Is this an okay substrate for toads???

[privet01]

Depends greatly on how you intend to construct your viv. However in all cases I'd say it's unnecessary. Especially if you are not going to have live plants.

The other part of the equation is what kind of toads are planning to keep. Mine spend most of their time in the water, some on a rock, very little on the dry except to snag a cricket or other food.

[Lindz]

Depends greatly on how you intend to construct your viv. However in all cases I'd say it's unnecessary. Especially if you are not going to have live plants.

The other part of the equation is what kind of toads are planning to keep. Mine spend most of their time in the water, some on a rock, very little on the dry except to snag a cricket or other food.

There will be Eastern American Toads and Fowler's Toads where I will be searching, I don't mind which, my only thing I that I want females only and for them to be a bit older, not babies, as I don't have any experience at all with feeding something so small.

[privet01]

I've never looked into the habitats for them. I did find a bunch of what I felt were good info sources just by googling "Eastern American Toad Care" and "Fowler's Toad Care". From what I've just recently Googled, I would think some clean peat moss or coco fiber (echo-earth) mixed with some pine-bark mulch plus some leaf litter is all you need. You can likely do it cheap if you just go down to a Home Depot or other big box store with a garden center. You really don't need what amounts to potting soil unless you intend to add live plants to your viv. And as I said in my previous post, even then it's not necessary. It also looks to me that you are going to need a couple decent size viv's just to keep a couple of each. Probably in the 15 plus gallon range.

Also looks like they are voracious eaters. So if you don't raise your own then you better check the prices of crickets and other insects they like.

Maybe now that you've named what you are interested in, some others with some knowledge about them will comment. I'm limited to just what I've had to learn to maintain a couple Fire-belly Toads that I was left with after my son went off to college.

[Lindz]

Thanks, my enclosure for them is 70 quarts / 17.5 gallons but is wider instead of taller. So I think I should have 2 toads in there so that they have enough room even when they are fully grown. I wound up mixing some organic potting soil with some loose eco earth for the substrate. I saved money on everything else, though. Their caves are two flower pots turned over and half-buried in the substrate, and then their soaking dish is a dog food bowl that I put some small smooth river stones in to serve as steps for climbing out. For food, a local reptile store sells 50 waxworms for $4.00, and medium hornworms for $1 each. Then there are bait shops here that sell nightcrawlers for roughly 40 cents each that I can dust with calcium powder on occasion, for when the toads are big enough to eat that big of food.

[privet01]

Crickets and night-crawlers are very easy to raise on your own. The worms are probably easier to deal with if you live in an apartment. Crickets I recommend you have space for three to four Rubbermaid containers in a garage or out-building. Neither require much expense. Just plenty of vegetable and fruit scraps from the kitchen.

[Lindz]

Crickets scare me because I'm afraid they will get away and hide in the habitat, and then try to nibble on my toads. This might be a mostly unfounded fear, but I got it from years ago when I had two baby box turtles. I put crickets and meal worms along with fresh veggies in the habitat and assumed they would eat them. That was a mistake on my part, because two days later when I hadn't seen the turtles, I got concerned and tried to dig around for them. They were both dead and the meal worms and crickets had been eating them, there was a meal worm in one of their eye sockets. Messed me up from trying to keep pets for a while, I felt so bad and it was so gruesome. So now I shy away from foods that might try to nibble on my pets.

[privet01]

It's more likely that the turtles died for other reasons.

Crickets are omnivores and will eat anything so that includes dead animals. Although I don't worry about it, many posters have stated that they only leave crickets and other live food in the viv for an hour or so then remove what has not been eaten. Though I think that is mostly for preventing the viv habitat from having to deal the their feces and eventual death and decay of the crickets and such. Cricket feces does accumulate fast as crickets will eat their body weight daily. But I never see them bothering my two FBT's. and there are usually at least six crickets in the viv. But they have plenty plants to nibble on and a piece of a carrot. I've been told that the stuff in carrots and other similar colored veggies makes the FBT belly brighter red/orange. But as FBT's don't eat veggies, you have to get their food to eat it.