I want...cane toad or...........something active

[SethD]

@SethD:
No Iam not making stuff up out of thin air. 50% humidity in one of those "crappy" humidity readers from exo terras whenever it reads 50% it tends tobe higher than that. My toad hides alot not because of the moisture because the dirt is certainly moist enough. I use a fogger every few days to keep it at a certain humidity.

Then why tell the other guy to keep the humidity at 50% at all? Your just digging yourself deeper. Canes actually do well in high humidity. Try keeping the humidity up around 80 or 90% for a while and see if the toad doesn't get more active and look better.

My toad was a "rescue" persay, which was taken in froma bad petstore who didnt take enough time to even put water in their dish and mixed it up with some skinks. Its one reason why they are shy. In reality yes in the wild they are not that shy. But since petstores rarely take care of their animals and even if you bought it off some online site itll still be stressed and will be skittish.

What? That isn't going to effect anything at all once it is cared for properly and has had time to tame down. We are talking a toad here not a puppy.

In reality toads really are skittish, because if you notice their behaviour in the wild most of these will run away from you as much as possible. meaning if you tried to hold one itll jump high and plop to the ground and hurt itself. Thus thats one reason why I said its skittish, and since there is NO captive bred toads for sale then toads will still be like this. Toads in reality are not being captive bred.

Okaaay... If your standard for "skittish" is wild animals that will try to get away from you if you pick one up then pretty much every frog is "skittish". Indeed almost all wild animals are. Bearded dragons are not known for being skittish but your not just going to be able to walk up to a wild one and pick it up without it trying to escape. That is a poor way to use the term. Skittish would be more properly applied to certain species of frogs that rarely tame down well and panic and start jumping into the glass every time you open the tank. As far as I know no toads species fits that, most of the time it is ranids and perhaps a very few types of darts. By the way I assure you captive bred toads are not any tamer than long term captive wc toads. I have bred several species and the offspring are not any tamer than the adults. It doesn't matter if they are CB or WC from a taming point of view.

As for heat not making much of a difference, it actually does. Amphibians and reptiles in general cannot controll their body temperatures so we must give them a source of heat, and a way to get away from the said heat. 5 degrees DOES make a difference. If you go outside in a hot sunny day, and you go under a tree you immedietly feel cooler right? Its only a few degrees below under the tree. So it is somewhat significant. There shouldnt be a very strong fluctuation of temperatures because I believe its like we stepping out of a hot shower and stepping in a cold room. Toads in general like to bury down deep into the earth. Where I used to live I found alot of these toads. They used to burry down deep into the soil in our backyard and at night they would come out and stand under a lamp post to eat flying insects. They NEVER come out during daytime. We should mimick their natural environment as much as possible.

Most of the time toads are far more concerned with moisture levels then temps. This is particularly true when we are only talking a difference of 5 degrees F. If you want to try an experiment split a toads habitat between a cooler and dry area and a slightly warmer and damp area and see where it spends the most time. Then make the cooler area moist and the warmer area dry and see if the toad doesn't follow the moisture instead of the temps.

Cane toads do grow to 9 inches. Where I used to live(Puertorico) you could see some female cane toads the size of 9-12 inches.

I don't know for certain just how big the introduced canes in Puerto Rico get but I am pretty skeptical that females actually reach up to 12 inches STV. If they did they would probably have been be exported to the USA before now as there is significant demand for any frog that size. Giant frogs and toads are like giant snakes though, they tends to shrink quite a bit when you put a tape measure to them. I have only ever seen a handful of canes that honestly reached 12 inches and every last one of them was from either suriname or guyana. The very biggest one of those I have ever seen was claimed to be over 15 in. and really did measure an honest 14 inches by the tape measure. Canes from any other area(florida, costa rica, honduras australia etc.) tend to be quite a bit smaller, almost always under eight inches. A actual twelve inch toad is truly a stunningly monstrous animal. Most people haven't actually seen one that size.

[Deku]

@SethD:
50% humidity comming from a zoomed humidity reader tends to be actually damper than what it says. You can even touch the ground, lift your hand up and your hand will feel moist. Again from my personal experience my humidity reader always reads 50percent when its higher, and the lower the humidity the lower it goes. Its a fail humidity reader but I havent found a better one yet.

Taming toads? Toads in captivity can be skittish in my opinion. I have gone to petstores and asked to hold one and when they guy reaches in the toad jumps franctically into the wall and slams his head in. So with alot of frogs. Only toads Ived personally seen havent been that frightened are common american toads, firebellied toads(not true toads), sonoran desert toads, oak toads. You say its a toad not a puppy. I agree, it IS a toad. So lets start treating a toad like a toad. Rather than if its a puppy. In reality you shouldnt hold most amphibians because the salts in your skins, and all the other substances in it can do harm to the amphibian. But in reality we chose to handle them still, of course we wash our hands and keep em wet. But still, in reality a toad isnt a "tame" pet. Its not going to do tricks for you, sit, or anything else of the sort.

Just because YOU havent seen a 9inch-12inch cane toad from puertorico doesnt mean I havent. Theres more than enough meals for a cane toad to grow that large in puertorico, with all the roaches, and insects crawling around in evey nook and cranny. Not to mention the humidity in puertorico is quite high, as are the temperatures. Like I just said, just because YOU havent doesnt mean I havent. Its your personal opinion I respect that, but I know what I saw.


In my opinion, a cane toad needs as much temperatures as it needs heat. Cane toads thrive in very warm climates, moist climates. But being told by a friend that making it overly moist can lead to fungus infection I tried not to make it as moist as I had it. This is more of personal experiences.

4inches of earth worked for me(my personal experience). Not saying 2inches of dirt or no dirt is bad. But why not give it some dirt if you can? I mean its not going to hurt it certainly. It would actually do some good to it if it wanted to dig down to the deepest part.

[SethD]

@SethD:
50% humidity comming from a zoomed humidity reader tends to be actually damper than what it says. You can even touch the ground, lift your hand up and your hand will feel moist. Again from my personal experience my humidity reader always reads 50percent when its higher, and the lower the humidity the lower it goes. Its a fail humidity reader but I havent found a better one yet.

LOL. In other words your saying that you know you have a poor humidity gage that doesn't work yet in spite of that you recommend readings you get from it even though you know the readings are wrong. Don't you think that is just a bit confusing?

Just because YOU havent seen a 9inch-12inch cane toad from puertorico doesnt mean I havent. Theres more than enough meals for a cane toad to grow that large in puertorico, with all the roaches, and insects crawling around in evey nook and cranny. Not to mention the humidity in puertorico is quite high, as are the temperatures. Like I just said, just because YOU havent doesnt mean I havent. Its your personal opinion I respect that, but I know what I saw.

First, how big a cane will get has a lot to do with genetics, no matter how much you feed a florida cane it will not reach the size some Suriname canes can reach. I doubt the puerto rico canes are capable of reaching the size you say they reach.

You may "know" you have seen 12 in. canes there but I also know fellow texans that "know" they have seen 20 ft. alligators and "black panthers". Some of these people are normally reasonable outdoorsmen too but you can't convince them they didn't actually see what they thought they saw. I know that their 20 ft alligators are more like 12-13ft and their "black panthers" are misidentifications of various things but they won't believe that for anything. I strongly suspect the 12in. canes you have seen over there would shrink down to around 8 inches give or take perhaps a half inch at the most if placed next to a tape measure. Tell you what though, since you say your going back there this summer take a pic of the largest one you can find next to a tape measure and post it here. If I can see that it is anywhere near 12 inches I will be happy to apologize for doubting you. If you can find one that honestly measures even the 9 inches you say is the norm I will be surprised and if you can find one over 10 inches or anywhere near the twelve inches you say the larger ones reach over there I will be EXTREMELY surprised and will place a little more faith in your observations. At the moment I am pretty skeptical.

[Deku]

Ok Seth believe what you want. I don't have to prove anything to you. If I find one of these toads where Iam staying Ill take a picture of it.

[John]

Seth and Kevin, we appreciate constructive conversation and healthy disagreement on this forum. This is not it. Move on, both of you.

[Deku]

Seth and Kevin, we appreciate constructive conversation and healthy disagreement on this forum. This is not it. Move on, both of you.

I totally agree. I will move on.

[Kurt]

Skittish would be more properly applied to certain species of frogs that rarely tame down well and panic and start jumping into the glass every time you open the tank. As far as I know no toads species fits that, most of the time it is ranids and perhaps a very few types of darts.

Have you ever kept Anaxyrus debilis insidior? I found them to be quite skittish. Same with my Ollotis alvaria. My Chaunus schneideri and Melanophryniscus stelzneri are, however, quite even tempered. They never panic.

[SethD]

Have you ever kept Anaxyrus debilis insidior? I found them to be quite skittish. Same with my Ollotis alvaria. My Chaunus schneideri and Melanophryniscus stelzneri are, however, quite even tempered. They never panic.

No I haven't kept green toads. They are a native texas species. You need permits and paperwork if you have more than 25 native texas reptile or amphibian species total or ten of one type as I recall. I don't feel like doing that when there are plenty of non-native choices with no restrictions. Since I work towards breeding most everything I keep eventually I never messed with them. Obviously one successful breeding would put me way over the legal limit without a "dealers license" which if I recall is something you need. I have messed around a bit with Colorado river toads and they didn't seem that skittish to me. I haven't worked with them to any significant degree though. Southern toads are a bit skittish as they are more easily startled than some other species of toads but once they realize they are being fed or what ever they calm right down. Some toads are a little more jumpy than others but I don't think any of them compare to a lot of ranids or even things like darts. I have never had a problem with any toad being so jumpy it caused problems and even the more jumpy toad species will usually calm down quite a bit with time. I certainly wouldn't classify toads as a group as being more jumpy than other types of frogs, they are definitely one of the more laid back groups.

[Kurt]

By and large, I do consider Bufonids to be more laid back than most Anurans, but these green toads are the most skittish frog I have ever seen. Had them for three years and they never calmed down.

[frigs]

i know this is an old post and i dint read all the way through but i worked at a pet store and they had bumble bee toads which were active a lot I've never kept them personally and they don't get very large but if your still looking for a toad u could consider these.