How much to feed juvenile spadefoot toad.

[Herpin Man]

I think that Couch's spadefoots are the best looking of the spadefoots.
In the wild, neonate amphibians eat as much as they possibly can. They need to put on mass as quickly as possible, to outgrow predators, to survive hibernation and estivation, and to reach breeding size as soon as possible. Therefore, in captivity, I believe in giving them as much as they will eat. Little toads do seem to bottomless pits. I recommend feeding very heavily, and I recommend feeding as much variety as possible. In addition to crickets and hydei, I would feed bean beetles, small dubia roaches, and earthworms. These prey items are more nutritious than crickets and fruit flies, and are easily cultured. I don't think it's possible to overfeed a toad, although uneaten crickets do present some risk, as they will chew on captive amphibians and reptiles.
One final recommendation I have would be to add a layer of leaf litter over the substrate. It will help with moisture retention, and offer the toad additional hiding places.

[rhavin42]

Thanks for the info. I've seen some pictures of adult Couch's spadefoots, and they are indeed very beautiful. I cannot wait until this little guy starts showing his colors. So far the girls absolutely love watching him chase crickets and flies around in his container. He buries himself all day long, then sometime around 6-7pm he re-surfaces and starts looking up at the top of his container expectantly for food to magically appear so he can chase them around gobbling them up. His appetite does seem insatiable, so I'll just keep ramping up how much I'm feeding him, removing anything leftover after he retires to his waterbowl for his after dinner soak. (the life of a frog sounds pretty good)

I was going to stop and pick up some earthworms on my way home from work today and see if I could get him to eat them cut up by wriggling a section of them off a pair of tweezers in front of him.

uneaten crickets

ha ha ha, uneaten crickets, not from this guy! I watched him eat 10 1/8" crickets and about 10 fruit flies in like 10 minutes last night, and I swear he was looking up at me saying "That all you got?"

I'll look into the leaf litter. This is my first non mammal pet that I've ever had, it's been a learning experience.

I do have another question about substrate. Right now I have it setup with 2 layers, the bottom layer is about 1" deep consisting of about 1/2 diameter pebbles, followed by about 2" of eco earth, which gives him plenty of room to burrow, as he grows, I'll increase the depth of the eco earth. To keep things moist, I keep the lower level of pebbles full of water, which in-turn keeps about 1" of eco earth wet, with the top 1" fairly dry. I figured that since this guy is native to the sonoran desert, keeping the top part of substrate dry would most closely mimic his natural habitat where the top soil is very dry, but can retain moisture under it for quite some time.

Does this setup sound right? or should I just ditch the lower level of rocks and use nothing but eco earth, thus keeping the whole of the substrate slightly moist. Or just use 100% dry eco earth substrate and let him go to his water dish if he wants some water.

Or if you've got another suggestion for how to configure the substrate, I'd love to hear it.

[Herpin Man]

For a small, unplanted tank, I don't think that a drainage layer is necessary, but I also don't see what it would hurt. I wouldn't intentionally store water in the drainage layer though; it defeats the purpose of having a drainage layer.
The eco earth does not need to be bone dry. Toads appreciate some moisture. I would leave one end dry, and mist one end, giving the toad options. The leaf litter will help retain moisture.