Southern Toad/American Toads hibernating or sick?

[Aris Sokratov]

First post.

I was wondering if my 3 toads (not sure if American or Southern but they look like Southern) are sick or hibernating for winter and how that process goes? I caught them here in Florida during the end of summer and the last few months they've been constantly hungry, eating a few times a week all the bugs I could throw at them. About 3 weeks ago, they began digging in their trenches pretty much all day and barely coming out. They will not eat anything which is what concerns me and are losing quite a bit of weight. I've even tried to manually give them food or wait until they surfaced to feed them, but no go, the worms/crickets/cockroaches all end up in the water bowl.

My substrate is natural dirt from where I found them mixed with finely ground walnut shells that were purchased at the pet store. After a few weeks, I took tank temperature at 68 degrees and bought a heat pad that covers half the tank which brought temperature directly above the pad to 81 degrees.

How should I proceed and care for them during these months? I have a lot of experience with African Clawed Frogs, but this is my first adventure with toads.

Thanks