There once was a toad...

[DixieChickMom]

Putting my chickens up the other night at dusk and after they went up the ramp, a toad, who had been sitting quietly by the ramp, decided he'd hop on up there and into the coop. The chickens surrounded him, but then seemed a little scared and got away from him. I closed the door and I soon forgot about Mr. Toad, but not before I had wondered what would happen to him. Couple of days go by and I forget about him. Tonight after I put the chickens up, I opened the coop and checked the water and saw a massive amount of poo in the waterer. I picked it up and carried it out to dump it and clean it out. After further inspection, I realized the "poo" was the toad who had found the water.

He got a reprieve when I let him go.

 

[Imp]

Lucky Toad

Imp

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

I accidentally squished a smallish toad when I was moving one of my dog's houses outside last week. I thought, why not offer the dead toad to the chickens? Evidently they don't taste too good because after one peck each they started coughing and shaking their heads and I finally gave up and removed Mr. Smushed Toad when they started keeping their distance from his poor body... Maybe that's why your girls weren't interested?

 

[tamberlin]

Toads taste nasty. They excrete some kind of nasty bitter chemical from their skin if they are threatened. My dog got one once when he was young. Kept gagging and drooling after he spit it out. The toad lived, so did the dog, but he never tried to pick up another toad for the rest of his life.

 

[Animalian]

Haha your lucky the chickens didn't get high off it.

Apparently in northern australia dog's run off to get stoned by licking cane toads!

QUOTE! from a newspaper!!!

"DOGS in the Northern Territory are getting "high" on cane toads.

Dogs were licking the backs of the warty pests and becoming addicted to the hallucinogenic poison, a NT vet said yesterday.
Megan Pickering, a vet in Katherine, said she had treated a number of dogs affected by the deadly toad poison.

"We have had quite a number of cases of dogs that are getting addicted to the toxin," Ms Pickering said. "There seems to be dogs that are licking the toxin to get high.

"They lick the toads and only take in a small amount of the poison – they get a smile on their face and look like they are going to wander off into the sunset."

I find it hilarious but would probably hate it if it were my dog doing it! Luckily I'm too far south!

 

[Help_battery_hens]

my first dog found a toad in our pond he ran around the garden tossing it in the air and catching it until he was promptly sick!