Sexing Bufo

[SludgeMunkey]

As with most Anura, it can be very hard to sex individuals. It can be very hard to tell, even in species where size denotes dimorphism unless you know the ages of the animals.

The easiest way to tell them apart I have found, is set up breeding conditions. Males call, females do not.

In the case of Bufonids, A good heavy rainstorm at night usually does the trick. With my recent acquisitions, I put them outside duriing a thunderstorm the other night, and was able to confirm the sex of three of them for sure. I also tried an indor rain system, however only one of the males calls with that set up. I still have two smaller specimens that I am not sure of. I can personally confirm the rain method works for B. cognatus, B. woodhousii and B. nublifer.

However, I too am new to Anura keeping. I have decided to focus on Bufonidae simply because a lot of people do not keep them! (Never one to go with the flow, me...)

[John]

Actually I find Bufo species, at least the ones I have experience with (from North America and Europe), to be amongst the easiest of anurans to sex. Males tend to be skinnier and slightly smaller (or in some species a lot smaller). They also tend to be more brightly coloured than the females, though this can be as subtle as a better contrast between the animal's colours. Some species, such as American toads, have differently coloured sexes - males are tan/brown, and females are a brown or brownish-red.

If you need confirmation, put your fingers behind the front legs, simulating amplexus. This usually causes the frogs to squeek (their release call), if done right. Females are usually reluctant to squeek for humans doing this, so that helps. Also, if you look at the throat as you're doing this, the throat sac of a male is usually apparent as a flabby area on the throat (absent in females), and in some species of Bufo the sac is dark in colouration - if you have a female present too then you can compare - it is usually very apparent.

Lastly, and this isn't as easy if you're looking for toads in the wild, particularly at night, males have slightly enlarged thumbs to help better grip the female - in the breeding season they have pads on the thumbs, and these are usually dark in colour, and obviously the pads and the colour is absent in females.

Bufo in general are hard to breed unless you can give them a good cool period and provide the right stimuli when breeding season comes around. You can still keep them together - it makes no difference. If you can get them to breed, depending on the species they can lay from a few hundred to over 50,000 eggs.

[fnord]

wow 50,000! on average how many would survive out of say 200 in captivity?
Thanks for the info!

[John]

wow 50,000! on average how many would survive out of say 200 in captivity?
Thanks for the info!

Personally I never try to raise more than 100 tadpoles at a time - there are just too many mouths to feed and too much water to change. You need to be very sensitive to their requirements.

My preferred number is more like 30 or so.

[Kurt]

Thirty is still a lot. Especially when they start morphing and they are treefrogs. Those red-eye froglets of mine can run me ragged at times.