A Tale of Two Toads

(from my blog at pets.com)

I just became a pet parent for the fourth and fifth time, consecutively. Suddenly I went from two dogs to two dogs, a guinea pig and now two Fire-belly Toads. And all my pets all red in some way… go figure.

I got them as a surprise welcome home gift for my boyfriend. It worked: he loved them. (By the way, just to clarify, I knew he wanted them before I went getting him a pet. I don’t recommend surprising anyone with a pet unless you know they want one and are ready for – and want – the responsibility.)

So now we have a microcosm of sorts, right in our own kitchen. Firmly planted on our granite island counter is a small, round, flying saucer-looking contraption, replete with watery spaces and rocky landings. Our two beautiful emerald green toads with their brightly-hued tummies occupy this center island in our home quite happily.

Naturally, we wanted to name them something that ascribed to their fire-belly namesake and appearance. One is quite teeny and feminine-looking (who knows if it is a female or not), and immediately “she” seemed suited to the name Firefly. She skitters around their home much like she is sailing on delicate wings. The larger, more dominant one evaded christening for days as we tried on name after name and just couldn’t land on one we liked.

Then all of a sudden this past weekend, Scorch. It was the perfect fit for him, and well-suited to his fire quality and personality.

Now, we’ve been pouring over information online to help us plan a better home for our friends: we very quickly became dissatisfied with the small habitat we started with: the initial inconveniences of it were soon compounded by its seeming inadequacy as a home.

We haven’t found a lot of information, but I wanted to share a site that not only gave us some good overall information on care as well as habitat specifications: WikiHow (http://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Fire-Belly-Toads). 

I’m looking forward to this weekend and planning a really cool space for them!

Do any of you have frogs or toads for pets? Please share habitat pictures, I’d love to see what you’ve set up and hear suggestions on how we can create the best home we can for our little sparks.