Cane Toad care sheet

Cane toads do well with a glass terrarium as their enclosure. This is because glass is great at allowing heat to escape ensuring that the enclosure stays cool enough. Other enclosures such as wooden vivariums are far too efficient at retaining heat.

The cane toad's vivarium should be at least 600mm in length and 300mm in height. The cane toad is going to grow to around 4-6" so they need a space large enough for them to move around in.

Cane toads require a near constant air temperature of 75oF. This is best achieved by sticking a heatmat on one side of the glass enclosure. This heatmat is regulated using a thermostat to make sure the temperature stays constant.

As the glass is only being heated on one side this also creates a small temperature gradient within the enclosure allowing the toad to warm itself up or move away to cool down.

If the enclosure is not able to get up to temperature with the heat mat alone a small basking bulb may be implemented in the canopy as long as the temperatures do not exceed 75-80oF.

Cane toads are terrestrial toads but still need to be kept moist. The best way of doing this is by lining the floor with a mixture of bark chips and damp moss, the substrate can be taken out and resoaked or replaced as necessary.

The toads vivarium can be decorated with artificial plants for a more natural look. Natural wood ornaments look very effective and also provide further perches for the toads. Trailing plants are very good at disguising electrical wires and equipment, as well as providing cover for young amphibians.

Cane toads are carnivorous and have a diet consisting of mainly livefoods. The core of the livefood diet should be high in protein and relatively easy to digest. We have found that brown crickets are the most readily accepted, but you can also use black crickets or locusts (hoppers). On occasion, for variation you can offer other bugs such as mealworms, waxworms or calciworms.

Cane toads can also be fed small 'pinky' mice or earthworms once a week to add a bit more protein to their diet.

To provide the cane toad with optimal nutrition and to keep them in the best of health, they will require diet supplementaion in the form of calcium, vitamins and minerals. These are most commonly available as powders

Any livefood for the toad should be 'gut-loaded' with an insect food. This basically involves feeding the livefood a nutrient rich diet before they are fed to the cane toad. Our livefood is delivered to you already gut-loaded but this should be continued at home.