Metamorphosis- our adventure with tadpoles and frogs

To begin our journey we must travel back in time, 3 months to be semi-precise. Nicole was hosting our 4-H meeting and the topic of discussion was tadpoles. She had retrieved quite a few tadpoles from her pond to share with all of the members of the group. The kids were all thrilled with the idea of raising tadpoles even if not all the moms were. Nicole was not really sure what type of frog these tadpoles would turn into, but she had narrowed it down quite a bit and thought their transformation should take about 90-100 days. The kids all loved learning about tadpoles and just watching them swim around in their container.



Brandon, Nathan, and William observing the tadpoles




We chose out five tadpoles to bring home. I figured that our chance of raising all five were very slim, so I was hoping to get at least four out of the bunch. I had never planned on having tadpoles or any aquatic animals for that matter, so we had nothing for our new friends to live in. We went out and bought a nice new 10 gallon tank for them and some fun ground cover.

Here they are in their new home.


Here is what our tadpoles looked like on March 20th.


As nature would have it over the first few weeks, two of the tadpoles died. I was surprised how well the kids took the loss of each of the tadpoles. We unceremoniously sent them out to sea via the toilet. Our tadpoles never seemed to like the lettuce that I was feeding them, so I did some research online and found they will also eat some algae tablets, so off I went to get them. So far the other three tadpoles seem to be growing fine on them.

One thing I don't think any of us were prepared from was exactly how long 90-100 days is(and that was just an educated guess). We watched our tadpoles every day and hoped for some sort of change. It took over a month before we started to see change on any of them.

On May 7th we woke up and found one of them had sprouted some hind legs.


Finally we were getting somewhere, or were we? We watched and watched and neither of the other tadpoles started sprouting legs, and our one with them was only very slowly developing those hind legs. It was another month before they really looked like legs.

Here he is on June 3rd.


Suddenly he started looking more and more like a frog, and then just four days later he had his front arms poking out.


Since then the changes have been coming on quickly for this little fellow. In less than a week he went from little front leg sprouts, to coming out of the water and breathing air.

Here are a couple of shots from June 13th. His tail had already shortened significantly.



In the last 3 days his tail has nearly disappeared altogether. In his most recent photos, taken today, he looks like a frog.



Now we have one land loving frog that we have yet to figure out what I am supposed to be feeding now, one tadpole that has pretty well developed hind legs, so I expect him to change soon, and one that has just barely sprouted his hind legs. I can only assume that the tadpoles we originally picked were not from the same group of eggs. I am however shocked at how big a difference there seems to be. I am very curious as to how he will develop once the other two are frogs. Maybe he will speed up once he is the only one looking for food. Maybe he won't dirty the water up so quickly, I can only hope. The kids still like to check on them daily, so I guess it is a good thing. Next we have to decide if we are going to keep them as frogs, or return them to the pond in which they came. Depending on how long it takes for them to start croaking, might make a difference in their fate.