Nature News: Toad’s New Digs

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We are having so much fun observing this toad that we found. I never thought she’d be so entertaining. This past weekend, we came downstairs and I noticed that she was really slimy-looking. Unlike the tree frog that we used to have, she’s generally very dry-looking and feeling. Then, I noticed something really slimy-looking on the side of her head and she kept rubbing the side of her face like a cat might. I finally realized that she was shedding! I never knew that toads shed until I read it on a website when I was looking up how to care for Toad. They start from the back and work the shed up and over their heads.

And, apparently, they eat it. Yeah, that was kind of gross.

A lot of what I’ve read on pet care – be it snakes, crabs, gerbils, or toads – says that you can do this or that with the animal’s habitat, if you don’t care for it to be aesthetically pleasing. I have a confession to make. I’m an aesthetically pleasing kind of person. So, after living with the dirt from the yards with all it’s leaves and sticks, that looked something like this:

I finally went and bought some coconut fiber substrate (a little expensive, but it won’t really have to be changed with the toad). Then, I went to the thrift store and, surprisingly, found exactly what I was looking for: a clay flower pot to use for a hide (who knew that frogs like hides?) and the clay dish that fits under a flower pot to use for the water dish.

I also scrounged around the house and found some pretty “greenery” (did anyone else used to sit through your mom’s Home Interiors parties?). The result was very nice:

Upon returning Toad to her new digs, I immediately decided that we correctly determined her gender to be female. I have never seen her actually hop the entire time we’ve had her – walk, yes; hop, no. Well, she immediately started hopping around as if to say, “Finally! A pretty home!”

The first place she went was here:

And, she’s barely moved from it since. Here she is, just before I fed her, after noticing the movement of the jar of crickets clearly visible from her vantage point in the flower pot:

It’s no wonder she’s gotten so fat.

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