Monday, June 8, 2009

Froglets


We're just a regular zoo around here lately. First we had the butterflies, then Jack was on a caterpillar craze for a while (sadly, when we went to PA we forgot about him and he did not make it). Over Memorial Day weekend, we were at Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Doug's and the kids were really into the tadpoles. Neily was a little concerned as to what was going to happen to them when they opened the pool for the summer, so we decided to take in a few strays.
After reading a little about them online, we wondered if we'd bitten off more than we could chew. There are only about 43,267, 892 varieties of tadpoles and frogs, and they all seem to eat something different. And, apparently, the reason that there are millions of tadpoles is because only a very small percentage survives into froghood. Great. So thanks to my brilliant idea of bringing home tadpoles, we were now going to end up with dozens of dead frogs?
The fun began the night we got them home and Neily dipped into her water to show us that she had a frog already, only to find that he was no longer with us. She poked at him a little bit and when reality sunk in that he was definitely gone, she was REALLY upset and I felt horrible!
Knock on wood, but it seems like we have some success. We've been feeding the tadpoles dried seaweed (Petsmart) and they are eating it and mostly alive. One tub is doing well and the other entire tub croaked.... so we lied and told the kids that we combined the tubs. We now have about a dozen tadpoles with legs and arms, and we have (I think) 3 baby frogs. They are REALLY tiny but seem to be making it out of the water onto the rocks and lilypads okay. Except now we don't know what frogs eat, or when we should release them into their new home, the creek that runs through our neighborhood.


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