Little Brown Toads

[Cynere]

A few weeks ago I scooped some tadpoles out of a local creek. I have been rearing them on spinach and occasional fish food flake in a 10 gallon aquarium. I now have nine fat little tadpole/froglets. One seemed to have issues with staying upright for a couple of days. I removed him to small, shallow bowl of water for 30 minutes and then returned him to the tank. He seems to have recovered 100%. All of them have front and back legs while a few are finishing up their tails.

This is my first go around with frogs or toads. I spent a while looking through tadpole identification guides and decided they are probably some kind of toad, maybe oak toads. I live in central Florida. These little guys are a medium brown with black spots, seen clearly with a bright light.
At the moment I am housing them together with less than an inch of water and a sloping cardboard platform. They enjoy hanging out in the shallow water over the cardboard while the legged ones go a bit higher up. I am looking for a suitable top right now but the froglets don't seem to be able to climb the glass. Today I purchased some small crickets to maybe feed them, they are not pinhead crickets though and I am concerned they are too large. The fastest growing froglet still has a tiny numb of a tail since last night.



I have read the toad care article on this site but any suggestions would be appreciated. I want to make sure I do this right.

[Charlotte Benedict]

For newly morphed toadlets, you should probably get a flightless fruit fly culture. They are very small and easy to feed to your guys. Since they still have tails, keep a large source of water still in the tank, but make sure they can get to land easily, about 50/50 land to water ratio. Their eyes look kind of like spadefoot toads... post more info as they evolve, and keep me posted!

[Cynere]

Thanks for the ID suggestion. I am keeping them with about that ratio of "land" to water with less than an inch of water as all have legs but some still are swimming mostly. I found this out, that the crickets looked like monsters next to them; I will be purchasing a fruit fly culture quickly.
At least four froglets are spending most of their time on the land section. Very exciting, I have had them for 11 days so far. When I first got them they were pea-sized tadpoles with no legs.
I really appreciate the information. I got pretty frustrated this morning messing with crickets. I will try ants until the fruit fly culture arrives. Hopefully I can get better pictures.

[Cynere]

Another question, the small insects that I have brought as offerings seem to want to drown themselves. I haven't seen much interest from the toads. Should I separate the tailed from the tailless to facilitate bug capturing?

[Charlotte Benedict]

I prefer feeding my frogs by tongs, but if the fruit flies are too small then either separate the tails from the tailess or just put them all in a different container for feeding time. Im glad I could help!

[Charlotte Benedict]

Also, be careful with catching outside critters. I understand you need to now since you don't have your fruit fly culture, but sometimes, rarely, they can have pesticides and other germs that will hurt your frogs. Once you get sanitary insects, don't give them any more outsides!

[Cynere]

I might separate them. The land-going ones are very skittish. Hm, any good place to get a fruit fly culture? It'd be nice to buy one locally but if not that's okay. I have a pet supermarket nearby but they don't offer them. Petco's site shows them as an online exclusive? Any good local or online sources?

[Cynere]

This morning my cardboard slope collapsed but all frogs and one tadpole were found sitting happily on top of it. I got a fantastic feeding response within seconds this morning after offering aphids. Luckily, we have a few grape vines that have heavy populations on them in some spots. We let the ladybugs control the aphids (they multiply rapidly when needed) and never spray them. I picked a tendril of grape vine covered in ants and aphids; most of the frogs went to town within seconds and the rest of them are watching their bold siblings with a learning eye. Finally, a food that is small and inviting enough.

[Charlotte Benedict]

Thats great about the aphids! Fruit flies are about that size, so you should have a good response from them too. I like Josh's Frogs, I order most of my supplies from there. Fruit Flies and Culturing Supplies - Feeder Insects & Supplies | Josh's Frogs It is natural that the land-going ones are more skittish, since the water was their protection for so long.

[Cynere]

Thanks for the suggestion. Make sense, outside many things would like to eat them. My family thinks I am crazy and that frogs/toads should eat whatever I throw in there. It's difficult explaining to them that they have instincts to eat hoppy/crawly things and will starve if there is no food item available that fits this criterion. I am very excited that they are eating the aphids. It looks like Josh's is out of the melanogaster cultures for now though. Those seem most appropriate as they toadlets are so tiny and don't climb well at all. How far do flightless flies glide? Do you think these toads can catch them?

As a separate question, what kind of humidity levels should I be keeping them in. They seemed lethargic a couple days ago so I covered the tank in plastic, that perked them back up but it got foggy in there. Now I have the plastic on the tank but with a vented section, this seems to be working well enough for now. I can't find a screen or lid that allows for ventilation but won't let food items through.



There were a lot more aphids on this branch. Of course all of the froglets have taken up residence together as far away from my face as possible. They seem to enjoy each others company or they are trying to make sure that their sibling possible gets eaten before them, I don't know.

[Charlotte Benedict]

Well, toads don't have to have high humidity levels, in fact they are comfortable far away from water hiding in leaves and forest floor debris. They may have perked up just because they are still going through the transition of wet to dry, so they may like it more humid while they are young. This is another website with feeder insects Buy Live Feeders, Insects, Crickets, Mealworms For Your Reptile there are a lot of good feeder insect websites out there. The fruit flies are so small, and they move only a little more than aphids, so the toadlets will have no problems catching them.

[Cynere]

I have paid for a fruit fly culture. There is only one late tadpole/frog left. Now may be a good time to change over to a more terrestrial substrate, with a little water bowl and some humid places. I am concerned about the somewhat stagnant water and paper towels as it has been a few days.

[Charlotte Benedict]

If the water is stagnant, or smelling at all, you need to change it. I just got some flightless fruit flies myself for my newly morphed frogs.

[Cynere]

It smelled kind of musty. I removed all the paper and changed the water out, rinsed the tank well while the froglets were in a bucket. They can apparently climb at least 4 inches up a smooth plastic bucket. Are they really toads? From what I have read, dark, Floridian tadpoles seem to be toads? I am not so sure. At the moment, all I have is white paper towels, I am aware they are not ideal but I guess it's better than slimy/musty water. How can I keep them from scaling 6 inches up the sides of the tank and then jumping back to the towels?

They are pretty active today hopping around occasionally, and sitting on each others heads. I wet the paper towels some and added a shallow lid of water with towel ramps. I put the tailed frog in the dish but he climbed out. Hopefully I am doing this okay.

[Cynere]

I got a closer picture of one of them. Still a little blurry, they don't like their picture taken. They appear to have horizontal pupils so I suppose they are not eastern spadefoot toads.

[Heatheranne]

Awe, cute

[Cynere]

Thanks. : ) I still don't know what they are but that's okay. First toad poops ever today, I am so glad that they are eating something. Hopefully that culture gets here soon, I am bug hunting outside all day. If it's small enough for them to eat I invariably kill it catching it. I am also trying to feed stuff that won't crawl out. Need to find a fine mesh or something.
In this picture you can see the spots better.

[Heatheranne]

I had the same trouble...we took plastic cups and skimmed the grass for bugs. Caught all kinds of them. Then just removed any that were too big and any spiders. Found all kinds of gnats and aphids.

[Cynere]

We have a lot of trees here so there isn't a whole lot of grass. Maybe I am just not a good grass skimmer. I have brought them black ants today but for the most part they are just stalking them. They get close enough and then back off if the ant crawls toward them. I have no idea if there is nonverbal toadlet communication happening or if they just don't like ants much.

[Heatheranne]

Lol! Trying slicing an apple or an orange and place it in a cup outside. Maybe a few will fly in .