Keep your toads very simple in their enclosures, I simply use ground up bark mulch. No water bowl. I saturate the bark mulch and let it dry almost completely out, then it's time to saturate it again. This is when they get their water, which is taken via the cloaca.

To get your toads to breed, you should definately cool them first. Cooling them to 8°C, is a fine place to start. Of course in nature the toads take sub freezing temps for months at a time. (Be sure your toads have adequate food intake through the active season before cooling).

Put the toads away in the cool down for at least 60 - 90 days, longer if they are kept at temps just above freezing. Around March you will start to increase the temps and bring the toads out of their dormancy.

One thing you can do at this point is move the toads outside if it coincides with your rainy season. Many breeders in America do this, they let mother nature handle the rain etc.

If it is too cold outside still for you, bring the toads up to warm temps and give the tanks a heavy spray (until the substrate becomes saturated) two or three times a day.

Spray the tank at least once after the lights are out for the night, this is when they will be most active.

Start offering food right away.

After the third or fourth week, the toads will be ready to breed and you may move them into a container of water. The container should have a surface area about equal to their tank size (a little smaller is fine).

Room temperature water is fine as long as the room is'nt too cold! Water depth should be as deep as their shoulders when they are in a "sitting" position.

If the water is not so deep that the toads have to swim, then you will not have to put a dry landing in for them.

Pay close attention to water cleanliness at this point. The toads will urinate frequently, When it becomes soiled, pour out the old water and refresh it with cool/luke warm water and a good spray.

With any luck, you will have already heard the toads calling and should wake up one morning to see the egg strings:)

When the time is right, the female will produce pheramones to alert the male to her breeding condition (these pheramones also help to keep the males from trying to mate with the other males as only the females produce them.)

The males may or may not start calling before this occurs, either way the males will still find the females. (In a captive environment, every body is together, so there is'nt a great need to actually call one another - all though they probably will.)

They don't have to be in the water before amplexing, they will pick a lady and hold onto her until she ultimately carries him to the water!

Once they are in the water, it will be only hours before she lays the eggs. This often occurs after dark, but you may be fortunate enough to see this during the day as well.

It is'nt that complicated!

If your toads are in a breeding condition and there is no male present, she will hold onto the eggs sometimes for as long as a month (maybe longer) if no male comes about, she will reabsorb the eggs and have no ill effects.


Remark:
Bufo woodhousii fowleri is alot like American Toads for keeping and breeding.