Got frogspawn out of Pond and into bucket couple of weeks ago..?

Question

Tadpoles now emerged and most healthy. What can we do to keep them happy - i.e. food wise? Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Their natural food is algae. If there's any in the pond where you found them, that should do nicely. If you want something a little more convenient, use a piece of lettuce (not iceberg) and blanch it before feeding it to them.

Fish foods and meat should not be a part of their regular diet - tadpoles have digestive systems of herbivores, although they might eat a dead tadpole from their container. Keep the diet primarily plant-based.

As they start to grow back legs, it's a good idea to set up a rock or piece of wood so they can get out of the water as they metamorphose into an adult. At this point, they should be fed live insects appropriate for their size. Bullfrogs can take small crickets, but some species (American toad, spring peeper) are so small, they need fruit flies or gnats. My guess for the time of year, yours are going to be wood frog tadpoles. If you live near the pond, you may have heard the adults calling - they almost sound like a quacking duck.

Answer 2

As well as pond weed they enjoy shrimp larvae and other small insects. In natural pond water there will being living microbes that you cannot see but the tadpoles can. So make sure they are near the pond. Hope they are okay.

Answer 3

Im rearing some frog spawn at the moment and a friend recommended that all I did was provide some pond weed for them ( the curly kind ). They are very happy with this and are growing nicely. Good Luck.

Answer 4

They really don't eat pond weeds but the parasites and small insects that are on them. Flake fish food works as well.

Even breadcrumbs.

Answer 5

We used to collect frog spawn every year as kids - they like chick weed and if you tie a piece (about 1" cube) of raw meat(beef/pork) on a bit of string and leave dangling in the water they like that too - string makes it easy to remove after a day or two, before it goes off.
Once they start getting their little legs it's an idea to make an area where they can climb of the water a bit.
(We used to use a large old/casserole dish to keep ours in) They will get their back legs first.
We always used to release the frogs back to where we got the frog spawn, once they got to be about 2", so don't know after that.
Good luck.

Answer 6

First I want them, my frogs deserting me. As for food they are happy with gold fish flake, once bigger they love baby newts but parents newts love them as well.