Have you ever received a “surprise package” from nature? I found small clumps of translucent frog eggs in my rain barrel. I went to my reference books for tips on how to increase their survival rate. It may be a mistake if I am serenaded nightly by a cacophony of frog-songs once they mature, but I love helping wildlife find safe habitats.
Frogs and tadpoles are amphibians, which means that they start out as an egg laid in water. They breathe water through gills, and as they develop into frogs, they will use lungs to breathe air.
In 1960, K.A. Gosner broke down the stages of a frog’s life cycle into 46 phases. This starts with the laying of the newly fertilized egg and ends with the four-legged mature frog exiting the water for life on dry land. The hatchling stage encompasses the progression from hatching out of the egg until the front legs are grown. This is when most folks notice tadpoles. Steps 20 to 25 are the gill stage where they develop a mouth and external gills to breathe underwater. At the end of this growth stage, the gills atrophy away. From steps 26 to 30 the tads form leg buds, and they enter phase 31 with the growth of tiny foot paddles. The legs and separated toes are complete at stage 41 when the front leg buds emerge. The four-legged stage is the final steps up to step 46 when the tail disappears, and the frog lives on dry land.
If you want to keep tadpoles or want to help a few make it to frog-hood, here are some basic instructions. You can keep them in a half-gallon Mason jar available at Buchheit’s, make sure to include a stick or something that they crawl up on as they mature. They will drown once the hit the stage when the gills disappear.
Feeding: their small mouths need foods that have their cell walls can break down so the tads’ tiny mouths can ingest them. You can boil spinach and romaine lettuce for five minutes then finely chop the limp leaves before you freeze it in a container filled with water.
I did crush up the greens and froze them which worked well, but I also found that feeding them Buchheit fish food worked even better! No chopping and freezing and I’m assured complete nutrition for my pollywogs. What kid can resist the wonder of nature as displayed by a simple tadpole?
Be blessed! Ann May
