Natterjack toad

morg · May 22, 2004

Bufo calamita in the enclosure

My 1 year old natterjack toads were released into a specially made outdoor enclosure this morning. Heres a pic of one of them enjoying the sun.

morg · May 22, 2004

the enclosure

Heres a pic of said enclosure.
By the way, these toads are from CB stock so are legally kept

morg · May 22, 2004

and finally

Heres the last photo, this time of another of the toads about to hide underneath a small log pile in the enclosure

matthew · May 22, 2004

That's great Morg - not a sight you see very often! I'd be proud of that alright.

a · May 22, 2004

Looks great. HOw many are in there?
What sort of thing is under neath the enclosure (to stop them burrowing out)
And what are the dimensions?

AJfr0ggy

morg · May 23, 2004

Thanks Matt-AJJ
The enclosure contains 4 toads, and is the enclosure I built originally for marbled newts.
As regulars to this forum Im sure that you will know about the problems I encountered with that enclosure?
Before re-using, EVERYTHING was removed from the enclosure, right down to, then even below the subsoil, and all the walls scrubbed with a mild bleach solution.
The whole thing was then rinsed down thoroughly and left for the rain to wash away any residues for a good few months.
The base of the enclosure has a layer of pebbles before the 5ft of sand bought in direct from the quarry to be sure nothing was added.
Although it is hard to tell from the photo, the middle of the enclosure is a mound of sand, into which a few short pieces of plastic tubing have been pushed to give the toads a head start in any burrows they wish to dig.
Dimensions of the inside of the enclosure are length 6ft, width 4ft

(Message edited by MORG on May 23, 2004)

chris · May 23, 2004

Great enclosure - good luck with it.
Chris

matthew · Jul 13, 2004

I am now raising a handful of these and have got as far as tiny toadlets (bless you Morg!)... I just wanted to ask a question about feeding. In the absence of springtail cultures, I'm feeding pinhead crickets and aphids.

The greenfly are not winged and seemed to take ages to come off the plant clipping they enter the container on. Shaking them off gets me no-where. However, what comes off immediately are the ants that live off the greenfly.

Are these ok to feed? The natters SEEM to be ignoring them but I've read Bufo bufo love ants... Thoughts? Morg? Anyone?

alan · Jul 14, 2004

I'd be careful about ants. Bufo bufo eats ants but clearly doesn't like them (Bufo bufo eats anything). I suspect the aphids you have a leaf curl aphids. These are a pain to feed - the more common rose-type aphids are much better. Drosophila would be a safer bet at this stage. For my sins (and my Dendrobatids), I'm currently breeding 4 species, from tiny (vw) to jumbo (hydei).

I'd definitely get some springtails - they are dead easy to raise (email me).

Are the natterjacks too small for pollen beetles? Lots of those around at present.

matthew · Jul 14, 2004

Cheers, Alan, that's very useful knowledge.

I am ignorant about the different species of aphids but the "pain to feed" description sounds spot on.

Drosophila - as I know them - are too big for most of the toadlets, but I've not seen the smaller types.

Will email shortly re springtails. I plan to have loads of these ready for next year's youngsters, lesson learned.

I'm unaware of pollen beetles although presumably they are ubiquitous in the garden. Why is it that every leaf or bud seems to teem with tiny insect life... unless you are out there looking for it?

(For now, I've more hatchling crickets coming in the post tomorrow.)

Best wishes and good luck with the Dendrobates,
Matthew

chris · Jul 14, 2004

Matt
I do well with v. small toadlets by placing them in a box with potting compost at the bottom, and on top a hand ful of leaves etc from a compost containing tiny bugs. Every week I add sweepings/the results of banging rotting logs over a brine shrimp net. I very rarely see them eat, but they grow big enough to take larger food, and bold enough to eat infront of you. I'm sure this could be adapted for natterjacks
Chris

matthew · Jul 14, 2004

It seems simple and obvious now! Thank-you.
(P.S.
I tried picking up wet forest leaf litter. Could not see a damn thing on them, so I gave up.)

alan · Jul 15, 2004

Springtails are pretty easy to grow. You need a plastic food container (Tupperware type) with a sealable lid. You can grow springtails on damp compost, but the best medium to use is pieces of washed barbeque charcoal (not the briquettes, the lumpwood type). Fill the box 3/4 full with charcoal, add 1-5mm water to the box and sprinkle lightly with RedyBrek or fish flakes, then add springtails. Keep at room temperature (not too warm) and never allow them to dry out. When they get going, you can harvest them every other day - they are very profilic.

We're in peak pollen beetle season right now. Try shaking some flowers (yellow is favourite) over a plastic box and you should see lots of 2-4mm shiny black beetles. Good food, but they fly, so you'll need a lid on the tank!

chris · Jul 15, 2004

Slightly dryer leaves is better - containing tiny flies, mites, beetles and other inverts. Another option is to make an enclosure and let them find their own food...
Chris

mark · Jul 15, 2004

the best thing to do - although it sounds rough and very ignorant is to contact someone that works with natterjack toads on a conservation site. ask them if you can sweep for bugs on their natural habitats- sand dunes. use the bugs from here for your natterjacks. then once they have breed to a reasonable size find out about releasing them back into the wild.where they belong. this sounds very harsh and ignorant -i know. but they are rare and in my opinion should not be kept, like all rare species- even if they are captive breed there is no doubt that they have come from a wild strand....sorry. i had to get it out. i feel rare species should only be captive breed if all the young go back to the wild.

kaysie · Jul 15, 2004

Mark, I hate to bring this to your attention, but ALL animals eventually came from a wild strand. Everything you keep was once out in the wild. This is like saying everyone should release their axolotl young back into the wild. Thats a dangerous way of looking at things.

(Message edited by kaysie on July 15, 2004)

matthew · Jul 15, 2004

Thanks very much for your input Chris and for your private help Alan.

For now, I beg to differ, Mark, and my half a dozen calamita won't be going anywhere. However, I do appreciate the values behind your belief, genuinely I do. (Also, there is no "if"... "if" they were not CB - originally caught decades ago -I would not have them and of course I'd be law-breaking.) Longer term, if these youngsters ever spawn, I'd be very happy to use their progeny to re-stock wild colonies.

What matters tonight is that the natters are relishing their hatchling crickets (as are the B. bufo).

Best//M
PS - Alan - why charcoal? I know nothing about charcoal because I am a stranger to the worlds of bar-be-ques and petrol station forecourts. Could I use activated carbon from my fishroom or is the particle size too small, risking a Ready-Brek-charcoal soup?

alan · Jul 16, 2004

Matt,
Yes, it's to do with surface to volume ratios. You wouldn't be abe to effectively separate the springtails from aquarium carbon (or gravel, etc).
Make sure you dust those pinheads. They have a lousy Ca

ratio and you risk MBD otherwise.
Also, worms are good, starting with grindals, then whiteworms & small waxmoth larvae, then onto small earthworms, gradually getting larger.

caleb · Jul 16, 2004

Mark-

It's not quite as simple as you put it. Natterjacks are very rare in the UK, but are nowhere near as rare in other parts of Europe.

Some of the CB stock in the UK comes from imports from Spain and Portugal in the 1980s, some comes from animals taken under licence in the UK.

'Official' releases of natterjacks in the wild in the UK are only done using stock local to the area where they will be released. English Nature would not be at all keen on anyone releasing toads of foreign or unknown origin into the wild.

It's not really necessary to use food from their habitat, as they're not really specialist feeders. The reason they live on sand dunes is that this is a habitat where they are not out-competed by other species. They can live in various other habitats, usually those that are too harsh for competing species- these include heathland, salt marsh, and slag heaps!

mark · Jul 16, 2004

yeah i see what you are all saying, and yes obviously i know that at one stage all animals have come from the wild-i'm NOT stupid. but from my point of view, as a conservationist- it is best to breed rare species specifically for reintroduction if they are rare. but yeah i see where you are all coming from.it did sound very ignorant didn't it. but oh well.
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