baby bufos?

[lilfred333]

Yesterday I caught two tiny little anfibians, and I think I've come to the conclusion that they are baby bufos (I live in South Florida and there are a lot round here). Here is a picture, I just wanted some other oppinions.

If I am correct, any tips as to how to keep them. I've found a lot of care sheets for adult or bigger bufos, but these guys are tiny. I'm keeping them in a tank, with stacked woodchips (from the location where I found them) a small pant and dirt they can acsess, and a small dish with a wet cloth folded inside. For food, I just gave them three chunks or wet cat food.. I have no idea if any of this is right, corrections and advice are welcome.

 

[gbhil]

Could be one of any number of Bufo sp. toadlets. First, separate them unless you want to end up with one really fat toad. Keep them on semi-moist paper towel with something to hide under, very very shallow water dish for soaking and drinking. Feed them small crickets, worms, baby scorpions, spiders, etc. As long as it's small enough to eat, it will get eaten. As they get larger, hopefully you can ID them and provide less generic care.

 

[lilfred333]

ok, thankyou
rather than a damp paper towel, I have them on some nice moist soil (it had some insects already in it so I'm hoping that can be a food source for a bit) & then a bottle cap as a dish of water, and woodchips to one side for hiding spots and something dryer.

they're so tiny though I think any crickets or worms will be bigger than they are :/ lol

 

[Lasher]

Try chopping earthworms into bite sized portions. You could also try frozen wet foods in the water dish(bloodworm would probably be best). If you can get them hatchling crickets shouldnt be too big(maybe even 1 stars depending on the size).

May be a silly question but you are keeping a lid on that tank, right?

 

[Jennewt]

In my experience with Bufo woodhousii, they weren't able to eat worms in any form that I tried. They feed by tongue-flick and have trouble picking up worms (although they tried!). You should be able to buy very small or pinhead crickets at pet shops or by mail. Pinheads are certainly small enough. Flightless fruit flies are another good option. When they are a little bigger, they'll be able to eat small waxworms.

 

[gbhil]

ok, thankyou
rather than a damp paper towel, I have them on some nice moist soil (it had some insects already in it so I'm hoping that can be a food source for a bit) & then a bottle cap as a dish of water, and woodchips to one side for hiding spots and something dryer.

they're so tiny though I think any crickets or worms will be bigger than they are :/ lol

The paper towel substrate is only to make it easy on you...the toads likely prefer what you're using

It also sounds like like they are smaller than we think. If you found them in forest litter and they are really tiny they might be B. quercicus (Oak Toads) and will need tiny inverts to feed on throughout their lives. Awesome little animals if you have the patience and resources to feed them. Fruit Flies and maggots/spikes should do the trick.

Good luck with them.

 

[marco]

maybe im missing a point or soemthing but... are you really supposed to be removing them for there natural habitat? especially at that sort of size. tbh, id let them go back to were you found them, im sure they will be able to find there own food no problem in there natural habitat.

 

[gbhil]

maybe im missing a point or soemthing but... are you really supposed to be removing them for there natural habitat? especially at that sort of size. tbh, id let them go back to were you found them, im sure they will be able to find there own food no problem in there natural habitat.

Excellent point, and 99% of the time I'd agree. But in this case, more toads and frogs will morph out in southern Florida than the environment can support. The op taking a few and attempting to keep them healthy and happy will provide them a better quality of life than they may have as summer approaches, the rains begin, and the Cane toads come out. I compare what the OP is doing to wildlife management culling deer herds to maintain a healthy population, ugly in thought, but very necessary.

Hopefully, the toads he took will be enough to starve just one Cane toad before it has a chance to breed.

 

[freves]

Another point to keep in mind is that it is usually better to legally collect a few individuals of a given species in areas where they are common instead of buying WC individuals in the trade.
Chip

 

[lilfred333]

Try chopping earthworms into bite sized portions. You could also try frozen wet foods in the water dish(bloodworm would probably be best). If you can get them hatchling crickets shouldnt be too big(maybe even 1 stars depending on the size).

May be a silly question but you are keeping a lid on that tank, right?

yes, they have a lid, I just took it off for the picture so you could see inside. The environment I made for them is looking really good, I scattared some seeds to one side and the seedlings are starting to sprout so soon there will be a green area, a moist soil area, a dry woodchip hiding ground and their water dish.

I'll look into smaller crickets and bloodworms. They seem to be doing fine; they are active and enjoy making a muddy mess out of their water dish, so I assume they might be eating the small bugs already in the potting soil in there, but I haven't actually seen them eat once. If I cant get them to eat in front of me in the next day or two I'm going to set them free because I dont want to be crule. I hope I can find the things you all have suggested and they'll eat it. Thankyou,

 

[lilfred333]

UPDATE:
I got them mealies but the local pet shop sucks so they only have freeze dried ones which dont seem too appitizing to my toads (probably because they dont move)

 

[Louie]

maybe im missing a point or soemthing but... are you really supposed to be removing them for there natural habitat? especially at that sort of size. tbh, id let them go back to were you found them, im sure they will be able to find there own food no problem in there natural habitat.

There are millions of them around now just huge hoards of them if he took a thousand it would make no impact the birds eat them like popcorn as do bigger frogs .

I have probably a thousand tadpoles in my yard

 

[Louie]

Yesterday I caught two tiny little anfibians, and I think I've come to the conclusion that they are baby bufos (I live in South Florida and there are a lot round here). Here is a picture, I just wanted some other oppinions.

If I am correct, any tips as to how to keep them. I've found a lot of care sheets for adult or bigger bufos, but these guys are tiny. I'm keeping them in a tank, with stacked woodchips (from the location where I found them) a small pant and dirt they can acsess, and a small dish with a wet cloth folded inside. For food, I just gave them three chunks or wet cat food.. I have no idea if any of this is right, corrections and advice are welcome.

They prefer wax worms I cant tell by pic but if they are bufo when they get older they eat even non moving food.

Do you know how long it takes for tadpoles to become that big or big enough to leave water ?

I have probably a thousand tadpoles in backyard pond I am going to redo but will wait till the tadpoles leave they are big now but still tadpoles its been 2 weeks no legs yet.

I will wait as long as have to but cant find info on how long it takes.

 

[Louie]

Excellent point, and 99% of the time I'd agree. But in this case, more toads and frogs will morph out in southern Florida than the environment can support. The op taking a few and attempting to keep them healthy and happy will provide them a better quality of life than they may have as summer approaches, the rains begin, and the Cane toads come out. I compare what the OP is doing to wildlife management culling deer herds to maintain a healthy population, ugly in thought, but very necessary.

Hopefully, the toads he took will be enough to starve just one Cane toad before it has a chance to breed.

Cane toads are here to stay they are unstoppable breeding machines I have zillions in my yards pond . They breed in rainy season or in 90 degree months with not a drop of rain in sight (like this month) .
Cane toads like corrupt politicians are a part of South Florida they cant be removed .

 

[gbhil]

Cane toads are here to stay they are unstoppable breeding machines I have zillions in my yards pond . They breed in rainy season or in 90 degree months with not a drop of rain in sight (like this month) .
Cane toads like corrupt politicians are a part of South Florida they cant be removed .

Nothing a gallon of bleach wouldn't cure. I hate the damn things.

 

[Louie]

Nothing a gallon of bleach wouldn't cure. I hate the damn things.

I actually had set up the pond for 2 "lesser" sirens added lots driftwood flowerpot "caves" filled it with water and was going to let it cycle for a month as was waiting on some plants from fish club than one day saw tadpoles now waiting for them to grow legs and leave but they have been big tadpoles for what seems like weeks now little eating machines (I feed them cichlid pellets, ground turkey,etc) that have yet to grow legs and change.

I am not positive its cane toads but imagine so as they are found in numbers around here though we have other toads also however they just want to stay tadpoles and I am waiting on them to leave.

 

[gbhil]

Hmm...cane toad tads are tiny (about 1 inch max) and quick to morph out. Big black tads that are slow to morph sound like some species of Rana frog, probably the common bullfrog.

Also it's likely that you would have seen the cane toad egg mass, as they are huge stringy things. Here's hoping you have some good old native Florida froggies in your pond.

 

[Louie]

Someone at work who lives by nature area and has had every type tadpoles in his water garden told me cane toad tadpoles school (sadly these do)

They take way longer to turn into tadpoles unless water depth due to hot evaporation decreases daily which is my mistake as pond is 2 feet deep and I add water daily due to evaporation though I have pile of driftwood over side of pond so they can reach land when they grow legs and leave the pond.

I am going to stop adding water daily (though it finally rained today) . I know they are poisonous but everything around here eat the babies be it herons other water birds and adults are taken by small gators doesnt seem to make them sick .

Ofcourse I dont teack their lives lol but I suspect it doesnt bother them at all .

 

[fishkeeper]

Why not just net them all out and chuck them on the grass?

 

[Louie]

Why not just net them all out and chuck them on the grass?

lol no I wont kill granted I eat meat-poultry-Fish lol but wont kill for sake of it . I imagine they should sprout legs soon and get going .

There is a misconception that Cane Toads came from over seas by accident but they were actually introduced by Florida gvmt decades ago in plantations of sugar-tobacco,etc to combat insects and some particular type beetle that feeds on sugar and ofcourse rest is history not to mention those products never took off in Florida (but the toad did) .

Cane toads were introduced on purpose with Florida gvmt okaying it decades ago to control sugar grubs,beetles but sugar never panned out in Florida anyway .
I am not a Cane toad lobbyiest lol but over the yrs the Cane toad blame has been put on accidental introduction yet old farmers have told me the Florida gvmt okayed the cane toad intro only to later regret it and change story around.
Zillions of cane toads around here the farmers seem to like them

http://www.greyhoundpets.com/Toad.htm