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Okay, so how does the idea of having a green, black, and orange-coloured frog resting in a terrarium in your living room sound to you? Cool right! Then the Fire belly toad must have caught your attention at least once.
It doesn’t matter if you are looking for your first pet frog or want to grow an army of your pet frogs. The fire belly toad is an absolute go-to pet frog one should consider. If you wonder why then stick with me till the end of this article, and we will find out why this frog is so special.
In this article, I will give you a better idea about how a fire belly toad will perform as a pet frog and all things you need to consider before getting one. Most importantly, by the end of this article, you will be able to make up your mind about whether to get this as a pet frog or not.
What Are Fire Belly Toads?
Fire belly toads indeed have a spectacular and self explanatory name. These toads are distinguishable from ordinary frogs due to their bright green and orange colored skin combined with black stripes and spots.
These toads have brighter green skin with black patterns on their upper body. At the same time, their belly has an attractive orange skin with black stripes if you look from the bottom. This orange belly of these toads is there for a reason which we will discuss later in this article.
But overall, this combination of two color schemes helps them protect themselves in the wild, and for us, it’s a great looking pet to have, isn’t it?
Various Species
Scientifically speaking, the fire belly toad is quite a broad term as it includes a total of 6 species of these toads. They are usually termed fire bellied toads or fire-water toads. We are talking about the Oriental fire-bellied toad (Bombina Orientalis) and is one of the six species.
Apart from that, there is the European fire belly toad found in mainland Europe, the Hubei fire belly toad found in Hubei, China, and then there is Yunnan fire belly toad from Yunnan.
The other two species belong to the same family, but they are yellow bellied, unlike these toads. Apennine yellow-bellied toad is found in Italy, whereas simple yellow-bellied toad is located in the middle and southern parts of Europe.
Interestingly, all these species can be kept as pets and they all have various colored patterns. So you have the freedom to make your own choice. However, today we will mainly focus on the Oriental Fire belly toad.
Before getting into the discussion of all things you need to consider before keeping this toad as a pet frog, let us quickly go through their origin and natural habitat. After all, the more we know about them, the more we can care for them.
Origin
The fire belly toad needs a moderate climate for its survival, and thus it is mainly found in Europe but not limited to just Europe. These toads can also be found in various regions in Asia where a suitable climate is present. Let’s take a closer look at their habitat.
It has a prime origin in China. They are natives of northeastern China, South Korea, and North Korea. Additionally, these toads are also found in adjacent parts of Russia like Khabarovsk and Primorye.
Natural Habitat
The fire belly toad is an amphibian, or you can call them aquatic species. Thus these toads love to spend their lives in grasslands, wetlands, broad-leaved forests, and river valleys. They live in calm, still water bodies or slow-moving streams.
Additionally, these toads are incredibly versatile in habitat. They adapt to new surroundings quite well, making them great pets. However, providing a habitat similar to their natural habitat is always recommended.
How Does Fire Belly Toad Perform As A Pet Frog?
Now that we know enough things about fire belly toads, it’s time to get to our main question. How do these toads perform as pet frogs? Let’s break down this topic into six simple subtopics to answer this question and give you better clarity on these toads as a pet frog.
Handling
Starting with handling, this toad is not much hectic or complicated but neither too simple. The reason is the skin of these toads. As you know, frogs are amphibians, and thus they have sensitive and porous skin.
This characteristic of their skin surely helps them stay moist and makes them vulnerable to pathogens. If you touch them with bare hands, pathogens from your hands may end up on their skin and eventually get absorbed by their skin.
Even though this is not a deal breaker for these spectacular toads as you can always take precautions like washing your hands well before touching them or simply using gloves to avoid direct contact.
One deal breaker thing you might have heard about these toads is that they are poisonous. Remember I said it has an orange-colored belly for a reason earlier in this article? This is where it comes in.
When these toads sense a threat, they react to it by the ‘unken reflex.’ That means they expose their orange and black belly, letting their predators know that they are poisonous, and it may not be a good idea to come close to them.
However, this poison is not so dangerous to us humans. But it is always good to take precautions like not touching your mouth or eyes after touching a fire belly toad. Just wash your hands before and after you touch your toad and rest everything should be fine.
Behavior
The attitude or behavior of fire belly toads is one good reason you should consider them as pet frogs. These toads are super playful and interactive during the daytime. They will move around inside their enclosure and will respond to your actions.
You will get to see them jumping from time to time, but don’t worry as they don’t jump far. Thus, no other frog species beats this toad when it comes to activeness.
Care
The best pet is the one that requires minimum care to be taken off, and in that area, our fire belly toad excels again. We have already talked about how good these toads are in adapting to surroundings and habitat.
A glass terrarium with both a water body and land clones is enough for your toad. Ensure your aquarium has a lid; otherwise, they may jump out of the terrarium and roam in your house, which is not a great place for your toad.
Ensure that you put clean, fresh, and chemical free water in the terrarium so that your toad can enjoy its time swimming. They don’t require any special care in terms of heat as well. They live quite comfortably at room temperature. Therefore you don’t need a heater unless you live in a cold climate.
Another significant fact about this toad is, it can eat any insect you offer. But it is recommended to feed them various insects to keep them healthy. You can feed them crickets or mealworms and sometimes guppies too.
Hardiness
Hardiness is the ability of a fire belly toad to endure difficult conditions. In that terms, if all the necessary care is taken and proper habitat is maintained, the toad can live more than a decade without any problem.
Just make sure you feed them with the proper nutrition daily, keep changing the water and handle them with care.
Availability
We have already talked about the origin of fire belly toads and where they are found most often. But over the past few years, their availability has decreased. Additionally, if you wish to import this toad, you should be able to get one without much of an issue.
However, importing such species is not recommended as it comes with disadvantages. First, it can bring diseases and viruses to native species. Secondly, it stresses the species being imported and the native ones.
Cost
Finally, coming to the cost, we will consider the costs of imports, the terrarium (enclosure), and the costs of substrate and food required.
Starting with the cost of imports, they are very cheap even if you import them. Wonder why so? Well, that is because these toads can lay up to 400 eggs, and thus costs of import shouldn’t be a problem.
Even the enclosure for these toads does not need to be expensive as they don’t require exceptional heating and lighting conditions. Just select a beautiful, inexpensive enclosure with a lid on top, and you are done with the enclosure part.
Lastly, the substrate you will need should be suitable for amphibian species. It should not stick to your toads, and at the same time, it should be able to hold moisture well. A 2-inch layer of such substrate is enough for these toads.
Things To Know Before Getting A Fire Belly Toad
A fire belly toad is a beautiful pet frog that can be taken care of easily, and it will stay with you for years. But before getting one for yourself, there are a few things that you should know, or you should be prepared with. Let’s take a look at them one by one.
- It grows up to 1-2” and requires a 10 gallon terrarium if you plan to get one.
- They can sustain at room temperature, but if you live in a cold climate, the 70-75°F temperature in the daytime and 60-68°F at night is supposed to be maintained.
- It does not require UVB lighting. Expose your toad to usual natural light cycles for its healthy life.
- Feed your toad with various insects and allow your toad to eat as much as insects it can eat in 15 minutes.
Conclusion
The fire belly toad is an easy-to-care pet frog and it has many characteristics which can attract beginners who want to get a pet frog for the first time. The toad is a must-have frog for those who already own several frogs, without which the frog collection is incomplete.
The fire belly frog is probably the best pet frog as it comes with almost no compromises and requires low maintenance. I hope this article helped you make up your mind about the fire belly toad.
