toad aficionado here!!

[gut]

Hi there! I'm Gut and I'm in love with toads. I think they're highly underrated and weirdly relatable creatures. Right now I only have an American toad [female] and a Western green toad [male] but I hope to increase these numbers soon, I'd like to have a tomato frog next although my current 'dream toads' are a small group of smooth-sided toads and a cane toad!

I came here to learn more about ground dwellers and can't wait to explore the forums further!! Here's my chubs:


Moony:


Currently unnamed, "Small green" as a placeholder

[Bombina Bob]

I completely agree, they are toadally underrated! (Yes pun intended) However, i would advise using cocoanut fiber for both of your toads, the bark chips are able to be accidentally ingested, it will also help to hold more humidity than the bark.

[gut]

I actually tried that, but little green had trouble grabbing his crickets with the coconut fiber on the ground, he kept getting a mouthful of coconut. :/ I thought at least the bark would be impossible for someone his size to swallow, and I could switch back to the coconut after he grew a little? Let me know if that's still a bad idea please, I really really don't want my little guy to get sick!!!!

[Bombina Bob]

I see your point there. Sometimes owners will feed their frogs in separate enclosures but i doubt you would want to stress your little guy out. paper towels, although they may be unattractive make a good substrate as well. IMO I would use the paper towel substrate because of your situation.

[deranged chipmunk]

i agree with ryan, feeding in a separate container just puts too much stress on the animal. how about cocofiber and leaf litter? the leaf litter will separate the toad from the coco fiber, it will help retain humidity, and be a bit more natural for it.

[elly]

Leaf litter should help though toads often like to dig.

...by the way do you run a toad tumblr?

[deranged chipmunk]

Leaf litter should help though toads often like to dig.

see that? you can tell i am not a toad guy lol

[gut]

Hadn't even considered leaf litter! It could look very nice. Thank you for the advice. He doesn't seem like much of a burrower, in fact he likes to perch on the highest points of his tank? Maybe he's just an odd duck.

@Elly and yeah thats my tumblr, I feel silly for not joining this forum earlier, there's so much I can learn here!!

[elly]

@gut: aww, that one's really great! And maybe he thinks he's a tree frog?

@deranged chipmunk: I only know that from watching the Woodhouse? toads in my backyard, heh. They don't dig a lot but they like to have their little toad holes.

[pachoulzy]

hi! i'm just starting to read into american toads, so i'd love to learn more from you! i used to love collecting them when i was a small child, they're amazing little creatures. now i'm looking into keeping one as a pet, and i know they're quite a bit different from my chubby little pacman froggies. (:

anywho, welcome to the forum!

[gut]

American toads make AWESOME pets, their care is incredibly easy and they have a lot of personality. They don't need supplemental heat [unless your house is very cold of course] only a little daily misting and any lighting you feel like providing. I raised Moony up from a tiny, nickel-sized toadlet I found in the street one night. American toads adapt to a cushy indoor life incredibly well, she was eating from my hands after a day!! I think its because they're naturally unafraid of predators. The only downsides I can think of is that no one breeds them so you have to resort to wild caught most of the time [best to gather them in the spring and early summer, when there's thousands of tiny toadlets and the majority of them will not survive, so its much less harmful than removing one old enough to breed], you can't really take them to a vet due to it not being, yknow, strictly legal to keep them in all states [but the cops haven't busted down my door yet], and the males WILL croak. One of my friends has a male who calls every single night.
Aside from that toads are wonderful pets!! They don't do much but if you keep pacmans than thats probably something you're used to by now hehehe