new here with baby toads

[muddygrl]

I found a bunch of tadpoles in a local area and brought home several. I let some go in the pond across the road from us because I realized I had way too many to take care of. I kept 5 and they have all developed into the cutest tiniest baby toads. I am pretty sure they are toads because the golden spots on them have been turning into bumpy looking toad skin. I have their tank now set up with some fish rocks and some cypress mulch (the garden store said this kind didn't have any dyes and I bought it for my vegetable garden because it was safe. So I think it will be safe for the toads too. I have a small dish of water with a rock in it for climbing out and plenty of hiding places, bark , sticks and moss. They are in a 10gallon tank right now. What I am worried about right now is I can't tell if they are eating or not. I have been putting in about 7-10 tiny brown ants the last 2 evenings. Yesterday I watched and it seemed that they were kind of watching and hunting them. One snapped at an ant but then I never saw them eat any. But by morning I couldnt' find the ants. I am not sure if the ants are in the substrate or if they got eaten. I put some more in this afternoon. I guess I am not sure how to know if they are eating. I guess I can stir up the substrate a bit and see if I find any crawling ants. Also I have someone that is going to take 2 of them and give them a home. I am leaving on vacation on the 16th so I am thinking about putting them into a smaller kritter keeper ( I think it's 5 gallon) and just taking them with me since I Have no one that will be willing to catch bugs and feed them every day. We'll be in a hotel so I should be able to catch ants and feed them if that seems reasonable. I really would like to keep one or two but I am kind of unsure how much work this whole bug thing is going to be. How do I get bugs in the winter? Just buy crickets? How often should they eat?

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Well, first thing to do is read the ground toad care article: Frog Forum - Toad Basics - Keeping ground-dwelling Toads. A care sheet for Bufo, Anaxyrus, Spea, Scaphiopus, Ollotis, Alytes, Pelobates. In there you will learn how to set-up an adequate enclosure and provide proper care for them. For feeding most toads, you want food size that is around the distance between it's eyes. For very small toadlets, wingless fruit flies available in pet shops are good. A vial of fresh culture should feed them for a few days until they get a bit bigger. From there you would feed pinhead crickets, then small crickets, etc. Problem with using collected food from the wild is the possible presence of chemicals like pesticides and/or parasites.

Need to get (among other things) calcium and vitamin supplements available at pet shop reptile section (Repashy and RepCal are good products). Dust the food (in plastic sandwich bag or similar) by dropping a pinch of powder, fruit flies or crickets, and shaking them around for a few seconds until insects are well covered. Dust with calcium 2X and vitamins 1X weekly on different days with skip day in between.

Only use dechlorinated water (Exo Terra Aquatize or Seachem Prime are good) in shallow water dish for a water bath that will only get to toad's chin. Hope this get's you started and good luck !