In 1999 I received my first Great Plains Toads, 2 females. Three years later, in 2002, I by chance got the possibility to receive 2 males for them. After quarantaine and nematode treatment, they moved to the females terrarium.

One of the males already was injured by nematode infection but recovered very well.

In spring 2004 he deceased without a sign of illness, perhaps because of late sequelae of the nematode infection or because of old age. Now it´s 2005 and the others are still fine.

The terrarium measures 120x50x60cm and is furnished with cocos substrate, some stones, cork bark and a water bowl. Usually I keep the substrate very dry, only certain areas wet and I change bathing water as soon as it becomes soiled.
I mostly use some days old tap water.

The terrarium is placed near a window which is getting late mid day sun. Two lighting tubes (1x GroLux, 1x Daylight) above the terrarium serve as additional lighting. There is no futher heating included. I keep the toads at normal room temperature approx. 20°C (autumn night temperatures around 15°C, summer day temperatures up to 30°C).

I feed my toads 1-2 times a week, mainly crickets, sometimes also wax moth caterpillars and flys - all dusted with vitamin-calcium supplement for amphibians "Amivit-A". For to make sure that all toads take their food I wake up the sleeping ones and also give everybody a little shower.

Breeding:

I still did not manage to get my cognatus breeding.

I never recognized any ill effects after cool dormancy of my Bufo cognatus, but since I lost all my Bufo speciosus because of an illness which broke out during dormancy in winter 2002 (Dermosporidium) I did not risk a real winter dormancy at temperatures < 10°C again.

Winter 2003 and 2004 they spent in their terrarium at a room temperature of approx. 15°C.

Inspite of this relatively warm winter temperature the toads bury themselves mid of December and are completely inactive up to end of March. Surprisingly the toads seem not to lose weight within this time. As Bufo cognatus is a wide spread species, perhaps it can bear but does not really need cold hibernation.


May 2003:

As Bufo cognatus is a close relative of Bufo speciosus, after winter dormancy at approx 10°C I tried to get them breeding like Bufo speciosus. The toads stood in water from 1st May to 29th May 2003 repeatedly interrupted by some days on land.

Inspite of heavy amplexing there was no success. Perhaps one further month would have been necessary to get them spawning. Unfortunately I did not have the time to go on.

Some pictures/movies:

August 2004:

In August 2004 we had a several weeks of heavy rain. So I decided to try breeding the cognatus again. This time I did not fill the terrarium completely with water. I gave them a water bowl measuring approx 50% of the terrarium size and I did not install the rain system.

The result was impressing loud calling. Perhaps for getting the females coming to the water.

The amplexing male was carried by the female also on land for a several days, but also this trial was not successful. Perhaps August is too late in the year for breeding.