Does anyone keep Toads?

[Sheetmaself]

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.

[lancslad58]

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.

[moorx]

I don't know the answers to your questions, but one thing does occur - do they need to be fed live food and (if so) is your little girl going to be happy doing this?

I agree, toadlets and froglets are very cute, but I think they're best left where they belong - in the wild.

[Mr Pointy]

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.

[swanseaboydan]

My shed is full of them - always have to watch my step - we never get any slugs around as a result !
I love them

[Lotobear]

Touchwood

[Sheetmaself]

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.

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.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Lotobear said:

Touchwood

[Feirny]

[Nightmare]

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

[Sheetmaself]

Brilliant thanks for this. Tempted to keep it for a few months and then release but not aure if it will get to used to being handed food.

[Nightmare]

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

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Nightmare said:

stupid life choices

Can you elaborate on this, I'm intrigued? Going vegetarian? Sunbathing?

[Nightmare]

It’s all drugs man - epidemic of croak cocaine

Also, hopping onto paving slabs when it’s blazing hot and they get stuck and die . Very sad