New Colorado River Toads....(20!!!)

[Mordecai]

I was at work yesterday around 12pm, when I received a text that said "Help please! Hurry Home!" So I took my lunch, and rushed home to find our shipment of 20 "juvenile" Colorado River Toads (Bufo alvarius) had arrived! Juvenile was what we had anticipated, but they are a bit larger! Which is fine, we just used another 20 gallon. A few are a little underweight, but some of that could be dehydration from the shipping. Other than that, we are absolutely thrilled with our new babies! We fed out 10 dozen crickets and they gobbled them up very quickly. We sat by all 4 tanks almost all night just awing at them. I am so excited to "fatten" them up and watch them grow! Here are a few of the pics I took this morning.

[John]

Very nice indeed. They look wild caught to me (the vast majority are, even if the seller claims CB) - I'd get them treated for parasites just to be sure.

[Mordecai]

Thank you John. Yes, we are starting to realize that may be the case. If there aren't any exotic vets in our area, what would you suggest we do? Should we purchase some sort of medicine to rid them of any parasites they may have, just in case?

They are so much fun to watch. Now, we have the Cane Toads as well and they are a nice large toad to look at. But, they very rarely move, and if by chance they do, they are very skittish. So it's refreshing to see all these River Toads out and about.

One of the baby River Toads we got from you is an absolute riot! He was the smallest, and has easily doubled his size since he's been here. Which is not a surprise at all because he will eat ANYTHING that moves! He even strikes at the tweezers we use to dig up worms that have burrowed in his cage. Oh he is too cool.

Here is a picture of Rico, the little fatty. (he tried to lick the lens twice!)

[Jace]

Congrats on your new arrivals! They are all so cute. I so wish I could get one of these guys. Rico is adorable. Keep the pictures coming!

[SethD]

Twenty, your going to go through a lot of insects, that is for sure. I know how many roaches my rococos and guttatus go through and and I only have around twelve total of those two species. Colorado river toads may eat a bit less due to being a little smaller but I still bet that many will work very hard at eating you out of house and home.

[Mordecai]

Jo-Anna: Thank you so much!! We really love them! By no means do we intend to keep all 20...(well as of an hour ago...all 31!). We want to raise them all up right, learn more about them, and then when they are plump, healthy adults, we intend to sell them. So if you are in the market for one, and aren't in a hurry, I'm sure we could help you find your (toad) match!

SethD: Oh trust me, we had 'ol Rico for about a month before we received the big shipment, so we had some sort of idea what we were getting into. That little booger will eat ANYTHING that moves. At one point, we had to hand feed the other baby toad because she wouldn't eat on her own. But we didn't want her to choke, so we took one worm at a time, cut it in half, trying to feed her one half, and dropped the other in the tank for the time being. Well he took it upon himself to quickly hop from one side of the 20 gallon to the next and gobble up the second half. When I looked back to grab that half to feed to the other toad, there he stood, looking up at me ready for me to drop another. He's a little pig!
In one day, we have already fed out 20 dozen crickets, and about 100 dubias. We have a very large dubia colony established at our home, and ironically enough, they prefer the crickets. I'm assuming they were previously fed crickets and the strength of the dubias are a bit shocking. They will get one in their mouth and immediately spit it out, especially if the roach is on its back.
Hopefully, like Rico, they will adjust to the dubias and eat them. Those bad boys have been gut loaded with all kinds of nutrients, so it would be great if they got them in their system!

Oh and we have 9 more coming! I'll post pictures as soon as they arrive!

[John]

Ella, how's the other one from me doing? Is he/she eating for you? Strange turnabout with them.

Regarding medicating the others, they should be treated with fenbendazole (Panacur) and metronidazole (Flagyl). Panacur should be used once a week for 2-3 weeks. Flagyl only requires 1-2 doses, say once each week half way through the first 2 weeks (between the Panacur dosages). You _can_ administer these medications yourself, provided your state laws do not prohibit acquiring them. Some forms of both medications are restricted to prescription only but you can acquire them in other forms (i.e. there is flagyl sold for fish that is not prescription only - you can buy it through amazon.com). Large animal supply stores (like Valley Vet) are useful too. The easiest method is to acquire them as powder (or tablets that can be powdered) and dust food items with the dosage and make sure each frog eats the dosed food items.

For amphibians, the dosing for Panacur is 50 mg/kg (for every kg of animal weight, administer 50 mg, so for an animal that way 100 g, you want to give it 5 mg).

In the case of Flagyl, the dose for amphibians is 50 mg/kg too. Bruce Maclean ("Herpvet") suggests using probiotics instead of flagyl unless there's a serious problem that indicates flagyl. This is a quote of Bruce in Caudata.org regarding probiotics:

Gut microorganisms, usually with prebiotics etc. Not sure about brands available in the states - lacto B9 (Genitrix) or avipro plus (Vetark) are the ones here.

Theory is that they are beneficial, or at least neutral, microorganisms that compete with (hopefully out-compete) potentially harmful gut microorganisms (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotics for more detail in humans).

[RikoAustria]

Here is a picture of Rico, the little fatty. (he tried to lick the lens twice!)

Great looking toad..... and that's a SUPER awesome name

[Deku]

Those are some nice photographs. Very nice. Adorable little buggers too! Any names for them yet? ;P

[Mordecai]

Riko: Thank you. It is a very nice name isn't it! haha.


Kevin: Thank you very much. The baby one, Rico, is the only one we have named so far. Well actually, in the batch we received, we got two "pirates" (one missing an eye, and another missing a foot) So, we sort of named one Popeye! The person we purchased them from is sending us 9 more free of charge for the two that are deformed, and the underweight ones. Which I am very happy with. He's a good business man.

Here is a picture of ol' Popeye. He does surprisingly well when eating and is very active!