Question about Eco-Earth

[wesleybrouwer]

By the way, i think i get why you think he likes you doing it.
When you scratch his back he will look like he is offering it to you,
same with the head or something like that.

In fact, he is not showing you affection.
This is a defence mechanism used by different toads.
They possess glands that produce venom or excrete an irritating secretion.
By offering those glands to you, he tells you to **** off

If you don't believe me, taste you're finger afterwards.
Bitter isn't it

[Greenlove]

Wesley : EEEEWWWWW!!!!!!! LOL!!! How do you know it's bitter? Have you licked your finger after petting your frog!!!! Raya: Thank you for posting this question. I was wondering about the lack of beneficial bacteria too.

[wesleybrouwer]

Hahaha, no i don't use to taste my frogs and toads
Might be unwise in most cases.

The reason i know it is bitter, is that some fieldworkers "taste" if a frog is poisonous by putting the tip of the tongue against the back, at least for poison darts that is.
A tingling sensation and bitter taste will tell them they are
This is not without risk to them or the frogs.
The bitter taste is a result of how the poison is build up,
most of them are alkaloids, wich taste bitter.
The poison is not exactly to kill, but to imprint the bad taste and side effects into the mind of predators.
They will "teach" their youngs what to eat and what not.
Clever way of securing yourself from not being eaten,
even if a frog dies it helps out the rest of the species,
the predator will leave them alone after 1 encounter.

My parents own a dog, wich one time got a toad in it's mouth to play with.
They tought he was dying because he flipped out and began to develop heavy foaming from his mouth.
It didn't kill him, but from that day on, he is afraid of toads
And that is the purpose.

Altough there was a hype on licking a certain Bufo species for it's psychodelic secretion.
A human licking it will experience a trip like from a drug.
Yet again i have to say not to try it, if you are sensitive to it, it might end up rather nasty.

Around the world there are lots of aboriginals living around the founding places of poisonous frogs that discovered lots of uses to it.
Think of the Phyllobates species, the real poison dart frogs, whose venom is used to hunt animals.

Or another fantastic useage of the milky secretion of the Phyllomedusa bicolor.
There are tribes that discovered a sort of steroid use of it.
They extract the milky secretion and let it dry in a certain way.
After the completion, they use it for war or hunting parties.
They will mildly burn their skins, to a point it gets the irritating red spot, you get the idea i hope
Here they put on the edited secretion.

Results are:

Surpression of hunger, thirst, pain and exhaustion
while upgrading the sensitivity of the senses and physical strenght.

NOTE: DON'T TRY THIS YOURSELF
Like i said it is a traditional recipe, passed on from generation to generation.
It's like Coca Cola, you know it tastes, you know they make it, you can come close making it but it will be almost impossible to make an exact replica.
In this case you need to know what you are doing, and we dont't.
So just do not try it, it may be lethal.

Just to give an impression on the knowledge there is about the different poisons and hopefully to make clear that petting these animals can cause you harm.
Not to mention the delicate amphibian whose skin will easily harm.