Raising Tadpoles

I cannot believe it is tadpole season already and we haven’t even made it into February! This is our fourth year raising tadpoles and I’m so excited to be experiencing it with Forrest for the first time, he’s finally at that stage where he’s interested in these sorts of things. Being able to watch them go through their metamorphosis into little froglets is always such an incredible experience and never gets old.

Yesterday when we were out in the woods we walked across Balmers Lawn in Brockenhurst and I mentioned to Nixie to keep an eye out for frog spawn, not expecting to find any so soon but amazingly we did just that! This is the earliest we’ve ever found them and I wasn’t prepared at all. We didn’t have a container for them so decided we would come back later when Kevin finished work.

What I hadn’t anticipated though was that we would be searching for them in complete darkness! We had torches but it still wasn’t easy and I thought we’d have to come back the next day but lo and behold just at that moment Nixie blurts out, “I found them! I found them! Here they are!” I couldn’t quite believe it, we do always say she has owl eyes (and she was adamant that she needed to get them that night).

When we got home it was time to get out all of our supplies. You don’t need a lot. They are super easy to raise.

We have learned a lot over the years about how to raise them so I thought I’d share that here for anyone else who would like to give it a go. I highly recommend doing this with your little ones as it's such a great way to observe the cycle of life. Plus it’s such a great reason to get outside and go on an adventure in search of frogspawn.

What you will need:

• Frogspawn with some of their pond water to begin with.
• A fish tank (we bought a 6 litre one, you can see it here) 
• A bag of aquarium gravel
• Some foliage so that the tadpoles have places to hide (they can get stressed otherwise)
• Stones
• Bottled still water (tap water will kill them. You can use tap water if you let it sit for 24 hours)
• Tropical fish food flakes (for young tadpoles)
• Freeze dried bloodworm (for tadpoles when they begin to form legs )

Important things to remember:

• once the tadpoles begin to form legs and arms it is extremely important that the gravel in your tank is at an incline so that they are able to get in and out of the water easily.
• also when they turn into froglets they will not eat for a few days because they get their food from eating their tail.
• Make sure you regularly clean the tanks
• once they have transformed into froglets release them back into the wild (ideally where you found the frogspawn). We release ours close by since we always find them in giant puddles which no longer exist once they are ready to be released.

Be prepared to have them for a long time! Last year we were still releasing them into September! It usually takes a couple of weeks or so for the frogspawn to turn into tadpoles (this is much faster than in the wild due to the much warmer temperature indoors.)

After around a couple of months some of them should begin developing their back legs. Also at some point it is common for the more developed tadpoles to eat the less developed tadpoles. 

In the weeks to come more and more tadpoles will develop their back legs and some will also develop their front legs (they actually pop out from under the skin at their elbow!) and turn into little froglets (it is around this time I like to introduce the bloodworm). Sadly a lot of the ones in the beginning for some reason don't survive. This was of great sadness in our house but it has happened every year so I think it's always helpful to be prepared for these things! 

At the stage when they are beginning to develop their front legs it is very important to have the gravel built up at an incline. During the phase when they take their first breath of air and go out of the water, they are at their most fragile. During this time they get all that they need from eating their tail. 

From here on out things begin to happen pretty fast and it is a very exciting time! Every day you are pretty much promised to meet some new little froglets.

Setting them free and releasing them back into the wild is our most favourite thing. Nixie always takes such great pride in releasing her little "babies" every year and I'm looking forward to Forrest being more involved with all too.