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Anyone keep amphibians in a terrarium/vivarium?


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DS12 found a tiny woodhouse toad yesterday (about the size of a dime), and we set up a vivarium with about 3" of damp coir in the bottom, plus a hollow log, live fern, a few flat rocks and a small "pool." We tossed in about 50-60 woodlice in the hopes that they'll reproduce and form a little colony in there, providing the toad with free food (supposedly they love woodlice). I think DD added a few tiny earthworms as well, and I'll add gutloaded pinhead crickets and some tiny mealworms for a varied diet.

 

Any ideas about what else we can put in there to make more of a micro-ecosystem? Little snails? Any other food insect that might be likely to colonize and breed?

 

TIA,

Jackie

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We found that doing terrariums or any habitat with any toads or frogs led to a mold developing in the tank which will make the little guys sick and eventually dead. We had to be diligent about not letting it get too wet and changing out the soil, twigs, moss. Lesson learned.

With one so little keep a close eye on it. We gave ours water that sat for 24 hours first, also misting once a day. I think the worst thing is the lack of air exchange, which leads to the mold. It doesn't take much mold to make them sick.

They really don't need it as wet as we think they do.

We bought mealworms and tiny crickets when we couldn't find leafhoppers (which toads and frogs love to eat). An occasional ant was accepted.

Right now we have three toads on the patio. They come out from my flower pots at night! No! Bad toad! But they started out here as babies from the yard, we handled them, they stuck around. One of them is huge. In the morning they burrow back down in the pots!

I first noticed them when watering a plant and the soil started to move UP and WHOAAAAAHHHHH! It scared me the first couple of times.

Your little guy might want to hide under something besides soil, maybe a piece of bark.

If you're really going to keep him you should get a light that has the right ..crud, I can't think...a pet store will be able to help you. What would be really cool is if you let him go and he sticks around.;)

Edited by gingerh
additional comment about mold
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We have him in one of those Exo Terra reptile/amphibian habitats with a screen top, and it's so dry here in the desert that I hope we won't have a mold problem, but I will definitely keep on eye on it.

 

We have a lot of toads here, and I've had the same experience of watering a plant pot and suddenly a toad pop outs — practically gave me a heart attack the first couple of times! I once had a 12-pack of those little black plastic pots of moss, and 3 of the compartments ended up with little toads in them, like a toad condo.

 

One night we left the patio door open to our bedroom because it was so hot and I kept hearing rustling sounds near my bed; I turned on the light and there was the BIGGEST toad I've ever seen staring up at me! That guy was the size of a softball and my, ahem, expression of surprise woke up DH — and he wouldn't touch it either. We ended up waking poor DS12 from a sound sleep and made him catch it and put it outside. :lol:

 

But they're sooooo cute when they're little!

 

Jackie

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