California toad (Bufo boreas halophilus) experience

[Pete]

I normally frequent the salamander forum, but on a recent turn of events has brought me to this forum more. My girlfriend and I found some toad tadpoles on a hike. To my surprise she wanted to take some home and raise them. I thought it was a suspicious response from her, but I figured I'd risk it and support the interest. I haven't kept frogs or toads since I was in high school, so this forum was a helpful refresher course.

I just wanted to recount the experience and share some photos.

The first photo shows the habitat in which we found them. It was in the East bay hills of the San Francisco bay.

The next two pictures are of the amazing tadpole density in the pond. I should note that in addition to the tadpoles, the small ponds held red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii), california newts (Taricha torosa), and Western pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata). We collected about 15 tadpoles. This was back at the end of April or early May.

The next three photos are of some random shots of the tadpoles. I would estimate that they were of varying sizes from 1.5-2.5 cm. Their hind legs were mostly just stubs when we collected them, but they grew quickly, and in the past two weeks they've started emerging. The tadpoles were left to feed on whatever was in the planted tank and occasionally fed crushed fish flakes. They were kept in a tank with some amano shrimp, a few fathead minnows used for breeding, and a lot of snails.

The next two photos are after they got their front legs. I was a bit surprised that they were changing at such a small size (<1 cm), because we have Bufo boreas halophilus (At least, I suspect they must be) here at the lake on campus. I always see the little toadlets out of the water even with little tails at about (1.5-2 cm). Perhaps it has to do with the tadpole density in the pond, because I've never seen tadpoles so dense on campus.

The first toad to transform had some defects, as mentioned here. He's since started eating, and my girlfriend is opposed to culling him, so we'll see what happens. I've been feeding them wingless fruitflies and these wooly aphid like bugs that infested my broccoli and cabbage plants. The toads seem to love them, and I hate them, so it's a win-win. I was surprised, because they started trying to eat them when they still had about 50% of their tails.

The toads have been putting on weight and are starting to look like toads. All in all it's been a good positive experience, and I have to thank those that posted in earlier threads about toadlets, because a lot of that information was helpful. In the next post I'll add some pictures of the toads and food.

[Pete]

Here are a few of the toads. I have about 8 so far, but I can't remember exactly.

[Pete]

I should add that when my girlfriend realized they were toads she became more-or-less disinterested. She expected frogs. So when I went to the campus lake last week to confirm for myself that the toadlets there are larger there. I found a young pacific chorus frog, and gave her that. She likes that one, but I"m not sure if it's because it's cute or because she can feed it the Pholcus phalangioides, crane flies and other assorted bugs that come into our apartment. Maybe both....

[Curb71]

thanks for the pics. I caught a few tiny tadpoles about 4-5 weeks ago in the hills on a hike in Granada hills. finally a few of them have legs and your pics helped me confirm what these little tadpoles are. I got about 35 of them.

[LilyPad]

Thanks for sharing! Those are some wonderful pics! My kids caught some toad tads a couple of weeks ago but we released them back into the pond after a few days. How wonderful to watch them transform though!

[Pete]

Well, in total I got 9 toadlets out of the adventure. I was out of town for three weeks and left them with a good friend. Two of the toadlets didn't survive (one was the previously mentioned toad with the mouth malformation). Another toad seems to have some problems with its form and its skin, he never fully developed his patterning, although is growing. I suspect he won't last much longer.

Overall, they've become quite the little pigs. I've been struggling to keep up my fruit fly production and my ant collecting.

Finally, I realized that there is tons of little insects in our garden, so I've built a little play pen that I've let the toadlets run around in the evenings. It's quite amazing how efficient they are at finding tiny insects, and it's also amazing how many tiny insects there are in the garden when you stop and notice them.

So tonight I was watching and photographing the toads. I just wanted to post some pics.

[Pete]

more photos.

[nicodimus22]

I should add that when my girlfriend realized they were toads she became more-or-less disinterested. She expected frogs.

Aww, tell her to give toads a chance. They are lower-maintenance than frogs and beautiful in their own way.

It's quite amazing how efficient they are at finding tiny insects, and it's also amazing how many tiny insects there are in the garden when you stop and notice them.

Yeah, it kind of struck me after the first couple days with my toadlets that no matter how tiny and cute they are, these really are predators. They are very efficient and waste no time when they see something that they want.

[Pete]

Aww, tell her to give toads a chance. They are lower-maintenance than frogs and beautiful in their own way.

I completely agree. Some of my best pets were toads when I was young.

[Kurt]

I found a young pacific chorus frog, and gave her that. She likes that one, but I"m not sure if it's because it's cute or because she can feed it the Pholcus phalangioides.

So you're feeding it spiders. I never considered using those and there are plenty Pholcus running around the basement. Interesting.

[LilyPad]

Ohhh the little toadlet playpen is the cutest idea ever!! I was shocked with our toadlet we just got, how well it hunts! The fruit flies dont stand a chance with that toad!

[Pete]

So you're feeding it spiders. I never considered using those and there are plenty Pholcus running around the basement. Interesting.

Yes there is always plenty of those, but keep in mind that Pholcus are major predators of other spiders and of the more creepy ones. So you may want to not deplete their numbers too much or you tend to find really ugly spiders in your house. The only spiders I don't use are the yellow sac spiders, because I've been bitten by one before and it wasn't too pleasant. Actually, I suspect the frog could eat it. I'm just cautious. It's like bees.... I know they can eat them. I've seen it happen, but it's hard for me to comprehend.

Ohhh the little toadlet playpen is the cutest idea ever!! I was shocked with our toadlet we just got, how well it hunts! The fruit flies dont stand a chance with that toad!

Just remember if you make a playpen that many toads can dig. So you have to work that into the design. Also, I keep a sheet of plastic I can cover over it when I'm not there, so that no birds get any ideas when I'm not watching.

[LilyPad]

Just remember if you make a playpen that many toads can dig. So you have to work that into the design. Also, I keep a sheet of plastic I can cover over it when I'm not there, so that no birds get any ideas when I'm not watching.

Good to know, I wouldn't have thought of either of those things. This is something we might do though now that we have 3 little toadlets. I think my kids would love it, but I can see the neighbor kids messing with them if I step away, so it would definitely have to be supervised.

[Pete]

I just wanted to give an update. All 7 toads have survived and are now feeding on crickets, fruitflies and bugs from the yard. I tried to get at least one good photo of each one yesterday in a toad photo shoot. It's crazy how they're patterns have continued to change. I can't tell half of them apart anymore. The one with the mouth deformity apparently survived. It's the one in 4th photo. Seems to eat with no problems, but if you look at the photo you can see his mouth is a little weird. That's all.

[Curb71]

if you're still around Pete, would love to hear how the 7 are.

[Pete]

Hello, I'm still around, but I haven't posted anything in awhile. Here is the update:

I lost one toad in November. I had been keeping a small small pile of melon rinds in the bin with the toads to attract wild insects. I made an unfortunate mistake and threw in some old melon slices with the fruit still attached. This act in turn managed to attract an ant raid. I think the toads ate a lot of them, because they had pretty full bellies. However, in the clean up (which was a pain in the butt), I found one toad dead in the rotting melon mush. I don't know if he drowned, got stuck, or was bitten to death. Possibly a combination of all three.

In December, I converted my old Dicamptodon tank to a terrarium, and I've been keeping them indoors. I'll try to post some photos later on. Mainly they've been eating crickets now, and they seem to be on a growth spurt now. I find it curious that the spurt began around when the 'rainy season' should have started. They've since doubled in size. Well, it seems that 4 of them are growing faster, and the other two are growing slower. I wonder if it is going to be the females (big) and males (smaller), but only time will tell. Noticeably the toad with the mouth deformation is the smallest of the size. It still seems to be strong, so maybe it will just be a runt.

I'll try to post some photos soon of the setup and the toads.

[gulfcoasttoad]

Subscribed. This is cool!

[Pete]

So I managed to finally take some current shots of the toads. I could only find five. They've started burrowing more, so they're harder to find. The first one is a picture of the set up. Basically, half topsoil/half coco-fiber mixed, and a bunch of potted plants, and some hiding spots. Nothing too fancy. Everything is pretty much as I described in the last post. They're eating like crazy, and growing like crazy. I'd say the average size of the toads are about a quarter, some bigger, some smaller.

[gulfcoasttoad]

Progress looks great. What kinds of potted plants are those?

[Pete]

I have several potted plants all of them young, so I figured I could throw out what ever didn't work as they develop. There is a pothos (doing very well), Asplenium nidus (doing well), Nephrolepis exaltata (doing well), Platycerium sp. (struggling, probably not warm enough), Hedera helix (doing well), Chamaedorea sp. (doing ok), a young grass stage Rhapis sp. (doing ok), and a Sansevieria sp. (near death and removed recently)