarium thinking that stuff on her face could be from that substrate and the 4 other toadlets were just hoping and climbing on her and the fat one tad was starting to look at her like a meal.

I went and got a couple hand fulls of rocks about the size of the toad and cleaned and boiled them and put her in a small critter tote with water almost up to the surface of all the rocks. she finally started moving around a little more later that day that forced her in and out of the water a lot. the stuff started coming off her face and later that night I noticed the face had cleared up a lot.

This morning I checked her out and her face looked great. looked normal. still so skinny it was a surprise she was alive. I put a fruit fly in there and she actually made a attempt. followed it a little, struck at it and missed by a mile. But at least then I knew she had a working tongue and mouth and appetite! I changed the rocks around so there were only a few small ones sticking out of the water and the fruit fly could no longer climb up the side of the cage and leave cause it was stranded ontop of a small rock in the middle of the cage surrounded by water. baby swam over and climbed up and after a couple tries got the fly and took it down. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think I saw a tiny little smile after that and she already looks normal instead of anorexic. first meal since removed from the water 10 days ago. sitting up like a healthy little toadlet with her head up high which is also a first.

[nicodimus22]

Awesome!

Time to fatten it up!

[Curb71]

a sad update...
baby gave up today. only had 1 fruit fly in the 15 days out of water and that must of been enough to through in the towel. I always had doubts since she came out of the water. she always looked a lot more tadpole like then the other toadlets. she was always to weak and never seemed to form perfectly. R.I.P. little baby

So now Im down to 4. Tad who is a cow and the other 3, all of which are doing great. Here's a video I made yesterday of Tad having a fly.
YouTube - ‪tad eating a fruit fly‬‏
And here's Tad in 1080p!
YouTube - ‪sdafg‬‏

[LilyPad]

I'm sorry The other 4 are looking good though.

[nicodimus22]

Sorry to hear that. At least the other ones seem to be doing well!

[Rat The Unloved]

Was that The Cure I heard? Nice video!

[Curb71]

Was that The Cure I heard? Nice video!

sure was you sure know your Cure. Or have Shazaam.

[Rat The Unloved]

I know my Cure.

It's good to see other people raising toadlets.

[Curb71]

Can toadlets overeat? Tad is such a cow I dropped a few fruit flies in this morning in within a split second he has one of the other smaller toadlets half way down his throad. I gave him a flick or two and he spit the toadlet back out! the other guy acted scared and didnt eat for a while but seems ok.
I'm going to get crickets. flies just arent enough for them, especially tad. just want to know if I should feed them till they stop eating or can they overeat and die?

[nicodimus22]

Can toadlets overeat? Tad is such a cow I dropped a few fruit flies in this morning in within a split second he has one of the other smaller toadlets half way down his throad. I gave him a flick or two and he spit the toadlet back out! the other guy acted scared and didnt eat for a while but seems ok.
I'm going to get crickets. flies just arent enough for them, especially tad. just want to know if I should feed them till they stop eating or can they overeat and die?

I find that they lose interest when they get full. I'm not sure it's possible to overfeed a toad. I've heard other people say "feed them for 15 minutes" but mine usually get full before that, so it's kind of a moot point.

If Tad is so big that he is able to swallow the other toadlets, you might want to move him into another container.

[Curb71]

just an update, my 4 toads are doing great. all are very active and love to soak, borough a little, and eat a lot! I'm out of crickets and have been working so many hours the pet store is closed by the time I get off work. I've been spending about $15/week on crickets for these pigs!! I have a 16 year old leopard gecko and she eats crickets and was wondering if I can let the toads eat them up too since I buy them in bulk cause they last forever in the fridge?? maybe dust the worms and chop them in half if they are too big? also wanting some advise on cheaper crickets. when I caught these tadpoles months ago I thought they will be the cheapest pet ever, free! so much for that idea about $200 later, lol!