We loved our horny toads

We definitely loved our horny toads. Yes, you'll notice love is in the past tense. Labor day weekend, Franklin died...and last weekend Weifel died. I know, sad day. Everything I read online about horny toads warned that they are the "hardest reptiles to keep alive," and they weren't kidding.

Our issue was the ants. Yes, those pesky little red things. Not only were they not just any ants, they had to be harvester ants (who knew that reptiles could be picky eaters?) Here's our ant adventure...we found them on-line out of Utah. The first batch went well. They hibernated nicely in the fridge and didn't "come back to life" until the lid was nice and secured on the cage. The second batch got here ok, but was mistakenly thrown out because it was thought to be the first batch. The third batch sat in our mail box all afternoon, and those poor ants baked to death. By this time, the horny toads were pretty weak. Dave and the kids took to collecting ants from our yard, but that wasn't enough. The fourth batch arrived too late for Franklin, and Weifel was pretty much done.

Now, it didn't help that you couldn't just put the ants in there. No, it could only be a few at a time because these ants bite. And they bite hard! When I went to feed the toads as soon as the second batch arrived, I was distracted (we were having the high school teachers up that afternoon for a luau, so I just needed to feed and move on to the next 10 things on my list). Note to self: don't feed toads when you are distracted. I just put some in there...bad idea. When I went to check on them a few minutes later, they were being eaten alive...literally. I watched them try to shake them off...a futile effort. I ran out to Dave and told him if we didn't do something, they would not make it. My idea was to take the toads out, put them in the fridge and let the ants ball up and fall off. Dave looked at me as if I was insane. (Ok, maybe putting the toads in the fridge was a bad idea, but how else was I supposed to get the ants off?) He went inside, and I guess he scraped them off. Poor guys, they made it through that one...but I think the combo of the ant bites, and then the food shortage was too much.

The kids took their toad loss very well. Next, we will definitely go with something that is a little easier to take care of. Sorry Franklin and Weifel...we loved you!!!!