Amphibians, a class that includes frogs and toads, are opportunistic feeders, consuming bugs and other small creatures that can fit in their mouths. Frogs and toads share the same diet. This comprehensive guide explores what toads eat, how they hunt, and how to ensure your pet toad receives a balanced and nutritious diet.
What Toads Eat in the Wild
In their natural habitats, toads consume a wide array of insects and small invertebrates. Essentially, wild toads eat pretty much anything that they can catch with their tongues or their mouths. Their well-being depends on diversity. Some common food sources include:
- Insects: Flies, ants, true bugs, bees, wasps, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles (Coleoptera)
- Invertebrates: Worms, millipedes, centipedes, slugs, snails, spiders, isopods, termites, springtails
Large toads (Anurans) may also consume small fish, lizards, snakes, mice, crayfish, and other amphibians.
A study of southern frogs (leptodactylidae) showed a difference in diet depending on whether they lived in a wild or urban environment. The urban frogs consumed more beetles while their wild counterparts ate more butterflies and moths. Simply put, frogs eat whatever insects are readily available.
How Toads Hunt and Forage
Toads possess keen senses of eyesight and smell, which they use to hunt and forage for food. Their excellent vision allows them to see in color, even at night, enabling them to detect moving prey. While their sense of smell is primarily used for marking territory, they also have a keen sense of taste and will reject foods they don’t like.
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Most toads are active at night when insects and other animals come out to feed. Some toads chase after their prey, while others employ ambush tactics, burrowing themselves in the ground and waiting for prey to wander past.
Feeding Pet Toads
In captivity, pet toads are limited to the insects that their keeper acquires. Because of this, amphibians in captivity are less healthy than their wild counterparts. To ensure your pet toad thrives, it's crucial to provide a varied and nutritious diet.
Feeder Insects
Feeder insects are available in most pet stores. The most common feeders are:
- Crickets
- Mealworms, wax worms, horned worms
- Dubia roaches
- Wingless fruit flies
- Brine shrimp, feeder fish
- Pinkie mice
Among those listed above, crickets are the most popular feeder insect for reptiles and amphibians.
Gut-Loading Insects
Gut loading is the process of feeding insects a nutritious diet for 48 hours before feeding them to your animals. This ensures the insect’s gut is loaded with healthy vitamins and minerals, which are passed to your pet frog upon feeding. To gut load a cricket, for example, you can feed them fruits and vegetables for two days before feeding the crickets to your frog. Some popular methods of gut loading include:
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- Sliced fruits & vegetables
- Blend fruits & vegetables
- Commercial Mix
Supplementation
Because feeder insects are low in nutritional value, most hobbyists opt for “dusting” them with supplement powders. The most common supplements are vitamins and calcium.
Feeding Schedule
There is no one-size-fits-all schedule for feeding frogs. Each species is different. Below are general guidelines:
- Feed young frogs every 1 to 2 days. Adults should be fed 2 to 3 times per week.
- Start with 3 to 4 appropriately-sized crickets per feeding.
- Alternate feeder insects as much as possible.
Specific Food Recommendations and Considerations
- Crickets: A common and readily available food source, but be mindful of potential pin worms from certain breeders.
- Dubia Roaches: A highly nutritious option that toads enjoy.
- Mealworms: Acceptable in moderation as part of a varied diet. Excessive consumption can lead to impaction due to the chitin in their shells. It is acceptable and only the impaction risk everyone makes them out to be if fed regularly and often.
- Nightcrawlers: A good option for larger toads, but red wrigglers may not be as appealing.
- Pinkie Mice: Should only be used as a rare treat and are not healthy for them. They are also harder to digest than insects and worms.
- Pacman Frog Food: Some toads enjoy this as part of their diet, potentially leading to increased growth.
- Can-o-Snails: An occasional treat that some toads enjoy.
- Lateralis Roaches: A nutritious and readily accepted food source.
- Superworms: Use occasionally for larger amphibians.
- Hornworms and Silkworms: Consider these options in the spring for added variety.
Avoiding Harmful Foods
- Wild-Caught Insects: May carry parasites or be exposed to pesticides.
- Tomatoes/Tomato Plants: Toxic to frogs if fed to hornworms.
Additional Tips
- Variety is Key: The more diverse the diet, the better for your toad's health.
- Observe Your Toad: Pay attention to their eating habits and adjust the diet accordingly.
- Gut-Load and Dust: Ensure feeder insects are nutritious by gut-loading and dusting with supplements.
What About Baby Toads?
Baby toads, also known as tadpoles, are the infant life-stage cycle of toads. Tadpoles are omnivorous and will eat insects, small fish, algae, and phytoplankton. Common prey that tadpoles eat include insect larvae, fruit flies, and small worms. Some tadpoles will also engage in cannibalism and eat other tadpoles. As they mature, tadpoles begin to develop the features of adult toads. Once they become juveniles, their diet becomes more carnivorous, and they’ll begin to eat larger prey.
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