Toad Love

[Psychotic]

My very big female, Big Mama and her boyfriend Jabba woke up from brumation in early Feb. Much too early. Even though I kept them cool. I guess it got warm enough inside that they figured it was time to come out. Well the wild toads around here usually breed in April and May. But most of April was pretty cold. Tonight is the first time I've heard any males calling. So I moved my toads outside. Plastic tote and all. My male Jabba started calling as well. Inside he would sometimes puff his throat out and vibrate, but make no sound. I sat outside whith them for a while just listening to him call. I went inside and got a much bigger water dish for them. It's like 12" x 9". I filled it with water and went to my pond and got some mud and leaves to go in as well. I put Jabba in the water and he tried to amplexus my hand! I pried him off and set him down. He had stopped calling. So I started making the call and he started calling along with me (I know I'm a dork).

As all this was going on Big Mama was sitting in her basket and didn't seem at all interested. I left them outside for about an hour. I just checked on them a little before posting this and Big Mama was laying in the water with Jabba on her back. She seemed relaxed just laying on the leaves. She wasn't sitting rigid or anything. Jabba had tried to get on her earlier and she wasn't having none of that (doing death rolls). So I'm hoping she has accepted his advances and I'll have toad eggs soon!

In the morning I plan on getting out another tote and filling the whole bottom with shallow water and leaves. I think they would like the bigger water area. They are making a total mess out of the half land half water set up that I have right now. But I wasn't expecting Jabba to suddenly get all frisky!