Southern Toad.

[hotnickles96]

Does any one happen to have some examples of what a southern toad viv would/could look like?

Thanks!

[JimO]

It could be a simple set up with moist soil and leaf litter, or a planted vivarium. A couple of things to consider are that toads don't like to be wet all the time. They forage at night even under hot and dry conditions. They don't climb, so you'd probably want a low pile of flat rocks or wood for them to get up off the moist substrate. They'll need a shallow dish to soak in and at least 3 or 4 inches of soil/substrate to bury themselves. During the day, toads bury themselves in moist soil or burrow under something like a log or piece of debris.

I would avoid sphagnum moss or anything else that might cause impaction if ingested. Southern toads flick their tongue to capture their prey and will often swallow any debris that comes with it. Since toads are nocturnal, lighting isn't important unless you want to grow plants. The enclosure should have some ventilation, but you'll want to mist it several times a week to keep the humidity up. If you use and Exo-Terra or Zoo-Med terrarium, I'd cover most of the screen top with glass or plexiglass, otherwise it will dry out too much. A 3 or 4 inch strip of screen should be about right to allow ventilation but keep it humid.

I hope this helps. I love toads. We have hundreds of toadlets in our yard that morphed out recently. We installed a fairly large garden pond last summer, but my son wanted goldfish and some other larger fish he caught in a local pond. So, we didn't have any toads successfully breed in the pond. The cold winter killed everything except for the mosquito fish and the toads found it. There was a second breeding several weeks ago and now there is another wave of tadpoles growing.

Does any one happen to have some examples of what a southern toad viv would/could look like?

Thanks!