alternative to crickets

[Trout hunter]

If they're American or Fowler's Toads as are the ones in residence within my compound, they love to eat spiders. Ground-dwelling black or brown wolf and wolf-similar spiders. Another favorite they can be seen stalking every night of three seasons a year are pill bugs. You can probably have your pet supply store get you spiders but I haven't known pill bugs to be sold retail through any source. But pill bugs are easy to find and easy to gather if you have any time to do that sort of thing. I'd also say to give spotted roaches a try. I kept these two kinds of Toads for well over a decade in my grade school years and they did perfectly well on mealworms and whatever I could find for them in the back yard. You won't have any trouble at all getting them to eat many kinds of worms but the various cautions against them in this thread should be taken into consideration as they're commercialy raised and not culled by nature as they would be if gathered outdoors by you. The key is a couple of staples and as much variety in moderation as you can provide for them.

Would spiders or pill bugs that I find in my basement be ok if I throw them in as I find them. If not there is a wildlife sanctuary and nature trail not too far from my house which I know has a large population of wild insects that would obviously be natural food for toads. there are lots of spiders and pillbugs living around my house but my neighbours fertilize and spray their yards with a whole lot of nasty chemicals lol.

[KP]

Yes, given your specific situation, the post cautioning you against foraged bugs is right on. I live adjacent to a large acreage wildlife sanctuary and vast acreages of wild woodlands beyond that and nobody near me does anything that would taint the wild insect population. As I stated, I have a compound in my back yard and the Gray Tree Frogs, American and Fowler's Toads, Green Frogs, Wood Frogs, Spring Peepers and the occasional Bullfrog passing through during prolonged periods of rainfall all do extremly well on what's available for prey here.
Also, gathering them from your basement would depend upon what you have in your basement in the way of chemical agents of ANY kind and if your basement's like mine you wouldn't want your Toads eating bugs from it.
My situation is ideal in the extreme so I think for most on this forum at least, the commercial sources are the safest path to happy, healthy critters.

[KP]

I forgot to mention the Red-Backed Salamanders that inhabit the compound and the area surrounding it. Our land here supports a very healthy array of wildlife which is a solid observation on which to confidently wild source my Gray Tree Frogs 3-season diet together with commercial crickets, spotted roaches and waxworms. Variety will greatly benefit your Toads.

[Trout hunter]

I forgot to mention the Red-Backed Salamanders that inhabit the compound and the area surrounding it. Our land here supports a very healthy array of wildlife which is a solid observation on which to confidently wild source my Gray Tree Frogs 3-season diet together with commercial crickets, spotted roaches and waxworms. Variety will greatly benefit your Toads.

It sounds like a great place for amphibians populations to thrive!

[KP]

It is. And I've been doing what I can to encourage it for a long time with great success. You can see photos of it in my albums here on Frog Forum and videos of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEIu...8f46gZXD7Bq3FD

[KP]

Here's a quote from a good article about American Toad husbandry and the link to the full article which should give you some useful guidance: "Toads should not be fussy eaters. Healthy toads are usually actually quite pudgy! If you are housing them correctly within the suggested temperature range, then they will accept crickets, mealworms, waxworms, earthworms or superworms of appropriate size. They usually consume anything that they can fit in their mouth. Gut-loaded crickets can make up the majority of the diet; however, variety is the spice of life, and the more you can vary a toad’s diet, the better off it will be. During warm months, catching local insects (nontoxic, of course) can provide added variety. Moths seem to be particularly relished by most toads. In the wild, they eat grubs, spiders, worms, insects, slugs, snails and other invertebrates. If your toads are wild-caught, try offering them what they eat in the wild."

Link: http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Frog...ding-And-Care/

[Larry Wardog]

Here's a quote from a good article about American Toad husbandry and the link to the full article which should give you some useful guidance: "Toads should not be fussy eaters. Healthy toads are usually actually quite pudgy! If you are housing them correctly within the suggested temperature range, then they will accept crickets, mealworms, waxworms, earthworms or superworms of appropriate size. They usually consume anything that they can fit in their mouth. Gut-loaded crickets can make up the majority of the diet; however, variety is the spice of life, and the more you can vary a toad’s diet, the better off it will be. During warm months, catching local insects (nontoxic, of course) can provide added variety. Moths seem to be particularly relished by most toads. In the wild, they eat grubs, spiders, worms, insects, slugs, snails and other invertebrates. If your toads are wild-caught, try offering them what they eat in the wild."

Link: http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Frog...ding-And-Care/

I do not understand what you mean by it is?

Anyways yes reptiles magazine wrote that but that's the person's preference for keeping them. Wild insects can bring parasites and shorten lifespans for frogs and toads. The benefit of using captive feeders is no parasites.

As I said before I do not suggest using wild caught as a staple it's risky and unnecessary with how much variety is on the market for these animals. There is no real need to use wild caught. I will culture wild caught with the hopes of making them captive feeders at some point like grasshoppers but even they are unnecessary. I say this to bring caution to the person asking the question. Dan and myself have been on here for a long time and have seen many sick toads and offered help so you read where we stand. If you choose to use wild caught it's up to you. I wish you luck with whatever you decide.

Sent from my BKL-L04 using Tapatalk

[KP]

The "It is." was in reply to Trout Hunter saying this in reply to one of my responses: "It sounds like a great place for amphibians populations to thrive!".

With regard to experience, I've got over 50 years of studying Reptiles and Amphibians academically, long-term observation and husbandry of mostly American and Fowler's Toads but also Turtles, Tortoises, Newts, Salamanders, Anoles, one Spectacled Cayman and more recently, for the past 10 years, Gray Tree Frogs (H.versicolor and H.chrysoscelis). Never had any problem with diseases, parasites, or the prey doing harm to the Toads. Their robust health and long lives were due to them having conditions and diet as close to what they would experience in the wild as can be simulated in a closed, artificial habitat minus drastic weather changes and predators and the stress they experience from living under the threat of predation.

The only individuals (Gray Tree Frogs) I now have in captivity are mal-formed and ones of otherwise diminished survivability. The perfectly functional ones will do their kind and the environment, and by extension the human population the most good by being encouraged to propagate and expand their communities which I do with my compound, and left to be wild and occupy their ecological niche in the immediate and surrounding acreage.

When I began practicing Toad husbandry as a child, I started by feeding them mealworms almost exclusively as that was the only feeder insect available at that time in my local pet store. They started to lose interest in them after some time so I began to use a wide variety of wild-harvested insects and spiders all small enough to be food for Toads their size of course. I never hand-fed them and they had to stalk their prey so after ten years I let them go in the same acreage where I now have my compound and kept a record of their survival thereafter. They lived another 3 to 5 years depending on which one was being documented and after that I didn't see them around.

Diseases and parasites among Reptile/Amphibian populations has everything to do with environmental stressors of human origin which weaken the animals resistence to all such problems, destruction of habitat, and the tragic increase in commercial trade in baby or juvenile individuals, not feeding them a variety of wild-harvested prey.

[KP]

That being said, if you can harvest them from a wild area where you can confirm there are healthy, thriving populations of the same specie of Toad, which info you should be able to acquire from local wildlife management offices or educational institutions if you have one nearby, you should be able to feed your Toads well from the wild as a supplement as I do my Gray Tree Frogs.