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My toads have been calling like crazy!

Discussion in 'Invertebrates' started by California Cowgirl, Aug 3, 2009.

  1. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    It can get kind of annoying i hear them call a lot during the night and the evening when i'm home, they never used to call. lol they better throw me some tadpoles after all this. But i have no idea if i have a male and female, but deffienentley at least one, now very noisy male
     
  2. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    That would soo drive me insane!

    you..you..actually WANT tadpoles? (just teasin ya) ;)
     
  3. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    haha lol i have no idea how i would raise them and keep them alive but yea, it would be cool to watch them grow into toadlets
     
  4. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    and their calling isin't the croacking that you hear from while frogs but it sounds like a little dogs whine, for a while i thought it was my dog whining throughout the night but it was really the toads calling
     
  5. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Well-Known Member

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    are these inside or outside ?
     
  6. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    their inside, i have two toads, fire bellys
     
  7. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Well-Known Member

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    how do you do it ? toads in the house like that would drive me crazy...lol
    i guess after awhile you'd kinda get use to it.
     
  8. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    oh, firebellys...Mine did that (only had 1 with a firebelly newt when I was a teenager).
    <--knows exactly what "noise" your talking about.
    What's did you name yours? Mine was Sir Gallagher and Mr. Newt. haha!
     
  9. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    Lol in the 6 months I've owned them they have been really quiet up until now :D
     
  10. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    Haha I'm surprised that the toad didn't poison the newt as they are poisonous to other animals. Lol sadly they are nameless
     
  11. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    nope, they lived together for quite some time...(both firebellys)
    Sir Gallagher lived on the steeple (church bell I got from god knows where)...and mr. Newt lived moreso in the water the majority of the time.

    Gallagher would sit on newts back and cruise around the tank using him for transportation (fond memories)...until I recall the crickets that escaped all over my room (nightmare).
     
  12. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    haha that's awesome, sucks about the crickets! the crickets are the one thing i hate most about the toads. I hate always having to feed them, their always dying on me, their container is always dirty, they smell, but it's fun to watch the toads eat them. I've trained the toads to eat the crickets from a tweezer and they go crazy over the tweezer, even when crickets arent even on it
     
  13. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Well-Known Member

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    are your toads called chinese firebellied toads (bombina orientalis) ? if so here's an artical that may be of some interest to you.

    Natural History
    Bombina orientalis is one of 6 members of the genus Bombina. It is found at 1700-3000 m (5300-10000 feet) above sea level in southeastern Siberia, northeastern China and Korea. It spends most of the time floating or swimming in ponds and streams.

    Description
    B. orientalis will grow to a size of 6 cm (2 3/8 inches). It's green or brown with black spots and patches, except for the ventral region which is red and black.

    One major problem is distinguishing males from females. Males generally have rougher backs and their forearms are thicker than the females. These minor differences make them almost identical except during the breeding season, when males have black horny nuptial pads on their fingers and forearms. One way of telling which frogs are male and which are female is to observe the behaviour of the frogs. Whenever a frog tries to jump on the back of another frog and use the arms to grasp it, it's definitely a male. If the male isn't rejected immediately, there is a good chance that the second frog is a female and that she is even prepared to breed.

    If the frogs haven't yet reached sexual maturity, there's no easy way to make sure that you have got both males and females.

    Housing B. Orientalis
    A group of 5-6 B. orientalis can be kept in an 80 l (18 gal.) aquarium with about 10 cm (4 inches) of water. Using fine gravel or sand will make it a lot easier to remove the eggs when the frogs start breeding. 1/4 of the surface should be kept 'dry' and will primarily be used as a feeding area. Put lots of floating plants (Pistia stratiotes, Riccia fluitans i.e.) in the aquarium and the frogs are going to spend a lot of time floating among these. Keep the temperature at 20-24ºC (68-75ºF)

    Feeding
    B. orientalis will eat almost anything that will fit in its mouth: Houseflies, bluebottles, assorted moth larvae, earthworm, mealworm, Zoophobas ("king" worms), crickets and guppies. If you have guppies swimming in the water, the frogs will catch one from time to time.

    Breeding
    There are several ways of trying to make B. orientalis interested in breeding. A 6-8 week 'hibernation' at 10ºC (50ºF) will usually do the job. Remember to lower the temperature gradually over a period of a week before the hibernation and similarly raise the temperature gradually afterwards. Another method which sometimes works is to change most of the water in their aquarium and replace it with water which is a few degrees colder.

    When the frogs are ready to breed the males began calling. The sound is somewhat like the sound of a small dog barking at some distance. The males constantly try jumping on the backs of any other frog in the vicinity. If a male inadvertently jump on the back of another male, the second male makes a special croak just to inform him that he's made a mistake. The first male doesn't always get the hint and consequently the second male can at times carry another male around for hours.

    Unfortunately the male/female ratio can be as bad as 10:1. If a female is present and she's ready to breed, she'll swim around with a male on her back and the eggs will be attached singularly or in small groups to plants, rocks, roots or whatever can be found in the water. One female may produce more than two hundred eggs.

    The eggs should be transferred to another aquarium. After 3 days at 24ºC (77ºF) the eggs will hatch. For another 3 days, while consuming the yolk sac, the tadpoles don't move around at all. After that they'll begin swimming around, trying to find something to eat.

    The tadpoles can be raised on finely crushed flakes, frozen or freeze dried fish food.

    The hind legs will begin to break through about 3 weeks after the eggs hatched and the 'arms' will begin to appear about a week later. Five weeks after hatching, the first frogs will go through metamorphosis and will be ready to leave the water.

    The froglets will eat any kind of small insects and larvae. They'll be ready to breed before they are a year old. The eggs of younger and smaller females tend to be fewer and smaller in size.

    A Few Peculiarities
    The ventral region of a captive bred B. orientalis is yellow and black rather than red and black. This can be corrected permanently by a adding little betacarotene to their food over a period of a few weeks. People breeding canaries have similar problems and apparently that market is more lucrative because they have several products available.

    If a B. orientalis is scared while on land, it will arch the ventral side upwards and display the bright colours of the ventral region. This is called unkenreflex and is named after the German name for B. bombina.
     
  14. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    awesome article and yes, they are the bombina oriental fire belly toads :d
     
  15. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Well-Known Member

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    i came across that artical and thought that you might get some use out of it, might help out in achieving them tadpoles for you.
     
  16. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    hehe lol i hope i'll get some tads, although they may not be at sexual maturity yet, but i have seen them cling onto each other, lol and when one gets scared, it goes running to the other
     
  17. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    awe, how cute...maybe you have a mom and a sibling? Lol!
     
  18. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Well-Known Member

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    all you can do is wait it out and hope for the best.
     
  19. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    yup, lol i'll throw in some pics i too of them the other day :D
     
  20. California Cowgirl

    California Cowgirl Thread Starter New Member

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    some pics of my toads :D

    and for the pics that say xmas 2007, that's wrong, pics were taken a couple of days ago
    003.JPG 005.JPG 011.JPG 013.JPG 015.JPG 018.JPG 019.JPG 021.JPG 022.JPG 023.JPG 026.JPG xmas 2007 001.JPG xmas 2007 002.JPG xmas 2007 003.JPG xmas 2007 004.JPG xmas 2007 005.JPG xmas 2007 006.JPG