A couple questions...

[Xubby]

First off, making a new tank, and hoping to go the cheap, egg crate route for a false bottom. I'm a little worried about the toad rubbing against the screen/egg crate while burrowing, though, and am curious if any of you have any personal experience. I assume it's fine? It just sounds a little more hard and abrasive than I feel comfortable with. The other alternatives would be just hydroton and screen (bit pricy, the tank's large) or simply no false bottom at all.

Second, and on a more somber note, I had a close call with the toad over the last few months. Making the switch from wild caught to all captive bred insects did end up causing some problems. It was entirely my fault, as I procrastinated on getting the multivitamin. I think, in retrospect, she was already showing signs when I wrote my last post, but I just wasn't experienced enough to recognize the signs for what they were.

She got pretty grim, but after more force feeding, vitamin dustings, injected insects, and stress for all parties involved than I care to remember, she's well down the road to recovery. Started eating on her own about a month ago ( was a happy day ), and put down a satisfying eight crickets last night. And her eyes. They finally look... normal again.

But that leaves me with the question of vitamin A. What little bit of scholarly stuff I've seen has suggested that toads can't synthesize their own vitamin A from beta-carotene, nor do they store significant amounts in their bodies. It's possible I've misunderstood that, though, and if anyone knows for sure, please share. Links would be appreciated, as well.

To those who have successfully kept toads long term, what specific brands of multivitamins do you use? Does it have vitamin A, or just beta-carotene? I'm in the process of tapering back on Vitamin A Plus by Repashy, which I feel gets the lion share of the credit in her recovery. It was being admisterted weekly, which is obviously way too high for a healthy toad. Do any of you dust for vitamin A specifically? If so, I assume monthly would be about right?

At the moment, I'm using:

• Fluker's: Calcium with D3 (phosphorous free)
• Rep-Cal Herptivite (beta-carotene, no vit A)
• Repashy: Vitamin A Plus (beta-carotene and vit A)

She's usually burrows whenever she's bored, so it's hard to have a perfect schedule, but the aim is something like...

• 5ish calcium crickets a week
• 2ish multivitamin crickets a week
• Assuming 15-20 crickets a week total, the rest are undusted, hopefully spread out over three meals
• Additionally, 2-3 vit A crickets once a month

I know there's a recommended schedule (Thanks Carlos), but, well... Toads suck at keeping schedules more than any pet I've ever had, to the point I've started writing down her intake on the calender. I'm assuming no one sees anything glaringly wrong with my plan, though?

And sorry, this post ended up being way longer than I intended.

[Mentat]

Myself would not use egg crate or false bottoms with toads due to their burrowing disposition and drier environmental needs. A water dish should suffice .