Relationships between feeding, digestion and water balance in a carnivorous vertebrate, the toad Bufo bufo L

1. Toads fed meal worms retained water, amounting to about the mass of the meal. 2. Secretion of gastric juice in the initial phase of digestion of a large meal would deplete the extracellular fluid of about half of the chloride ions. 3. Ingestion and rapid digestion of large meals in toads and other carnivorous vertebrates imply tolerance of large variations in anion composition and acidity of the extracellular fluid.