Five Key Points You Must Master for Toad Farming
The toad is commonly known as the warty toad (lai ha ma). In recent years, as the ecological environment has deteriorated and wild resources have sharply declined, artificial toad farming has become imperative. The artificial farming method for toads is relatively simple; abandoned ponds and ditches, courtyard vegetable gardens, riverside flats or open fields can be used for rearing. It is an economic animal farming industry with low cost, quick results and high returns, and great prospects for development.
(1) Living Habits
Toads like moisture, darkness and warmth. They often live under damp stones, in caves, among grass and beside ditches, and can also live on land for long periods. They hide by day and come out to forage at dusk and early morning. In winter, when the temperature drops below 10°C, toads successively burrow into bricks and stones, earthen holes, the bottom of the water, or muddy water and piles of rotten grass to hibernate. When the temperature rises above 10°C the following year, they end hibernation and come out to forage. After Awakening of Insects (Jingzhe), they mate, lay eggs and fertilize in still ponds or ditches with little flow. Toads feed on captured animals such as beetles, moths, snails, ants, fly maggots and earthworms, as well as algae.
(2) Reproductive Characteristics
Toads are oviparous, laying eggs in water with external fertilization, and have strong reproductive capacity. Each year they lay eggs when the water temperature is around 10°C and the relative air humidity is 90%. Each female lays about 5000 eggs at a time. The fertilized eggs hatch into tadpoles in the water; they resemble small fish and breathe with gills. After about 60 days of metamorphic development, the tadpole's tail disappears and it becomes a young toad, beginning to live on land and breathe with lungs. It reaches sexual maturity in about 16 months and develops into an adult.
(3) Artificial Farming Techniques
The farm should be chosen in a place with ponds or pools, relatively abundant insect sources and warmer temperatures. Ordinary farmers can simply modify ponds, channels, ditches and paddy fields according to the available water surface. Build a wall or nylon net about 1.5 m high around the site to prevent snakes and rats from climbing in and harming the toads, or the toads from escaping. Inside, set up a tadpole pond, young toad pond, adult toad pond, mating and spawning pond, and hatching pond.
(1) The tadpole pond has an area of 3-6 sq m and a depth of 40 cm. The bottom is slightly sloped, with a drainage hole at the low point, covered with fine wire mesh, and the water depth is kept at about 30 cm.
(2) The young toad pond has an area of 30-70 sq m and a depth of 60 cm. The bottom also has a drainage hole covered with mesh, with a water depth of 40 cm. Spread mud and sand 10 cm thick on the bottom. One third to one quarter of the pond must be left as an activity area, raised 5-10 cm above the water surface. The activity area should be set on the south side of the pond, with the side adjoining the water sloped so that the toads can come ashore to forage. Some grass and small shrubs can be planted on the activity area.
(3) The adult toad pond has an area of 40-80 sq m and a depth of 70 cm. Other requirements are basically the same as for the young toad pond, and the water can be slightly deeper.
(4) The mating and spawning pond has an area of 2-4 sq m, a depth of 40 cm and a water depth of 20 cm. Plant an appropriate amount of floating aquatic plants in the pond, such as duckweed and water hyacinth. Just before spawning, scatter a small amount of dry rice straw or weeds so the eggs can attach. Install black light lamps over the rearing ponds to attract insects for the toads to prey on.
(4) Breeding Techniques
Late March to late April each year is the peak spawning period for toads. Seed stock can be collected by the following three methods:
(1) After rain during the spawning season, go to still water to look for toad egg masses. After scooping them out, place them in a rearing pond to hatch; generally small tadpoles hatch in 3 days. However, with this method they must be placed all at once, otherwise hatching times will differ, tadpoles will vary in size, and the survival rate will be affected.
(2) After Awakening of Insects (Jingzhe), when the temperature stabilizes above 10°C, go to damp places in the wild to catch overwintering toads. Select larger, healthy, strong individuals free of injury and disease as breeding stock, and place them in the spawning pond at a female-to-male ratio of 3:1 to let them naturally mate, spawn and fertilize. Eggs laid each day should be collected and stored in another pond to hatch naturally. Spent spawners should also be stored in a separate pond after spawning, while those that have not yet spawned remain to continue.
(3) Buy excellent selected spawners from a breeding unit and use artificial oxytocin to concentrate spawning and hatching.
(5) Feeding and Management
During the incubation period, the egg masses are best stocked at a density of about 12 clusters per sq m. The optimum water temperature is 18°C-24°C, and tadpoles hatch in about 4 days. During incubation, pay attention to changing the water quality and adjusting light. Toad eggs are deep black, which is good for respiration. In spring when temperatures are relatively low, direct light is not needed; in the high heat of midsummer, appropriate shading can be provided; in severe weather such as cold waves and heavy rain, plastic film can be used for insulation.
Tadpole stage: newly hatched tadpoles often cling to the egg shells or aquatic plants and do not feed, relying on their own yolk sac for nutrition. After 3 days, the small tadpoles begin to eat algae or other food in the water. One week in advance, apply a small amount of fermented pig or cattle manure to the rearing pond to breed plankton. After the tadpoles enter the pond, manure or urine must not be splashed in again, to avoid harming the tadpoles. If the water is too poor, feed chopped vegetable leaves, fish intestines, pig blood and rice-washing water, twice a day. Keep the water temperature at 18°C-24°C. Newly hatched tadpoles can be stocked at 2000-4000 per sq m. After more than half a month of rearing, when they reach a body length of 3 cm, they can be scooped out and placed in the young toad pond for rearing.
Young toad stage: the suitable stocking density for young toads is 50-100 per sq m. Young toads grow fast and eat a lot, so a sufficient food supply must be ensured. First, install black light lamps above the farm and turn them on every night to attract insects; second, pile various livestock and poultry manures in a corner of the land area of the rearing pond to attract and breed insects on their own for the toads to prey on; third, go to damp places to dig for earthworms or raise earthworms as a supporting operation; fourth, scoop fly maggots from latrines not treated with pesticides, rinse them clean and feed them, or raise fly maggots as a supporting operation. If food is still insufficient, a compound feed can be made from 30% cake meal, 30% slaughterhouse offal, 5% fish meal, 30% wheat bran and 5% soybean meal, and combined with animal feed for feeding training. About 40 days after tadpoles hatch from eggs and become young toads, they must be transferred to the adult toad pond for rearing.
Adult toad stage and overwintering stage: for intensive rearing of adult toads in the pond, the suitable stocking density is 40-50 per sq m of water surface. Adult toads mainly feed on insects. Various plants can be grown in the farm to attract insects, and lights can be used at night to attract insects. Yellow mealworms and earthworms can also be raised, fly maggots captured, or barnyard manure piled in the farm to breed insects as food. In summer and autumn, water quality easily deteriorates, so according to changes in water color, promptly add fresh water to keep the water clear. After Frost's Descent (Shuangjiang), when the temperature drops below 10°C, toads hide in the soil or burrow into caves, and some gather in the deep water of ponds to hibernate and stop feeding. When the water temperature rises above 10°C after Awakening of Insects (Jingzhe) the following year, the toads begin to wake, move and forage, and feeding should be stepped up at this time. Throughout the overwintering period, the pond must maintain a certain water level to prevent overwintering toads from freezing or drying to death. Caves on land should be covered with some firewood and grass for insulation. When the temperature rises in spring and the toads wake from hibernation, remove the firewood and grass and generously spray the land area in the pond with water. After 1 year of rearing, they can be used both for breeding and for collecting medicinal materials.