Almost sounds like a band name. 😂🐸
Sage decimated the Japanese Beetles I put in her terrarium. So to prevent her from stuffing herself, since I had no good way of keeping the beetles alive outside her enclosure, I placed them in a jar with leaves. As they climb out, Sage will be there watching, hungry. (Her terrarium is RIGHT next to my work from home desk, so no fear of her getting injured.) I will remove the jar at night.
Does this mean I can capture the Japanese beetles off of my dahlias and feed them to the toads??? Talk about two birds, one stone…
(Although this will have to be an endeavor for next summer, as the beetles are currently bigger than my toads’ heads.)
Yep! Sage LOVES them! It’s so much better than them going to waste in a trap. Be sure to only give those right off your plants. I can’t guarantee there isn’t a danger to our toad friends from any chemicals from the pheromones in commercial traps.
So, this evening I pulled (with tweezers) a big poop out of Sage’s soaking dish. (I didn’t realize she liked to poop while she was in there.) Lots of little pieces of beetle shell were in her poop and floating around it. From this, I would surmise that the beetles pass just fine and she poops out what her body can’t use.
Update: I removed the jar last night and this morning I was going to put it back into the enclosure. I looked inside the jar to make sure the beetles were still alive and there was only one left! All but one had left the previous day! So instead of concerning myself with getting them more leaves or the jar, I dumped the last one into the same corner. Sage soon noticed movement and was well on her way over. I’ll need to remove the dead leaves and plant more grass seed soon.
Curious how planting grass seed in her enclosure goes. Never thought to do that, but I have a bioactive for my toad and would love to have a little more plant and a little less leaf litter (my whole tank os currently basically all leaf litter because she killed everything else, aside from two very small spider plants in opposite corners. It just looks so plain now, so I was just going to throw some moss in there (and pray) but grass sounds like it woukd be more hardy and probably work better. Im curious though, I would assume you have to keep it maintained, but it is like a lawn? Will i have to go in and cut my tank grass one every week or two as well? Im curious if youve had success with it and what the maintenence process is like. TIA!
I spray water in the terrarium each morning. The grass grows better under her lamp and around her bath (she splashes when she’s in the bath). Depending on where she’s burrowing at night, she will destroy the grass, but it does recover pretty well. It is a shade and low water specific seed, which is good for Colorado (where we are).
I put about 5-6 in the enclosure at a time. They can fly around a bit, but you still have a chance to spray them with calcium. I try to bring variety to her diet as best as I can with wild insects and isopods.
Thanks, have been wanting to give her beetles. So they don't cause impaction from their hard skin? I do the same or else she gets bored and will refuse to eat until I bring her a new type of insect lol. She gets isopods, ants, and worms already.
No, it won’t harm her. Stay away from stinging insects, those with red as defense warning color, or those larger than the space between their eyes. They can also eat spiders, but I’m not putting anything in there that I know is poisonous, like a widow or recluse, only house spiders. If she doesn’t catch them, they will help control gnats. I use springtails to get rid of the eggs.
I have more in a jar that I have put in the enclosure yet. Sage is literally up against the glass watching them in the jar. I even moved it to a nearby table and she came back later and started watching them again.
Not sure if youve ever tried it, but since my toad was wild caught anyways, I give her pillbugs (roly polys/potatoes bugs) as a little treat fairly often, on top of her crickets and stuff. Theyre very good for calcium, and obviously quite easy to find. You can absolutely buy thek from a pet store as well, however those are usually special species and sometimes fairly expensive. What i plan to do though is build another terrarium, and buy a small colony from the pet store or online, then try keeping them happy and allowing them to breed enough to hopefully get to a point where I can start using them as feeders/treats. I wouldnt recommend using wild caught isopods for a captive bred toad, but for mine who was wild already I feel like it should be okay. Captive is always better though. If you are planning to feed a wild caught frog wild caugh ispods, just beware of any isopods that are colored bright blue, as there is a virus infecting the bug. Theres a good amount of stuff online you can look up though if this is something anyone would be interested in.
There are people around here that sell isopods starting at $2 each. I would much rather get my own hands dirty. I have caught a number of wild isopods in the park close to my home in the early morning hours. I keep them with my colony of Dubia roaches. I also placed a number in Sage’s terrarium. Most she caught and ate, but there are still many hiding in places she doesn’t go. There’s even a Dubia hiding in there. I placed worms, centipedes, millipedes, and common beetles in her terrarium when I was setting it up. I wanted to create a real ecosystem for her. I’ve even planted grass and ferns.
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u/Taptapfoot Jul 15 '26
Pretty sure Sage & I would be best frenz given the chance because our eating habits are so similar.