Cane Toad care

[froglover9]

Good choice in picking toads. i have a male and a female. My female eats a lot. It eats more then my pixie and my American bullfrog and is growing faster then any frog or toad species i own. They do tend to eat smaller prey compared to my other frogs. my pixie will eat mid sized rats. My cane toad wont go after a full grown mouse. but it will eat 4-5 hoppers each feeding. even though a cane toad will eat smaller prey then a frog of the same size it will still eat the same weight in food. It is very important to give them a wide variety of food. This is the case for any frog or toad but for cane toads it is particularly important. In the wild they can eat up too 500 different types of food in one night. I feed mine Madagascar hissing roaches, dubia roaches, crickets (gut loaded and dusted) small mice maybe hopper and fuzzy size, moths and rolly polly's. I also feed them spiders that i catch around my house they love these, but there all time favorite food are moths. because they eat so much culturing your own toad food would be the cheapest idea. They will also eat dog food and raw meat. I read on a care sheet that you can feed them strips of steak but i have yet to try that. I am not recommending it but it might be something worth researching. Dusting food is important to prevent bone lose.

For the habitat. The bigger the tank the better i use a 40 gal tank and that is a bit small for this species. Care sheets say to use coco fiber. I tried it and my toads didn't like it one bit. Best thing to do is mimic there natural habitat use gravel, rocks branches and plenty of plants and hiding spots. For the water dish something they have room to move in and at least 4 inches deep. For temp between 70 and 80 F would be fine although I recommend lower 70's. For humidity these are some dry climate toads so they don't need much. Misting there tank once a week to every couple of days would be fine depending on how dry of climate you live in.

Cane toads are believed to be the hardiest species of amphibian in the world they can handle chlorinated water (however i recommend treated water). They have even been found swimming in salt water. They are super easy to care for and it is hard to kill these guys. So long as they feel comfortable in there surroundings they will eat and eat and eat until they are the size of a chicken. The largest specimen ever caught is bigger than the Goliath frog. If you want yours to get super big a female is the route to go. As you probably already know males don't get tvery big.

For sexing the babies sorry i cant help you there. The coloration and the shape of the head is how you would tell but i don't know what age it becomes noticeable.

Cane toads are some of my favorite toads because they are hardy and bold. While they are big, they aren't very active, so they need a reletively small tank. If they are housed in a to big aquarium, they may have indinfood and they may get lost. A 20 or 30 gallon tank is good for one adult. While top soil is a good natural substrate, these are very messy toads and I reccommend damp paper towels instead. I keep my canes in 30 gallon tanks with a paper towell substrate and multiple hides and it works well with my toads. I feed my toads gut-loaded crickets and earthworms. I use vitamin supplements regularilly. I offer mine pinkey mice once or twice a month on tongs to vary their diet. I don't reccommend any more than that as it can lead to obesity.

[demon amphibians]

That's odd your toads are not very active. mine are more active then even my American bullfrog and if anyone knows them they are always out and about. A 20 to 30 gal tank is sufficient for babies but when they start reaching 5 to 6 inches it is time to upgrade. A cane toad full grown will have a hard time even turning around in a 20 gal tank. You have to remember this is the largest toad in the world And rule of thumb the larger the toad the more space is required. Now they do not require as much space as an American bullfrog which will need A 75-100 gal tank I think a 60 gal may be sufficient for two full grown toads. Any more then that you will need more space.

Can toads do require a good amount of calcium so it is good to be supplementing regularly.

Something good to remember about the cane toad is unlike frogs they hunt with smell meaning they will even go after a bug that is not moving i have personally seen this happen on several accounts. Which is a good reason they have been found to eat dog food placed out in peoples yards making them a threat to pets. I wouldn't go feeding your toads dog food don't get me wrong. Unlike a pacman or a pixie which do not need a lot of space because they will just sit and wait for there food to come to them. Cane toads will go out and hunt for there food. Now as for pinky mice they contain more fatty lipids per weight then a more mature mouse such as a hopper. To much of this will cause obesity but remember these toads are more active then most other large bodied frogs so it will take a lot more to make them obese but none the less you don't want an obese toad. Also in my research on the nutritional value of mice, pinkies have been found to have a dangerous from of calcium deposits that can cause liver illness in frogs and toads. However the information on that matter was inconclusive. The hair on the mouse as mentioned many times in this thread can cause impaction in amphibians but with this particular toad impaction is much lesser of a threat then most other species but it is always good to be cautious. If feeding as treats once or maybe even twice a month a full grown mouse fed to a 7 inch cane toad, the risk of impaction is almost non existent. However if you staple your toad on mice the risk of impaction isn't a matter of if it will happen, it is when.