A Tadpole Named "Marvin"

We caught a tadpole near the beginning of June. We released him as a teeny tiny toad yesterday. Here are some photos. (By the way, I think he's a toad because he stayed out of the water once he got all of his legs. Can anyone tell me if I'm right?)

Marvin at 2 weeks - he just got his hind legs.

Marvin at 3 weeks - he actually grew his front legs while being transported to my mom's 4 hours away so she could watch him (and our dog) while we were in Oklahoma and Vegas. My mom said his tail was practically gone and he was sitting out of the water by the next day!

Marvin at 4 weeks. Can you believe how tiny he is??? He's about the size of a fly - maybe smaller. We released him back near his pond the day after this photo was taken. What a great experience watching this little tadpole change into a little toad!

One Little Tadpole

When we went on a nature walk near a pond 2 weeks ago, we caught 2 tadpoles. One of them didn't survive until morning (I'm not sure why), but the other is doing great! In fact, we saw he had teeny tiny legs yesterday! (This photo is from today -aren't the legs tiny, though?)

My friend Robin at martinzoo just posted about her tadpole habitat so I thought I'd share ours. Alex actually came up with the idea of putting our tadpole in a wine glass, so this is his 'home'! Kind of ritzy, huh? After reading Robin's post, though, I realized we need a place for this little guy to hide. So, we'll probably be revising his home soon. (Oh, and she feeds her tadpoles flake fish food while I've frozen some lettuce and just break tiny pieces of it off. I guess they survive just fine on either!)

To Buy or Not To Buy

Recently, someone left a comment on one of my frog entries. We bought some frog eggs through a science company back in February to watch them go through metamorphosis. The comment was asking if Iwould recommend buying the eggs. My answer: No. :-)

When I bought the eggs, I figured that when they became frogs I could release them. This is not the case. You are not allowed to release them both because you could be introducing new disease and possibly a new species to a pond. I understand this now, but wish I would have known before I got started. I now have 4 "pets" that I wasn't really prepared for keeping.

They are actually costing quite a bit of money, too. From the tank & things to go in to the tank to the weekly cricket bill - around $8. (I have 4 frogs)

My suggestion would be, that if possibly, you find local eggs that you can release back into their habitat when you're done with them.

Hope this helps! And, if you have any further questions, please ask away. I hope to take some new photos of our frogs soon. They are getting quite big!

Also, if you click on "tadpoles to frogs" on my sidebar, you can see more of our froggy adventure!

Frog Update

Our 4 leopard frogs are alive and doing well. I'm getting used to the feeding routine (of live crickets) and we even took them with us on our trip last week. They just continue to get bigger & bigger! When's they're full grown, they'll be about 3.5 inches long. One of our local pet shops has some grown leopard frogs and I can't imagine ours getting that big! Ours are just over 3 months old and about 2 inches long. Actually, the largest is at least twice as big as the smallest - and they all hatched the same day!

Froglets: 7 1/2 weeks

The photo above is from Sunday. The photo below is of the same froglet on Tuesday. What a difference 2 days made!!!

On Tuesday, we went ahead and made the froglets a terrarium. We added gravel with one side deeper and then added water in the whole tank. We also gave them their first "grown up" food - crickets. The largest froglet (above on left) has been trying to catch one, but I don't think he's gotten one yet. We will also try mealworms soon.

These are Leopard Frogs (rana pipiens). I think our largest one is about 1.5 inches. They normally grow to about 3 inches long. I read that they can live to be 5 years old, but you are "doing good" if they survive a year. So far, we've made it almost 2 months!

Tadpoles: 7 1/2 weeks

Thanks to Robin at martinzoo for telling me I needed to go ahead and put something in the tank for the tadpoles to climb out on now that they have their legs. We bought a little log/platform from PetSmart on Saturday, and when we woke up Sunday morning our biggest froglet was sitting on the platform. It's also neat to see that his mouth has changed from a little circle like a fish, to a real "frog" mouth. What amazed me more, is that today this little froglets tail is about 1/3rd the length it was yesterday. At this rate, I think he'll be a "real frog" in a day or two!!! Am I really ready to feed him crickets... which I've always loved???

Someone asked me how expensive it is to raise the frogs. First of all, I'd highly recommend trying to find eggs in a pond rather than buying them. I bought these and now I'm unable to release them so I have 4 "pet" frogs, when I was only after a science experience (not experiment).

It cost about $20 for the eggs and tank. I did have to upgrade the tank to a bigger one, but I already had it. And, so far, all of the food they've needed was provided with the eggs. (It's just a little baggy of tadpole food.) I paid $12 for the platform/log, but you could find something instead. Now, the next cost will be the crickets, which I'm sure aren't very expensive.

So, this is a cheap pet, but like I said, I wasn't really after a pet. But, we are enjoying them tremendously. Now, Alexandra wants a hamster (or a bird) and I'd really like to get her one but told her I won't consider it until we see how much work these frogs are going to be.

Hope this helps! I'll try to post photos of our new frogs in a couple of days!

Tadpoles: 7 weeks

Our largest tadpole had one front leg yesterday morning! By the end of the day, he had both front legs. He's really starting to look like a frog now! His body (not including the tail) is about 2/3rds the size of a Pink Pearl eraser.

Our last tadpole got his 2nd hind foot today. His tail is very crooked and now he's having trouble swimming. He seems to be getting food OK, though. I'll keep a close eye on him.

Tadpoles: 6 weeks

The tadpoles are about 6 weeks old today. They are supposed to take a total of about 12 weeks to become frogs. My dh took care of the little guys while Alexandra & I were on vacation, and they're doing well. They all even "sprouted" hind legs while we were gone!

We're amazed at how big they are getting. In fact, we moved them to a larger aquarium today. Their eyes are amazingly beautiful. They're kind of gold with a black cross through them. Their hind legs are surprisingly small to us. We have one really large one - he's almost twice as big as the smallest, but all of them got their legs at about the same time. We're really enjoying this experience!

Tadpoles: 1 month

We've had the tadpoles now about 1 month. They have grown so much! You can compare their size to the penny in the photo. They still do not have hind legs, but one of them is starting to get a bump on one side. You can still see "into" them and see what looks like a frog body. Also, their eyes are beautiful! They look like an "x" around the center of the eye - very cool. So far, they aren't much trouble, either. And, all 4 are doing well!

Tadpoles: Day 12

The growth rate of the tadpoles has been pretty amazing. We still have 4 - 3 are dark, like the one on the left in this photo, and the other 1 is light.

It's amazing that their eyes are so large and easily seen now. And, I'm not sure why as they should breathe under water, but they do surface and leave little bubbles on the surface of the water.

The neatest thing, though, is how you can see through their skin! Hopefully you can see it in this photo, but you can see their bodies forming! They have a small "waist" in the middle of their body and you can tell where their front legs will be forming above this point and their hind legs will be forming behind it.

We've really enjoyed looking at them each day to see how they've grown and changed! It's an amazing transformation.

Tadpoles: Day 9

Today is our 9th day with the tadpoles. They are getting noticeably bigger each day! I would have guessed we could have fit 100 of them on a penny during the 1st couple of days. Now, I'd guess we could only fit 10 or 12! Such fast growth!

Sadly, the one with the crooked tail passed away a few days ago. We actually moved her to her own bowl to try to make sure she could find the food. But, it didn't work. So, now we only have 4 tadpoles (which is actually plenty!). We changed the water in their bowls today and hope they adjust OK. I'm a little worried as they don't seem to be swimming as much. Maybe I shouldn't have changed ALL of the water? I hope they're OK!!!

Tadpoles: Day 6

We still have 5 tadpoles alive and growing! The poor little guy with the crooked tail isn't looking very good, though. We actually moved him to his own bowl and are trying to get food right near him. I'm guessing that if he can survive the tadpole stage, he should be just fine.

Today was exciting because we could see a few tadpole eyes! And, we saw a mouth, too! (One tadpole was up against the wall of the aquarium and you could see his mouth.) They are getting such fat bodies, although they're still less than an inch long. What fun!!! (You can compare their shapes from "Day 4" - their body shape has really changed!)

A funny story: We were at the park yesterday and I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in about a year. She was asking me about homeschooling as she's considering doing it herself. She asked if our school was "fun" and "hands-on" and I said "Yes!" I told her about our tadpoles and was shocked that she didn't share my enthusiasm. It truly never crossed my mind that all mommies wouldn't want to raise tadpoles! :-) Now I get it though... they're frogs, right? Is that supposed to be a boy thing??? Or gross or something? Maybe I don't get it... I love frogs!

Tadpoles: Day 4

(Photo taken from above the tadpole's tank. The tadpoles are almost 1 inch long now. You also can see some eggs that haven't hatched. I took 9 photos and this is the only one that was half-way decent.)

I've been a little afraid for the little tadpoles we got in the mail Friday. They seemed to be growing bigger, but they were rarely moving. The literature said they wouldn't move much, but it still seemed scary!

Well, the 5 original that hatched before we got them, are alive and doing well! They broke free from their egg sacs today and are now swimming around. (None of the other 10 have hatched.) One poor little guy has a crooked tail and can only swim in a circle. We're not sure what we're going to do about him.

We are just really having a lot of fun watching these little guys and are amazed at how fast they're growing! We even fed them for the first time this afternoon, although I'm not sure they ate anything.

Tadpoles: Day 1

Our frog embryos came last night!!! We were so amazed that they are so small. The literature told us that some could have hatched while in shipment, or they might hatch after we received them. Well, we have 15 eggs!!! And, 5 of those have hatched. They are so small!

Last night, we couldn't' tell for sure what anything was. But, today, you can tell the head, tail & gills of the 5 that have hatched. And, they are all (except one) still inside their yolk sac (you can see the faint circle around some of them in the photo). The 5 that have hatched wiggle occasionally. If you watch them for a few minutes, you'll see 1 or 2 wiggle.

I'm just so excited about them! (Alexandra is, too.) I was disappointed to learn that we are not supposed to release them. I honestly thought we could as they are a common type of frog. What will I do if all 15 survive???

amphibians and reptiles

Yesterday was a beautiful day! It has been cold & rainy most of the past 2 weeks, so we decided to take advantage of a warm (low 60's), sunny day.

After lunch, we had a scheduled docent tour at our museum. It was supposed to be on Texas Wildlife, but there were boxes piled up in the exhibit. So, they decided to give us a tour of the new Frogs exhibit instead - for free!

Since we'd studied frogs on Monday with our friends, I was happy to see that I'd covered the subject pretty well. We knew most of what the guide had to tell us, but we learned some new things, too. And, I loved seeing some live salamanders!

The frogs were amazing. Alexandra loved watching the tadpoles and everyone loved the poison dart frog exhibit. Alexandra even made a new friend.

After the tour, we went to the zoo. Besides looking at some other animals, we went to the amphibian and reptile building. We're going to study reptiles briefly this week, so I thought this would be a great place to start. Since Alexandra already knew the main types of amphibians, she had no problem figuring out which animals were the reptiles. And, of course, we discussed some of their differences. It's neat to be able to put what we're learning "to the test!"

By the way, all of the photos were taken at the zoo - I didn't take any at the exhibit. And, Alexandra took the picture of the crocodile (although I cropped it). Her's actually came out better than mine! And, I think I figured out that is best to take photos at an angle if you are taking them through glass, like I was for these animals. I'll test it some more next time.