Does anyone keep Toads?
Discussion
We have about 200 Toadlets, pretty confident they are common Toads not Natterjacks.
I keep having to move them from the back garden to the pond at the front of the house when mowing the lawn.
My little girl would like to keep one or two whichever is best.
Is this a stupid idea?
What do I need?
I think it is Legal, am I right?
Any other advice greatly appreciated.
I keep having to move them from the back garden to the pond at the front of the house when mowing the lawn.
My little girl would like to keep one or two whichever is best.
Is this a stupid idea?
What do I need?
I think it is Legal, am I right?
Any other advice greatly appreciated.
Mr Pointy said:
lancslad58 said:
I don’t think it’s illegal but taking a wild animal seems rather cruel, yo'rer depriving the toad of it’s natural life.
I suspect that for 99 out of a 100 toadlets it's "natural life" is very short & consists of being a snack for another creature.Regarding the live food, i have been looking at creating a biosystem habitat with lots of grubs like woodlice and worms for him to munch on so hoping for no live crickets in the house.
Sheetmaself said:
This is my logic too. We have a heron on the lake and many other things including grass snakes who will be missing a snack!
Regarding the live food, i have been looking at creating a biosystem habitat with lots of grubs like woodlice and worms for him to munch on so hoping for no live crickets in the house.
Not toads but keep teeny frogs. Tbh you’ll struggle to create an bioactive Viv with enough of the detrivores to keep up with growing toads. Flightless fruit flies be good at that size but you’ll need other things as they grow - so prob crickets/waxworks/mealworms etc will be in your future if they survive. Also as UK toads, the thing they’ll struggle with most is if they get too hot so quite important the viv isn’t somewhere in direct sun or that gets too hot. Would suggest you also need a mister to keep humidity up. All things available from somewhere like reptilecentre.com Regarding the live food, i have been looking at creating a biosystem habitat with lots of grubs like woodlice and worms for him to munch on so hoping for no live crickets in the house.
Not a chance! Seriously they basically hunt on instinctive response - something moves in the right way and they grab it. You have absolutely zero chance of training that habit out so they’ll be fine if you then release them.
Also as you’ve surmised earlier, Toadlets have a truly horrendous survival expectancy in the wild. Like 95-98% ‘it’s gonna go badly’. Survival from egg in some species is about 0.002% chance! So you keeping some, even if they don’t make it to adulthood, really won’t be impacting on the species. They will not rue the lack of chance to be finished off by robins, blackbirds, magpies, crows, rats, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, bigger frogs, grass snakes, dogs, cats, cars, walking, desication, lack of food and stupid life choices
Also as you’ve surmised earlier, Toadlets have a truly horrendous survival expectancy in the wild. Like 95-98% ‘it’s gonna go badly’. Survival from egg in some species is about 0.002% chance! So you keeping some, even if they don’t make it to adulthood, really won’t be impacting on the species. They will not rue the lack of chance to be finished off by robins, blackbirds, magpies, crows, rats, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, bigger frogs, grass snakes, dogs, cats, cars, walking, desication, lack of food and stupid life choices
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