Enoch the Western Toad.

[Jace]

Sorry-but what is rapashy? Do you think an alternating schedule of calcium/vitamins would work? I usually feed him/her every night when I get home from work and I can easily incorporate a dusting in there every night. Anything to make Enoch grow up strong and healthy I will do!!

[SethD]

Sorry-but what is rapashy? Do you think an alternating schedule of calcium/vitamins would work? I usually feed him/her every night when I get home from work and I can easily incorporate a dusting in there every night. Anything to make Enoch grow up strong and healthy I will do!!

Rapashy ICB is a type of supplement. It is available online. If you can't get it in Canada I would go with two days of dusting with calcium followed by one day of multivitamin and once every 10 days or so a dusting of straight vitamin A from retinol(probably need to grind it down from human grade suplements with a mortar/pestle) . This until he gets half grown or so, then you can start dusting less frequently. If you can get repashy ICB it will save some hassle as it claims to be a balanced all in one supplement and I have found that to be pretty much true when used daily. It is undoubtedly the most complete and balanced supplement available although there are occasional uses for less balanced forms of supplementation.

[Jace]

Thank you, Seth! I will look into repashy; if I can't find that, I will do your suggestion starting immediately. Enoch is very active and quite curious about his/her surroundings, so I hope I can continue to provide a balanced diet to match that curiosity! Thanks again!

[Greg M]

Hi Jace!

Cute little guy! I love toads! With these little guys (presumably transformed this year), its hard to over-feed. Certainly, feeding them what they can eat in 15 min. everyday, is not too much. I feed mine in a separate feeding cage so there's no danger of eating substrate (although Eco Earth is fairly safe) and, more importantly, so I can monitor their actual intake. I like Repashy Calcium plus ICB for dusting and Repashy Gutload ILF to gutload the crickets. Allen Repashy doesn't sell directly but there are lots of Gecko sites that carry his products (I get mine from LLLReptile.com). I also subscribe to the diverse diet approach - my guys eat silkworms, crickets, small Dubia roaches, small hornworms, butterworms, earthworms, phoenix worms and the occasional pinkie mouse for the big guys. I am looking to add isopods because I read an article about the nutrient composition of bugs and isopods are really high in calcium... An interesting article that you not have seen is http://ardeajournal.natuurinfo.nl/ar...82-299-314.pdf - it may seem off-topic (its about birds), but it has a lot of data about insect calcium content...

Cheers!
Greg

[Greatballzofire]

http://www.wormman.com/cat_sow.cfm
I feed my toads isopods. All's I have to do is go out in the garden and lift up an old piece of plywood over a damp mulchy spot and find gobs of these sowbugs. brush them off the plywood into a tub and feed them to the toads.

[Greg M]

Hi Greatballzofire!

I've done that too, but my concern is that our neighbors (and I, on occasion) spray their lawns, and so I have been worried about pesticides, herbicides, etc. What I'd like to do is start a culture and raise them myself so I know they're clean... In my youth, I always fed a range of wild-caught insects, isopods, etc., and I never had a problem with MBD, etc.

Cheers!
Greg

[Jace]

Thanks for the info guys! I will need to look into this Repashy Calcium plus ICB. However, I cannot always get things in Canada that seems to be available everywhere else. For the time being, I am putting Enoch on a calcium/vitamin schedule (2 days calcium/1 day vitamin) and will try and find a vitamin A supplement that I can grind down. I believe in a varied diet as well-most of my other frogs/toads get a variety of earthworms, crickets, mealworms, grasshoppers and grub. However, now that we are getting into winter, their diet is more based on earthworms and crickets. I have ordered phoenix worms, but after two weeks, they still have not arrived. I can't wait for Enoch to get bigger so I feel more comfortable feeding him larger items. Right now, he is about the size of a fingernail. All this info has been great, though-Enoch and I really appreciate it!

[Greatballzofire]

Hi Greatballzofire!

I've done that too, but my concern is that our neighbors (and I, on occasion) spray their lawns, and so I have been worried about pesticides, herbicides, etc. What I'd like to do is start a culture and raise them myself so I know they're clean... In my youth, I always fed a range of wild-caught insects, isopods, etc., and I never had a problem with MBD, etc.

Cheers!
Greg

http://insected.arizona.edu/isorear.htm
They are pretty easy to grow. You could grow your own and not have to worry about contamination.