Enoch the Western Toad.

[Jace]

Just wanted to show an update on Enoch, whom I've had since August 28th. The first pick is the first few days we had him or her; the second is what he or she looks like as of yesterday. Not much difference in overall size, but definately on the more round side!

[Ebony]

Gorgeous Jace..A well fed little darling is Enoch.

[Jace]

Thank you. Only pinhead crickets are food, but I am wondering if I should cut back to every other day or so. Trying to get only 4-5 pinheads in at a time is next to impossible-more escape-so he sometimes gets a lot more than I think is needed....

[SethD]

Thank you. Only pinhead crickets are food, but I am wondering if I should cut back to every other day or so. Trying to get only 4-5 pinheads in at a time is next to impossible-more escape-so he sometimes gets a lot more than I think is needed....

No, you shouldn't cut back. Little toads like that need a LOT of food and supplementation to grow properly and they are designed to grow FAST. With sufficient food and optimum conditions he should be capable of growing nearly an inch per month although it isn't necessary to grow them quite that fast. If he isn't growing at least a half inch per month though you definitely need to feed him more.

[Jace]

Wow-really? And how often should I dust the crickets? I usually do it twice a week: once with calcium and once with vitamins.

[SethD]

Wow-really? And how often should I dust the crickets? I usually do it twice a week: once with calcium and once with vitamins.

When toadlets are growing fast I have found it necessary to dust their food daily with rapashy. Otherwise some have have tended to show signs of deficiencies after a month or so. Things like loss of stickiness in the tongue(not enough vitamin A) spasms(not enough calcium) etc.

[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!

[Greg M]

Jace,

Let me know if you can't get the Repashy and I'm sure I could send you some. Vitamin A is an under-appreciated nutrient for toads. Without enough, the toads get "short-tongue syndrome" (squamous metaplasia of the mucus glands) - this results in feeding difficulties. However, vitamin A is fat-soluble and is toxic at high-levels, so I'd be very careful with supplementation via a vitamin A supplement. I don't personally have the expertise to supplement with vitamin A appropriately, so that's why I use Repashy. Maybe Seth said it already, but it's not clear that toads (or many other herps) can convert Beta-carotine to retinol, so Allen uses actual retinol at an appropriate dose.

Cheers!
Greg

[Jace]

That is an amazing offer, Greg, thank you! I will be cautious on the Vitamin A supplement. I use Rep-Cal Herptivite, but there is no Vitamin A in the ingredient list. I have several pet stores in town-I will check them all and see if I can find a supplement that contains that vitamin and give it a try. I've had Enoch for two weeks-I hope he is not going to be permanently harmed by this.

[Greg M]

Hi Jace,

Don't worry - there is evidence that toads can recover from vitamin A deficiency and resume normal feeding. One example in the published literature is in the introduction of A complex Enrichment Diet improves growth and health in the endangered Wyoming toad (Bufo baxteri) - Li - 2009 - Zoo Biology - Wiley Online Library , which I think is an interesting paper for a variety of reasons. In short, 90% of severely affected Boreal toads resumed normal feeding and growth patterns within 3 months with supplementation (Li et al., 2009). My (very) big boy had that problem and recovered, hence my familiarity with the subject. pm me if you decide you want to try the Repashy...

Greg

[Jace]

I found Zoo Med's Reptivite with D3 that has...let's see....Vitamin a 99, 910 IU per lb or 220, 264 IU per kg. I honestly have no idea what that means but it was the only vitamin supplement I could find that even listed Vitamin A. Is this better than nothing? I will phone my fav petstore tomorrow and talk to them about Repashy and do some sluething on line. I will start Enoch on this supplement tonight. Let me know what you think. And thanks again Greg-I really appreciate all your help!

[Greg M]

Hi Jace,

I used Reptivite for a while. It has Vitamin A acetate, which is biologically available to toads (as far as I can tell from a cursory review of the literature), and is the same vitamin A form that is used in Repashy Calcium Plus. The Vitamin A content in the Reptivite is much higher (220, 264 IU/Kg) than in the Repashy formulation (80, 000 IU/Kg). I think you should be fine with Reptivite, although my toads object to the taste - they like the Repashy formulation better... There may, of course, be other issues that make one better than the other (and that are beyond me). I know Allen has spent a lot of time working on the Calcium Plus, so that it complements the crickets nutritional value...

Cheers,
Greg

[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.

[Greg M]

Thanks for the isopod link Greatballzofire! I'm going to set that up!
Greg