Froggy Fun
Hippity
Hop
Do you have a small wading pool in your backyard just accumulating rain
water? Don’t dump it out, let those friendly frogs find it and make a nice home.
Nothing is quite as exciting as finding those eggs and knowing that someday
soon they will turn into frogs. We have a swimming pool that every spring
becomes habitat to hundreds of green tree frogs. Children love to come over and
claim tadpoles to take home and observe the amazing process of becoming adult
frogs.
Raising Frogs
1.
Food:
lettuce – boil 10 – 15 minutes drain, chop up, lay on a tray and freeze
into ice cube trays.
1 cube every
couple of days should be enough for a small pond, use less for an aquarium and
give the tadpoles or a pinch every day or so.
(Caution- too
little food and the tadpoles will attack and eat other, too much food and the
water will get really dirty)
2.
Perch: Lilies with branches and pads, plastic that
floats, a stick that floats or leans against the edge are perfect for the tiny
young frogs to rest on. (This is for
when the tadpoles begin to form legs)
3.
Fresh water without chlorine.
Frogs eggs usually take from 6 to twenty one days to turn
into tadpoles then into frogs; depending on warmth. Strangely, if it is cold
enough a tadpole can remain a tadpole for 8 months before turning into a frog!
The tadpoles are fine without food the first few days after
hatching because they feed on the yolk in from the egg they came from.
Interesting fact is that the yolk is in the tadpoles own belly! About 7-10 days
after hatching the tadpoles with swim around and begin to eat algae.
At four weeks of age the tadpoles begin to get their tiny
teeth to grind their food into tiny absorbable pieces into a soup. These tadpoles
can become very friendly and form groups that they swim around together in.
Six to nine weeks of age is another milestone for our
friendly tadpole, the legs begin to pop out. First an elbow, then another elbow
and finally its legs. Now we can see a miniature frog with a long tail.
Twelve weeks leaves us looking at a completely formed frog,
just smaller. This frog is ready to venture out of water and travel, later to
return, find a froggy mate and lay its eggs in the pond. And a new cycle of
life begins.
Hazards of Frog Raising: Be careful of where you
place your frog pond, my niece set them in a bucket on the deck and crows came
and got them. My niece cried for hours.
My 5 year old friend took some home in a nice aquarium and
put it in his garage and soon little frogs were hopping throughout it. His mom
cried for hours. J
Frogs Singing Soundtracks
Green Tree frog http://allaboutfrogs.org/files/sounds/greentree.wav
Red eyed tree frog http://allaboutfrogs.org/weird/general/songs.html
Questions about frogs: http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/doctor/common.html
http://allaboutfrogs.org/froglnd.shtml
Frog Fun Crafts and learning
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