How I raised 7 tadpoles into frogs

Tadpole going through metamorphosis: waiting on one arm to grow.

Well, you know how new mom’s are with their young: taking pictures and videos and then showing them to anyone who will look, right? I’m about to be that way with you about my froggies 😉

I had thought some time ago that my sons and I would try to catch some tadpoles to watch. We had done a lapbook on frogs several months ago and how fun would it be to get to watch them develop! Well, that never happened.

Then one day my husband comes home with a mysterious bucket covered with a lid and says to look inside. As adventurous as I am about some things, I was not going to open the lid and be shocked.

No reason to fear, however, it was only full of tadpoles!

Big, small and in-between sizes. Someone from his workplace had found lots of them in his pool and he brought them to work and was giving them away. Joel brought home what was left.

We had probably around 30 or 40 tadpoles in that bucket and some were big. See my all my videos from the tadpole stage to the frog stage here. However by morning all appeared dead except nine of the smaller ones.

From what I’ve read, tadpoles have a hard time surviving anyways. I guess the odds against them are just that big in the wild and we couldn’t take care of so many anyways. Wasn’t it Kermit that said, “It isn’t easy being green”.

Of the nine survivors seven made it to froglet/frog-hood. One however got out of the tank and the cat apparently found him before I did.

Of the six left – five have been set free and the last tadpole just finished morphing yesterday.

How I raised and what I fed them from tads to frogs:

Contrary to what I had read online about how to take care of your tadpoles, I found that my tap water worked just fine, I never used a filter, and I only fed my tadpoles dry fish flakes (which we had leftover from our snail-keeping adventure approximately two years ago).

As the froglets were going through the latter part of their change- that is, after they had all 4 legs and the tail was disappearing they didn’t seem interested in eating and I transferred them into a separate container with some water but also rocks to sit on above the water. No more fish flakes for them, I now fed them Flightless Fruit Flies I bought at the local pet store in a vial.

The picture at the very top/left is my last tadpole with one arm and two legs. I found him that way earlier this week about 7:30am and took that picture . About seven hours later I found he had sprouted his second arm and within a day or so he his tail was gone and he was a froglet/ frog.

How to raise tadpoles to frogs.

If I haven’t totally grossed you out by now you might just be a good candidate to raise tadpoles into frogs or you could just live “vicariously” through my pictures of them. Right?

How I raised tadpoles to frogs.

Since we homeschool, this experience is going in our book towards science.

Looks like we have a couple different types of frogs.

Anyone know what kind they are? Seriously, cuz I don’t.

I’m guessing they are some type of tree frog. They have sucker toes and do well sticking to the sides of the container I’ve had them in. I’ve had a lot of fun taking pictures of them and getting to observe their metamorphosis.

Raising tadpoles into frogs. Froglets and frogs.

They really can be so cute.

That is, when they don’t pee on ya.

But honestly, it only happened maybe two or three times and I’m not even sure it was pee 😉

If you like Wild Things as much as we do you might enjoy seeing our baby birds and pictures of raising Hairyee from caterpillar to Tiger Moth. Subscribe here to get my blog posts delivered to your email inbox.

6 Comments

Tracy on May 28, 2012 at 10:14 pm

You know, I don’t know. But I can tell you this. The bucket of tadpoles we had seemed to have possibly, two different types of frogs/ or toads. All the black ones died off or at least appeared dead, even the two or more that originally had survived. The ultimate survivors appeared to be tree frogs – sticky feet that allowed them to adhere to the walls of our container as they grew.

I do remember reading or hearing that they need plenty of water for oxygen I think. When my husband brought home our bucket of tads (possibly 30 of them)- all but about 7 appeared dead by the next day. I’m wondering if they ran out of air with it being so crowded? At any rate, all of the black ones eventually seemed to die. We were very fortunate to have about 5 to raise into little frogs. What an experience! I recommend doing it next time you find some on your property. Ours came from someone’s pool also.

kerry on May 28, 2012 at 10:05 pm

Hi my 12 year old loves frogs!!! We just opened our pool and found tons of tadpoles. She spent all day skimming them out and put them all in a bucket before we shocked the pool. We were going to put them into the stream up the road the next morning. She wanted to save them so bad. We went out the next morning to free them and they all were at the bottom of bucket dead. My poor daughter couldn’t stop crying she felt so sad and thinks she killed them. Do you know why they would die?? They were alive in the early morning but by the time we went to release them they were not. Please help us raise tadpoles correctly. Thanks Kerry

erin on July 20, 2011 at 10:11 am

When I was little we had a faux pond and would get tadpoles all the time. I loved watching them change. They sell kits now! I am not sure how they work, but I bet the kids would love it here. My boys catch baby toads all the time. (Rainy season brings them out and onto our screened in patio. We have to catch and release.)

Lisa on July 6, 2011 at 10:50 am

How fun! We did this several years ago when my daughter found some tadpoles in a mud puddle in the yard. I think I enjoyed watching them more than the kids.

Jen-Eighty MPH Mom on July 3, 2011 at 11:57 am

What a fun and fascinating post! When I was a kid we collected tadpoles from the pond at the park, but they always died. I wish I could have seen them “morph”, so thank you for posting this…how cool! That last picture of the little on on the hand is SO cute!

Cindy Orley on July 2, 2011 at 9:39 am

Wow, what an experience! I would love to do this with my kiddos. We are big nature fans. My son especially loves tree frogs. We found our first ever last Summer but haven’t seen any sense. You do have a tree frog on your hands, my son would be so jealous. So am I! LOL What a great experience you gave your kids. Love it!

Tracy on May 28, 2012 at 10:14 pm

You know, I don’t know. But I can tell you this. The bucket of tadpoles we had seemed to have possibly, two different types of frogs/ or toads. All the black ones died off or at least appeared dead, even the two or more that originally had survived. The ultimate survivors appeared to be tree frogs – sticky feet that allowed them to adhere to the walls of our container as they grew.

I do remember reading or hearing that they need plenty of water for oxygen I think. When my husband brought home our bucket of tads (possibly 30 of them)- all but about 7 appeared dead by the next day. I’m wondering if they ran out of air with it being so crowded? At any rate, all of the black ones eventually seemed to die. We were very fortunate to have about 5 to raise into little frogs. What an experience! I recommend doing it next time you find some on your property. Ours came from someone’s pool also.
kerry on May 28, 2012 at 10:05 pm

Hi my 12 year old loves frogs!!! We just opened our pool and found tons of tadpoles. She spent all day skimming them out and put them all in a bucket before we shocked the pool. We were going to put them into the stream up the road the next morning. She wanted to save them so bad. We went out the next morning to free them and they all were at the bottom of bucket dead. My poor daughter couldn’t stop crying she felt so sad and thinks she killed them. Do you know why they would die?? They were alive in the early morning but by the time we went to release them they were not. Please help us raise tadpoles correctly. Thanks Kerry
erin on July 20, 2011 at 10:11 am

When I was little we had a faux pond and would get tadpoles all the time. I loved watching them change. They sell kits now! I am not sure how they work, but I bet the kids would love it here. My boys catch baby toads all the time. (Rainy season brings them out and onto our screened in patio. We have to catch and release.)
Lisa on July 6, 2011 at 10:50 am

How fun! We did this several years ago when my daughter found some tadpoles in a mud puddle in the yard. I think I enjoyed watching them more than the kids.
Jen-Eighty MPH Mom on July 3, 2011 at 11:57 am

What a fun and fascinating post! When I was a kid we collected tadpoles from the pond at the park, but they always died. I wish I could have seen them “morph”, so thank you for posting this…how cool! That last picture of the little on on the hand is SO cute!
Cindy Orley on July 2, 2011 at 9:39 am

Wow, what an experience! I would love to do this with my kiddos. We are big nature fans. My son especially loves tree frogs. We found our first ever last Summer but haven’t seen any sense. You do have a tree frog on your hands, my son would be so jealous. So am I! LOL What a great experience you gave your kids. Love it!