We had observed a whole pond of tadpoles a couple months ago and all my kids were fascinated by them. When my 13 yr. old daughter insisted on trying to raise tadpoles, I said sure but that it was going to be her responsibility to keep them alive. I remember when I was a 2nd grade teacher and my class tried to raise tadpoles into frogs. It was hard work keeping them alive! I think out of the 8 we had, only 1 tadpole became a frog. Well I am happy to report that my daughter has accomplished her mission!
Frog and Tadpole
Right now one of the tadpoles has fully changed into a frog. Such a tiny, tiny frog! He likes to sit like a statue on top of the rock. The other has legs, and its tail is slowly shrinking. My daughter researched how to care for her frogs. For the tadpoles she boiled lettuce in chlorine-free water (we purchased AquaSafe which makes tap water safe for frogs) drained,and then froze most of the lettuce. When she needs to feed the tapoles, she takes a small piece and puts it in the terrarium. Once the tadpoles had legs they needed a little more nutrition. She started feeding them blood worms (purchased from the pet store.)
We are beginning to wonder if they are two different species of frogs (or maybe even toads?). The remaining tadpole has always been bigger than the other frog. We were actually surprised to find that the littlest tadpole changed into a frog before the bigger one. We’ll be watching and waiting to see what happens to our frog and tadpole!
I love watching frogs with the kids. A friend of mine ordered some…and she has 10. She asked if I wanted some but said I can’t release them….so, what do you do with a frog you can’t release? I love having jar pets for just a few days…but beyond that, not so much. Any recommendations?
Rebecca,
Yes, if you order tadpoles online you cannot release them in the wild. It could mess up the local frog population (which in many areas is declining). We actually got our tadpoles from a local pond, so if my make it long enough, I will let ours go there. My dd though, has big plans on keeping them! We’ll see …
Now to your question, if you are wanting to observe but not raise an animal, the best bet would be to observe ants, butterflies, or worms. My ants lasted the longest–2 months, butterflies about 3 weeks, and worms we returned to the garden after a week. If you really want to observe frogs, try partnering with another family who would be willing to care for them long-term or find a local pond where you can visit the tadpoles and observe them changing–just not at your own home.
oh fun — when we drained our pool and a rain shower filled the bottom back up we were overflowing with frogs! The boy spent hours outside catching dozens and dozens of tadpoles. Unfortunately – he kept them in the same container and we learned that tadpoles eat tadpoles!!!!
Enjoy the tadpole growth!