Breeding pair of toads! :D

[Deku]

Yea for the first few days they will hang on the sides of the tank or other things as they absorb their yolk sack. You don't need to feed the until they are free swimming and have the normal tadpole shape.

Wood lice should be fine to feed as long as they are the right size.

Nobody told me that! not even google! D: They're freeswimming persay. but don't have the normal tadpole shape.... Like they look like a tadpole only smaller and flattened. They have the tail, mouth. But yeah. I sorta... uhh.... threw out alot of the eggs out. The white ones. Along with the yolk. Though it made a mess, and the pearls are in the tank floor. Some pieces of egg yolk is still there. :x

[Deku]

I'm not sure what they're called in other countries but this is what I mean I think the baby woodlice should be fine as they are only a couple of mm long.

Could you make me a caresheet for woodlice? I'm going to catch some today. Yesterday I was going to... But.... I didn't manage to find the pond---so we went to a river instead.

[Zach]

Nobody told me that! not even google! D: They're freeswimming persay. but don't have the normal tadpole shape.... Like they look like a tadpole only smaller and flattened. They have the tail, mouth. But yeah. I sorta... uhh.... threw out alot of the eggs out. The white ones. Along with the yolk. Though it made a mess, and the pearls are in the tank floor. Some pieces of egg yolk is still there. :x

No worries, the yolk is attached to the tadpole. They will look very untadpoleish for a couple days while they feed on the yolk while being attached to the side, rocks and any other stuff in the tank. When they get the "normal" tadpole shape and are no longer stuck to the sides but instead swimming around, that is the tie to feed them. This can be anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks depending on water temperature.

[Whistly]

Could you make me a caresheet for woodlice? I'm going to catch some today. Yesterday I was going to... But.... I didn't manage to find the pond---so we went to a river instead.

Woodlice should be kept in a warm place as they need warmth to get them going but I wouldn't reccomend too much heat and they need about 50/50 sun/shade. They are simple in their needs they just need leaf litter (dead leaves), something to hide under or in like a hollow log or an egg carton. For food I give them fresh fruit and vege and I replace the food every three days and I just let them get on with it. They will need about a 20cm square container and stuff to climb on so the floor doesn't get crowded, sticks are good for this. After 2 weeks they will be going strong and if you do anything wrong it won't really matter as they are hardy critters. Hope this helps if you don't understand anything I'll explain it better if I can.

[Deku]

No worries, the yolk is attached to the tadpole. They will look very untadpoleish for a couple days while they feed on the yolk while being attached to the side, rocks and any other stuff in the tank. When they get the "normal" tadpole shape and are no longer stuck to the sides but instead swimming around, that is the tie to feed them. This can be anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks depending on water temperature.

I drop in wafers every now and then. :x Iam wondering... could I put in my ghost shrimp with the tadpoles? Or will the shrimp try to eat them? The shrimp are passive but Iam just making sure.

[Deku]

Woodlice should be kept in a warm place as they need warmth to get them going but I wouldn't reccomend too much heat and they need about 50/50 sun/shade. They are simple in their needs they just need leaf litter (dead leaves), something to hide under or in like a hollow log or an egg carton. For food I give them fresh fruit and vege and I replace the food every three days and I just let them get on with it. They will need about a 20cm square container and stuff to climb on so the floor doesn't get crowded, sticks are good for this. After 2 weeks they will be going strong and if you do anything wrong it won't really matter as they are hardy critters. Hope this helps if you don't understand anything I'll explain it better if I can.

I put in two types of lettuce and such. I only got apples at my house. I don't like apples so I can take bits of em in there. As for water, do they need a freshwater supply? I think I got in a mix of pillbugs and roley poleys. Both look similar--- but are not the same. I think there's like 10-12 in total of woodlice. My terrarium they're in is a kritter keeper that is long. like 8-9inch longx 6-7inch wide, 4-5inch tall. I forget exact measurements. Is this good enough? I wonder if adult woodlice be good enough to be a staple diet for adult toads. I'm thinking of mixing it up. Worms, lice, and crickets. But not so much crickets. Also moths, and mealworms, waxworms whenever I get em.

I'm hoping to get a culture of roaches eventually. Though Iam not a fan of them.....

[Whistly]

I put in two types of lettuce and such. I only got apples at my house. I don't like apples so I can take bits of em in there. As for water, do they need a freshwater supply? I think I got in a mix of pillbugs and roley poleys. Both look similar--- but are not the same. I think there's like 10-12 in total of woodlice. My terrarium they're in is a kritter keeper that is long. like 8-9inch longx 6-7inch wide, 4-5inch tall. I forget exact measurements. Is this good enough? I wonder if adult woodlice be good enough to be a staple diet for adult toads. I'm thinking of mixing it up. Worms, lice, and crickets. But not so much crickets. Also moths, and mealworms, waxworms whenever I get em.

I'm hoping to get a culture of roaches eventually. Though Iam not a fan of them.....

Sounds great so far yeah that's a decent size tank. They don't need a water supply as they get water from their food that's why it has to be fresh, they do drink though they have little prong things on their butts which they grab moist food with and suck up the moisture. Also if you find red ones they're rare as research shows they are less accustomed to their surroundings and if you find blue ones leave them as they have a virus which forms blue crystals on the diseased tissue.

I don't know what size your toads will be when fully grown so I couldn't say if they will be a good size for full grown toads.

[Zach]

I drop in wafers every now and then. :x Iam wondering... could I put in my ghost shrimp with the tadpoles? Or will the shrimp try to eat them? The shrimp are passive but Iam just making sure.

yea you shouldn't put any food in until they are more developed. At this size shrimp would eat the tadpoles, but it may be possible to mix them when they get older.

[Wormwood]

It's highly doubtful, unless you have a very large farm that you'll be able to raise enough woodlice to keep a couple toads happy. The largest wood lice is generally smaller then a mature cricket and a healthy adult American Toad can easily go through 25 crickets a week in average house hold temps.

It'll be a good food for raising the toads though, once the toadlets are large enough to feed on them that is.

Depending how many toads you keep though, if it is 8-10 you might want to consider just buying a box of crickets from a local reptile show, or online. They generally last two weeks, come with 1,000 crickets, cost like $16 bucks. It feeds 13 American and American sized toads and makes up a majority of two cane toad's diet. There are also boxes of 500 for $12 bucks and that might work just as well if the toads are the only thing your feeding insects. $24 dollars a month to feed 10 animals is nothing to sniff at, and it lowers the risk of catching parasites and other nasties wild feeders can bring.

Breeding 500-1,000 of anything every two weeks is gonna take a big operation. Good luck!

[Deku]

Sounds great so far yeah that's a decent size tank. They don't need a water supply as they get water from their food that's why it has to be fresh, they do drink though they have little prong things on their butts which they grab moist food with and suck up the moisture. Also if you find red ones they're rare as research shows they are less accustomed to their surroundings and if you find blue ones leave them as they have a virus which forms blue crystals on the diseased tissue.

I don't know what size your toads will be when fully grown so I couldn't say if they will be a good size for full grown toads.

Okay. They're doing great so far. I just need to get leaflitter. I do have the egg carton. What do I do with it?

[Deku]

yea you shouldn't put any food in until they are more developed. At this size shrimp would eat the tadpoles, but it may be possible to mix them when they get older.

Okay. I will do that if they grow bigger. :]

[Deku]

It's highly doubtful, unless you have a very large farm that you'll be able to raise enough woodlice to keep a couple toads happy. The largest wood lice is generally smaller then a mature cricket and a healthy adult American Toad can easily go through 25 crickets a week in average house hold temps.

It'll be a good food for raising the toads though, once the toadlets are large enough to feed on them that is.

Depending how many toads you keep though, if it is 8-10 you might want to consider just buying a box of crickets from a local reptile show, or online. They generally last two weeks, come with 1,000 crickets, cost like $16 bucks. It feeds 13 American and American sized toads and makes up a majority of two cane toad's diet. There are also boxes of 500 for $12 bucks and that might work just as well if the toads are the only thing your feeding insects. $24 dollars a month to feed 10 animals is nothing to sniff at, and it lowers the risk of catching parasites and other nasties wild feeders can bring.

Breeding 500-1,000 of anything every two weeks is gonna take a big operation. Good luck!

I highly doubt they eat that much. They're not out travelling constantly like they would outside in search of food. I feed a dozen and a half for my toad(the one I got last summer as a toadlet), and she only consumes 12 of them in that same week, and the rest she eats the following monday. lol. I even feed her large earthworms occassionally. But I may make that her staple. Well part of her staple. Along with those lil woodlice and some other stuff Iam thinking of breeding.

She's already fat as she is. Feeding her more will make her fatter and that's probably unhealthy since she already looks fat as a pacman. I let her have a roam of a small room everyonce in a while. She sits there for a bit, then she moves around then sits there, then moves. lol. The room is humid-- so thats no prob. The temp isn't too high or too low. It always stays at 70 at most. Sometimes lowers to 68. She's basically a temperate toad. So she's okay with those temps.
As for a whole farm just to breed woodlice, that's sorta preposterous because they're pretty small and you find alot of them in just one log. Over 200 I found last summer in this huge rotten log. I say 200 as an estimate. There were alot. I mean part of the log was completely covered in them. Sadly I didn't catch em back then. Now Iam starting to breed them. So Iam going to get several kritter keepers thatt size to breed them and have a cycle so they don't get exhausted in numbers.
I'd say 3-4 containers that size should be good.

I'm going to breed earthworms too. I did it last year, it went far. Untill I stop using them for some reason-- ended up forgetting them and found them dead. lol. I was busy I guess. But ill start again. As for parasites and all that stuff. The insects are local-- therefore the toads/toadlets are all local as well. They were from the outside. Were not captive bred persay so any bugs or whatever will not harm them. Plus, after a while if you keep the culture going long enough and its kept clean whatever maybe onto them-- will die out.

I will also breed roaches eventually. I don't know which yet. But something that doesn't gross me out visually and is small and easy to breed. Iam thinking banana roaches, domino roaches, sand roaches do not gross me out. American roaches, german roaches and the sort DO gross the heck out of me.

Remember I do come from the tropics(was born there and raised there) so as well for us--me and my family roaches are not really our allies. My mom hates roaches MORE than anything out there. She will mutilate a roach if she thinks what shes looking at is a roach.

I'm avoiding crickets too much. Maybe feed them once a month or twice a month--- but because I am not a fan of crickets to be quite honest. I'd only use them for dustings.
I also plan on stocking up on other worms like mealworms, waxworms and let them grow into adult forms. Mealbeetles, Wax Moths, etc. To feed to the toads occassionally. I plan on breeding multiple insects now. Iam getting fascinated by insects as well so it shouldn't be a problem. Going to a forum for insects will help me(it has been). I already know what to do with some of them.

Now Iam just going to buy the equipment for all of that and put them in a large container to keep them from being outside(like okay the critter keeper will be inside a larger storage container with plenty of holes all over for breathing--- this is to keep them dark and moist. As well as out of sight. lol. They will be stacked up inside the larger container(the small containers) in order and class. Hopefully this will help me a great deal. My parents hate messiness so this should help me keep it all clean.

[Whistly]

You cut it in half along the join and the you cut off one of the short ends so it's upside down with one enterance and you put leaf litter in it. It basically provides a bit of shelter to make them feel more at home because in the wild they always hide under stuff like bricks, pots etc. Sorry couldn't get a photo so I had to use paint lol.

[Wormwood]

Suit yourself mate, my active toads easily eat that many crickets each so you can doubt it all you want. None of my toads are obesse, just healthy looking - normal house temps, they just move around alot because of the space I give them.

Males are significantly smaller and require a few less, but the large female American toads can eat that and more.

10 toads could easily polish off 200 small woodlice/pill bugs in a sitting and I'd feed that to them about twice a week. Keeping up the breeding to counter balance ingestion rate that will take alot of work.

It's obvious your not taking anything I'm saying into consideration so I'm done commenting. Good luck.

[Deku]

Suit yourself mate, my active toads easily eat that many crickets each so you can doubt it all you want. None of my toads are obesse, just healthy looking - normal house temps, they just move around alot because of the space I give them.

Males are significantly smaller and require a few less, but the large female American toads can eat that and more.

10 toads could easily polish off 200 small woodlice/pill bugs in a sitting and I'd feed that to them about twice a week. Keeping up the breeding to counter balance ingestion rate that will take alot of work.

It's obvious your not taking anything I'm saying into consideration so I'm done commenting. Good luck.

I decided not to keep 10 of them. I wanted to. But I thought long and hard about it. I'm going to keep 5 in total. Including my favorite one(the one from last summer). But Iam releasing the adults(I just released them a while ago-- thought I'd feed them before they go.) woodlice aren't even their staple. Their staple is a mix of insects. Even before I always fed her other stuff too. I wouldn't give my toads a 100crickets a week(per toad I mean). That's too much in my opinion.
I did take some of your advice-- just not every single thing you said. You do realize everyone/anyone can post on here and I can take their advice and in the end its up to me to give them the care? I mean no disrespect. Just somethings sound off to me. So unless a few other "experts" and moderators agree with you with the whole cricket thing then yeah.

Not many people have the chance to get a 150gallon tank. That's extremely unreasonable to ask from the average caretaker. Sure its good to have space. And Iam planning to give mine more space--- not because I think they will use all of it. But because I'm making it into a project/showtank.

Even with that-- my female still gets her excersice outside of her cage in the basement(which Iam moving down to within a couple of weeks--- the basement is moist, clean, and free of any chems--- since I'm frail towards chems and other stuff of the sort as well).

I myself along with my father refurbished that basement. We laid the tiles, we re-did the ceiling, walls, etc. We did put a fungicide--- but it's a mild solution and it was a couple of months before I let the toad roam there. I let the toad roam the floor atleast a few times a week for an hour. I do similar things to alot of my animals. I do that with my rabbit, turtle. But they get each different rooms to get free roam. <---- though its unnecessary but I still do it because I feel its good to take them out of their cage everyonce in a while.

[Deku]

You cut it in half along the join and the you cut off one of the short ends so it's upside down with one enterance and you put leaf litter in it. It basically provides a bit of shelter to make them feel more at home because in the wild they always hide under stuff like bricks, pots etc. Sorry couldn't get a photo so I had to use paint lol.

Hmmm okay, thanks. I did it like that--- i just need to get more of them and some more leaves tommorrow. :P Where do they lay the eggs? Whats the temp for them for reproduction? I mean I assume they don't care for high temps--- since they are temperate species.

[Whistly]

Hmmm okay, thanks. I did it like that--- i just need to get more of them and some more leaves tommorrow. :P Where do they lay the eggs? Whats the temp for them for reproduction? I mean I assume they don't care for high temps--- since they are temperate species.

The females will carry the eggs underneath themselves near the abdomen it's the little white dots and when they hatch they will cling to her until they are big enough to leave her at about 5mm. For leaf litter you could just pull off some leaves and leave them in a container outside for a few days and it should be about right or you could just put in fresh leaves and it will decompose over time. The ideal temp for breeding is about 10-15 degrees centigrade as they don't heat themselves so you need to provide them with heat. You will also need to get LOADS as they breed once a year and have about 100 eggs so if you have 100 then at the end of the mating season you will have 10,000 woodlice and they need soil about 5 cm deep as they will make under ground tunnels the leaf litter is to ensure that there are some above ground when you want to feed the toads.

[Deku]

The females will carry the eggs underneath themselves near the abdomen it's the little white dots and when they hatch they will cling to her until they are big enough to leave her at about 5mm. For leaf litter you could just pull off some leaves and leave them in a container outside for a few days and it should be about right or you could just put in fresh leaves and it will decompose over time. The ideal temp for breeding is about 10-15 degrees centigrade as they don't heat themselves so you need to provide them with heat. You will also need to get LOADS as they breed once a year and have about 100 eggs so if you have 100 then at the end of the mating season you will have 10,000 woodlice and they need soil about 5 cm deep as they will make under ground tunnels the leaf litter is to ensure that there are some above ground when you want to feed the toads.

if I get over a 100 will I be able to get a constant breeding colony? Or should I use sparingly as to not exhaust the colony?

also thinking if each offspring breeds-- that also doubles the size of the colony. Iam thinking of getting a larger container for this breeding project. :P This whole thing has gave me an opportunity for using other insects and start breeding colonies(buying feeder insects gets annoying sometimes. lol)

I'm going to try multiple colonies of these then. As well as of other insects(roaches, earthworms).

I don't understand what you mean 10-15centigrade. colaborate on layman's term.
My room temp can range of 69-72degrees.

[Whistly]

if I get over a 100 will I be able to get a constant breeding colony? Or should I use sparingly as to not exhaust the colony?

also thinking if each offspring breeds-- that also doubles the size of the colony. Iam thinking of getting a larger container for this breeding project. :P This whole thing has gave me an opportunity for using other insects and start breeding colonies(buying feeder insects gets annoying sometimes. lol)

I'm going to try multiple colonies of these then. As well as of other insects(roaches, earthworms).

I don't understand what you mean 10-15centigrade. colaborate on layman's term.
My room temp can range of 69-72degrees.

Yay finally the temperature converter on my phone has purpose 10-15 degrees centigrade is 50-59. Your room temp is 20 centigrade so think it should be fine at room temp.

As they breed once a year I would set up atleast three colonies so you don't end up decimating a single colony. I know what you mean about buying feeders I've tried breeding crickets and locusts but Dunedin is just too cold for them that's why I love woodlice so much they just laugh at the cold. I agree with you on getting a bigger container if you want a big colony my colony is in a 45cm long 20cm wide 30cm tall container it has pet store stones about 5cm deep with about 2cm of sand on top with a scattering of stones on that and 4 small lettuce plants growing in it, and leaf litter is scattered everywhere. I'll post a photo tomorrow.

if I get over a 100 will I be able to get a constant breeding colony? Or should I use sparingly as to not exhaust the colony?
What size will the toadlets be because if they're under 5cm they will probably only eat about 5-6 in a sitting otherwise they'll end up fat. I would use them with other insects just to make sure they don't run out.

[Wormwood]

I said 25 crickets per week mate, or 40-50 wood lice/pill bugs.. since they are significantly smaller. Not 100.

And I never said you needed a 150 gallon tank but for 10 toads - heck yeah you need it. Since your only keeping 5, probally not - a 40 gallon breeder is fine.

Again, good luck - I'm bowing out.