Toad Living Habits and Notes on Artificial Breeding

The toad, also called the common toad, is an amphibian with warty skin, and the toad venom extracted from its body is also a rare traditional Chinese medicinal material. So, what living habits do toads have? What are the notes on artificially breeding toads? Let's find out together!

1. The Toad's Living Habits

Toads like to hide in mud burrows, under damp stones, in grass, and by ditches. A toad's skin loses water easily, so it mostly hides during the day and comes out to move about at night and dusk. Adult toads mostly overwinter in clusters in the mud and sand at the bottom of water or under damp soil on land. During overwintering they stop eating and rely on glycogen stored in the body to maintain their minimal metabolism. They do not end hibernation until the temperature rises back to 10-20 degrees the following year. Toads generally hunt and are active at night, feeding on beetles, moths, snails, maggots and so on. Artificial breeding and reproduction are easier than for other frogs.

2. Notes on Artificially Breeding Toads

1. How to distinguish male from female toads

When breeding toads artificially, being able to distinguish male from female toads is very important, and it is also basic knowledge every breeder must master, as it relates to toad reproduction. Generally, female toads are larger than male toads, and the female toad's skin surface is relatively smooth, while the male toad's skin surface is relatively rough. Another most obvious feature is that the male toad has a small fleshy pad on its toes, while the female toad does not.

2. Prevention of natural enemies

When breeding, pay attention to controlling the toad's natural enemies. The toad's main natural enemies are rodents, snakes and birds, all of which will attack toads. For ground enemies such as snakes and rodents, fences can be built around the breeding site for protection, and observation should be paid attention to normally, catching them by hand. For bird enemies, noise can be used to frighten them, such as setting off firecrackers several times a day, or you can use the old rural method of placing a few scarecrows in the site. Everyone can prevent this in the construction of the breeding site.

3. Methods for collecting toad skin

Pay attention when removing toad skin as well. Many wild toads often eat the skin they have shed, and artificial breeding must pay attention to this. Some breeders, in order to speed up the toad's shedding, use violent means to force shedding, which often causes the toad to be injured and die. For shedding, it is best to use the water shedding method. The water shedding method can completely avoid the situation of toads eating their shed skin, and the shed skin is both attractive and flat, unlike other shedding methods in which it shrinks into a ball and looks bad for selling. The toad skin from the water shedding method is priced about 1000-3000 yuan higher than normal toad skin.

4. Method for collecting toad venom

When collecting toad venom, you can feed the toad baijiu and garlic. These two will stimulate the toad and speed up the secretion of the white serous fluid from the post-orbital glands and skin glands. In this situation, the amount of venom the toad secretes is one third more than normal. Generally, one adult toad can yield 0.06 grams of toad venom, and the collected toad venom must be processed and dried before it can be sold. Generally, 3 kg of fresh toad venom can produce 1 kg of dried toad venom, and 1 kg of dried toad venom is priced at over 15,000.

The above is the toad's living habits and breeding notes compiled for you by the editor. We hope it can help all breeders!