# Frogs & Toads > Toads >  Can't figure out why my pet toads keep dying, Please Help!!

## HL4EHalfLife

Every American toad i have had as a pet since 2013 has gotten sick and died in the same way, their skin 
turns from a nice brownish or greenish color to an almost black color and their perfect 
hopping/crawling becomes  unbalanced and wobbly and shortly before they die their eating 
habits reduce and eventually they stop eating all together.

I have kept my toads in a 24"x12"x15" Aquarium lit by an 18" fluorescent light, room temp 
hovers between 69f and 74f year around and is in an air conditioned space, I started off with 
coconut husk but didn't work well as bugs would just fall into the holes and cracks between 
them and the toad had a hard time moving about so i switched to dirt and peat moss. I have a 
small water dish that i think is plastic i got from the pet store and i use only rain water in 
the dish and for misting. There is a woods behind my house and i'll often go and collect 
various bugs such as ants, spiders, earthworms, potato bugs, etc and during the winter i would 
buy meal/super worms. My 1st toad (Curly) lasted 10 months i found her when she was about 1 
inch long and grew up to be like 3" long and fat and seemed healthy for the better part of the 
10 months until she slowly stopped eating and when she finally died i was with my g/f and 
Curly was in my hands and it broke our hearts, we must have cried for a good half hour  :Frown: 

I had also found a fully grown male toad (Moe) and than a mid sized toad (Charlie) they were 
perfectly healthy living with Curly for a while than if i recall Charlie got sick about a 
month later and slowly stopped eating and died and than a few months later Moe had died 
followed by Curly a few months later and all were eating well up till they got sick.

After Moe and Charlie died I did some research and found out they might have had a calcium 
deficiency so i went out and bought some EXO Terra calcium+B3 powder and had been coating the 
food 1 or 2 times a week but even with that Curly still died.

I had also found some baby toads and they were kept in a separate tank and would eat like 
crazy but they also got sick the same way (darkened skin, stopped eating, crawling weird).

After that I didn't have any toads for a while so i caught some frogs and converted my 
aquarium to hold them and kept them till i found a small female toad (Girly) that was about 3 
cm long and she did very well and grew up to an adult and lived healthy for about 11 months, 
and while i had her i got a hold of 2 adult males to keep her company but they got sick and 
died 3 months later and about 1 week later Girly died but before that i surfed the internet 
trying to find out why my pet toads keep dying on me and i came across something that pointed 
to a vitamin A deficiency so i went right to the pet store and picked up some Repashy 
superfoods calcium+B3 powder that also has vitamin A (400'000 IU/Kg) and started coating 
Girly's food in it but it didn't seem to work. 

After that i caught some more baby toads and started coating their food in the cal+b3+vit a and 
they all did good for like 2 weeks than slowly started dying off 1 or 2 at a time and now I'm 
at the present date where i only have 1 baby toad still living and is still eating small 
amounts.

I'm currently at a loss as to what is causing my toads to become ill and die, I've tried 
everything i can think of, till recently the toads in the aquarium have been living in a lego 
house for which they seemed to enjoy but i removed that because i read somewhere that plastic 
can be bad for toads or something like that but it doesn't seem like that was the problem as 
the baby toads where in a different tank that just had peat moss and no lego. I also tried 
something i never done before and that's to use an ultraviolet sunlamp to provide UVB i would 
have it about 10" to 15" above the tank and leave it on for 10 to 30 min at a time but that 
seemed to have no effect. I've even reduced the amount i handle them.

Please ask me questions I'll provide answers as best i can.. anything that will help solve 
this as i feel like I'm cursed or something  :Frown: .

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## Motocrash

Interesting. Very sad but, interesting. I've rehabbed many toads, (haven't kept one as a long term pet since the '80s) but those that weren't too far gone when I got them all did very well in captivity. The only thing I ever did different than what you are doing is: I use normal dirt from my yard mixed with a little peat as a substrate, and, I never put a water bowl in their enclosure. I just mist them (bottled water, or treated tap water). I never over soak their enclosure, Am toads seem to prefer it just a bit humid as opposed to "rain forest" wet. Sometimes they will come out of hiding when I'm misting, tells me they are a bit dry. I've seen my yard toads out hopping about at night during some _very_ dry periods.
 I feed them mostly meal worms (supers for the adults), some crickets, june bugs (the little brown Phyllophaga we get here) and, if I really want a laugh, a nightcrawler about once or twice a week. I don't supplement them... the toads in my yard do quite nicely without supplements.  :Wink: 


I hope you get it figured out. Breaks me heart to hear about toad lovers loosing their little guys.  :Frown:

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## Xavier

> There is a woods behind my house and i'll often go and collect 
> various bugs such as ants, spiders, earthworms, potato bugs, etc and during the winter i would 
> buy meal/super worms.


Ahh, that's it. Wild-caught prey items almost always have parasites, and if you gave them that every spring or summer, that would have loaded them with harmful parasites

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## Motocrash

Oh, I forgot to add.... When I do add a light, it's always a low wattage incandescent. And.... I rarely put more than one in an enclosure. When I do, it's usually just males. Males seem to pester the females when they are in the same box. I've never seen the males actually pursuing them, the females just seemed less enthusiastic when there were males around.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Amy

I'm sorry for your losses, that is tough!  

This care sheet may help you figure out what you need to do to care for them - http://www.frogforum.net/content.php...ytes-Pelobates

Unfortunately, wild caught toads + wild caught feeders + the stress of captivity = parasite overload.  First thing that I would do with a wild caught pet is have it fecal tested and treated.  I would feed earthworms and crickets or dubia roaches as a staple diet. 

Supplementing is a must for a captive toad, so you're doing correct with that.  Vitamin A shouldn't be used more than once a month though, as it is fat soluble and can be poisonous in high amounts.   Curly may have already been too far gone from deficiencies when you started supplementing.

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Cliygh and Mia 2, Larry Wardog

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## HL4EHalfLife

Since creating this thread i have gotten an ExoTerra Repti-Glo 5.0 15w UVB bulb for my aquarium and so far the smallest of my new toads which is about 1/2 inch long is doing well and i think that is impart to the new UVB bulb i installed and i say this because whenever i had found a baby toad this small in the past they would only last about 2 weeks before the skin turns very dark brown or black and than die. I also think that all the info saying toads do not need UVB to live because they are nocturnal is bull**** because i see toads hopping around all the time during the day..when the sun is out so they have to be getting UVB from the sun during those times.

Xaver, Amy - I know parasites can be a problem but if that's whats killing them all than there would be no toads hopping around in the wild as they would all be eating insects with parasites and dying before they can mate (a female starts producing eggs at 3 years old).

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## Xavier

Yes, but the stress of captivity (Humans, noises, other animals, improper care even though your care seems fine) makes the parasites symptoms worse, and the parasite overload can kill them

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## elly

Yeah, the questions about the usefulness UVB are mostly related to tree frogs that are largely nocturnal. Toads are much bolder and often hang around in daylight.

For some reason it seems a lot of pet owners have noticed wild frogs are more affected by parasites in captivity. Do you clean out and refill the dirt after a toad dies? Because the parasites might be building up in the tank environment. Where do you get your dirt?

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## HL4EHalfLife

Yes i do clean out the aquarium and the dirt i have used is just dug up from outside. 

On a side note the babies i have now are still doing well, I've had them for about 3 weeks give or take and are showing no signs of becoming sick (dark/black skin, unstable walking,etc) so I'm starting to think the lack of UVB light is what was killing my toads.

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## Xavier

The dirt from outside probably had bacteria and other illnesses in it. I would imagine UVB being good for the toads anyways

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## elly

Could also be bacteria or fungus building up in the dirt. You could try heating it in an oven (that won't kill everything, but it may keep stuff down.)

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## AAron

> Oh, I forgot to add.... When I do add a light, it's always a low wattage incandescent. And.... I rarely put more than one in an enclosure. When I do, it's usually just males. Males seem to pester the females when they are in the same box. I've never seen the males actually pursuing them, the females just seemed less enthusiastic when there were males around.


I disagree with males pestering the females, during mating season they may but I have had a pair together for 6 months, I have had the female for over a year now and she is not lazy, nor does the male even go around her. They are in a 75 gallon so they have plenty of room; besides that, American toads are more peaceful than aggressive unless feeding or mating occasionally. 


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I just finished reading the whole thread finally! The Eco Earth works I also use topsoil underneath but i made sure it has no chemicals or any treatment to it. A fecal exam is the best way to go honestly. To avoid stress a bigger tank away from everything if possible or in a room that isn't highly active helps. I do not use mealworms or super worms as food for any of my Amphibs simply because they are hard for them to digest and are terrible for a diet. As stated before Earthworms and Crickets are the best to feed. Wax worms are good to be mixed in as well. Most bugs are dangerous if you get them from the outside. An interesting fact about mine is the female last year went dormant for around 2-3 months and the tank was at room temp. When they do go dormant it's best to let them rest. I did disturb her 3 times to make sure she was alive. She would come up, eat some crickets and then be gone by morning. She must have fought her parasites of while dormant because she was checked in June and tested negative for parasites. A wild toad. So if this has been happening and they were disturbed or were too weak to fight off the parasites, this could be an issue for you

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