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 #1771571


Ammeratsu
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 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Title says it all. I was wondering if they could eat pinkies at adult size.
06/24/08  01:43am

 #1771637


PrinceSushi
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   Message To: Ammeratsu   In reference to Message Id: 1771571


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Could they, yes. Should they, no.



06/24/08  04:57am

 #1771878


Ammeratsu
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   Message To: PrinceSushi   In reference to Message Id: 1771637


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Okay, thanks. I was thinking that it sort of seemed like a pacman because it burrows and eating a truck load. xDD
06/24/08  12:26pm

 #1772154


JackAsp
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   Message To: Ammeratsu   In reference to Message Id: 1771878


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Pinkies are very over-rated nutritionally. Their muscles and skeletons aren’t properly formed yet, so thye have both a very high fat to protein ratio and a very low calcium to phosphorus ratio. Frogs and toads that are large enough to easily take hoppers or adult mice will benefit from eating one now and then, but pinkies are really just something people feed so thye can brag that their toad eats mice, at least until its liver and kidneys give out.

Even horned frogs are better off eating guppies until they’re really big, and then jumping (no pun intended) straight to hoppers. Or, in the case of modest-sized males, simply staying on fish.

Pinkies are useful for things like newly hatched rodent-eating snakes that there’s really no alternative with, but even those will speed up thir growth dramatically once they’re big enough to eat better-quality mice. Toads, even very large species, will thrive best on an insect-based diet with one light dusting a week.



06/24/08  03:44pm

 #1777394


Glug33
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   Message To: Ammeratsu   In reference to Message Id: 1771571


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Yes, actually they get a ton of calcium from pinks. My Cane Toad "Bogie" eats pinkies and fuzzies all the time. If a toad can fit it in its mouth,it can eat it. I would give them only the smallest pinks however,Euros don’t get that big. I have 2 and the biggest one is large enough to eat only a very small pink.



06/29/08  09:06am

 #1778238


JackAsp
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   Message To: Glug33   In reference to Message Id: 1777394


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

How do they get a ton of calcium from pinkies? A pinkie’s skeleton is still mostly phosphorus,so they’re not getting a ton there. And they can’t digest milk, so they’re not getting it from the stomach contents either. Fuzzies are better than pinkies, as I said, but a green toad probably isn’t big enough for fuzzies. Maybe it could scarf one down, but it would probably be a larger meal than suggested. And fuzzies are still too fatty for a captive toad to eat on a regular basis if you want its liver and kidneys to stay healthy. A pinkie certainly has more calcium than an undusted cricket, but they’re nothing to write home about.

I’ve given my cane toad mice a couple of times and no doubt will again, since once in a while my hognose has a leftover, but it’s not a normal thing. She gets most of her calcium from hornworms, which are leaner and more organ-friendly. When those aren’t handy I use mostly large roaches and dust them once a week. Like I said, hoppers and weaners are significantly leaner than fuzzies, but since even among cane toads most aren’t big enough for that to be a normal-sized meal, getting it just right with rodents is problematic unless you happen to have a truly enormous one. I don’t. Hengo is a little overweight by the time she weighs a pound, and FAT by seventeen ounces, but one large hornworm or adult female death head roach a day seems to be perfect for her. She’ll eat and poop every day and stay right around 14, occasionally 15 ounces. Sizewise, that feeding regimen would almost equal a hopper a day, but calorically it’s about as much protein as a fuzzy. But leaner.

One of the really huge ones that could eat a hopper a day and stay the same weight might do okay on a rodent-based diet, but even among the giant species most toads just aren’t that big. Or... it might not. It might look healthy for a few years and then get organ disease, since even the "good" mice are still fattier than roaches and such. I have no idea how that scenerio would play out. The only really large toad longterm owner I can think of has a Roccoco, and uses hoppers very sparingly. Feeds mostly crickets.

I do know that a green toad isn’t going to be eating any hoppers.

Cane toads in the wild can live 17 years. In captivity they’re lucky to make it five, and one factor in that is high-cholesterol diet. People who have cane toads for longer periods tend to use insect staples, even though wild cane toads actually DO eat rodents sometimes, so I would assume that an insect-based diet would also make more sense for a green toad, which in the wild would eat... well, insects.

I don’t think that calcium is as critical anyway by the time a green toad is old enough for pinkies, since it’s done most of its growing by then, but if I were concerned that crickets/roaches weren’t good enough, and I didn’t trust calcidusting, then I would suggest silkworms. Hell, I still suggest silkworms; toads love them. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think they’re actually necessary for an adult. Crickets with an occasional sprinkle of calcidust are fine.

As I understand it, the same is also true of cane toads, but once a month I buy hornworms anyway, and since once they reach a certain size I don’t have anything except the toad that still eats them, for about a week after each herp expo she eats the biggest hornworm I have every night until there are none left. Since she’s fullgrown, she’d probably be just as healthy if I stuck with the roaches though.
06/30/08  12:14am

 #1778292


PrinceSushi
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   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 1778238


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Well said.
06/30/08  01:45am

 #1779467


Glug33
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   Message To: PrinceSushi   In reference to Message Id: 1778292


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Wow,someone gave me some bad info, I was told by a (at least I thought) reputable dealer that pinks can be a staple for Canes. Sorry, Bogey I’ll change your diet ASAP!
07/01/08  09:03am

 #1779900


JackAsp
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   Message To: Glug33   In reference to Message Id: 1779467


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

The problem with dealers and cane toads is that they’re all WC, so nobody who sells them tends to keep them for any amount of time. I can even see where with a stressed, newly acquired specimen the higher calories might be helpful, especially if they don’t eat right away. Sounds like you’ve got your guy well enough established to think longterm though.
07/01/08  06:08pm

 #1780913


Jonas_Brothers_rock
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   Message To: Ammeratsu   In reference to Message Id: 1771571


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

hey do u think u could post a pic of ur European Green Toad? (even tho i love my European green toad) i’d like to c a pic of an EGT other then my own. here is a pic of mine wut do u think of her?

this 2nd pic of her is a much older pic



07/02/08  06:27pm

 #1781039


JackAsp
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   Message To: Jonas_Brothers_rock   In reference to Message Id: 1780913


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

I like the first one better. Looks more puppyish.
I’d like to see some pics too. Especially of them climbing around.
07/02/08  08:47pm

 #1817028


Reptileluver123
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   Message To: Jonas_Brothers_rock   In reference to Message Id: 1780913


 Can European Green Toads Eat Pinkies?

Yeah i like the 1st pix better! and yeahlet’s see some frog pics!
08/02/08  01:28pm


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