How to Raise Toads? Detailed Explanation of Breeding Methods and Key Technical Points

The toad is an amphibian, its body surface covered with many warts containing venom glands, commonly known as lai ha ma, lai ci, lai ge bao. How should one raise toads artificially?

1. Building the breeding site

Set up a fence 1 m high around the site. Inside, set up breeding ponds and spawning and hatching ponds. The area size depends on the scale. Ensure an adequate water source and convenient drainage and irrigation. Leave open ground in or beside the ponds for planting lawn grass or vegetables, and plant an appropriate amount of aquatic plants in the ponds. Raise yellow mealworms, fly maggots, and earthworms, or install lights to attract insects to increase feed.

2. Breeding

Capture and raise Chinese toads (Bufo gargarizans), Mongolian toads (Strauchbufo raddei), and black-spectacled toads (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) as breeding stock. Adult toads lay eggs at 10°C, about 5000 eggs each time, which are placed in hatching ponds; at a water temperature of 18-24°C, tadpoles hatch after 3-4 days. Strengthen feeding.

3. Stocking density

2000-4000 small tadpoles per sq m; reduced to 500-1000 after 20 days, and 30-40 young toads. Raise them in separate ponds and groups according to different developmental stages.

4. Feed formulation

Newly hatched tadpoles are fed fresh, palatable bait such as cooked egg yolk and water fleas after 5 days, twice a day. Young toads are fed fly maggots, earthworms, yellow mealworms, and chlorella bait. Adult toads have a large food intake and can be given a mixed feed of soybean cake, bran, flour, fish meal, and sophora leaf powder.

In our country, toads are divided into two species: the Chinese toad and the black-spectacled toad. The toad venom and toad skin extracted from them are medicinal materials in short supply in our country.