In 1994 in DATZ 1, page 26-29 contained a report by Ole Seehausen about a breeding success of Bufo bufo. Here is a summary of his report.


Keeping:

The author kept 1 male and 1 female. Except winter and breeding time, the toads lived in a 100x40x40cm terrarium containing forest ground, wood and moss. Diet: worms, crickets and flies dusted with vitamin supplement.

The toads were permanently kept in terraria outside.

The years before successful breeding the author gave the toads a winter dormancy at 4°C in the refridgerator.

In spring he let the toads walk on the balcony for one night, which resulted in the male having developped nuptial pads the next day. After moving the toads to a water container the male started amplexus.

Inspite of this the toads did not breed. Possibly the female had not developped any eggs.

As the author´s toads were active and still eating at a temperature as low as 5°C finally he gave the toads a dormancy at only 1°C in an isolated and lightly heated container outside (outside temperatures were as low as -20°C).
After such kind of dormancy the toads were much less emaciated.

This time the author also let the toads decide when they wanted to leave their winter box. So the toads went back and burried themselves under ground when weather cooled down and reappeared later at warmer temperatures.

Now the terrarium setup was enlarged: Instead of a walk on the balcony the toads were given a walking area of approx 1x1 m footpoint (styrofoam plate covered with peat) between winter terrarium (80x30 cm footpoint) and water container (100x40x40 cm fish tank). The water container included some common waterweed.

As soon as the toads showed signs of breeding intentions the author added two further males which had already spawned but still felt likely to breed. As a result all 3 males started calling.

Egg strings were laid around the end of April.
The number of eggs was estimated to be approx. 100.