Monday, July 16, 2012

Frog Release Day

A couple of days ago was a big day for our family....it was our annual Frog Release Day.  It was the day we released Lunker the frog to a nearby lake.  Around here, every spring tadpoles start popping up in ponds, streams, puddles, etc.  This year, the third that we have started doing this, we caught several tadpoles in a 5 gallon bucket and brought them home.  Once home, we placed them in an aquarium set up in my daughter's room and frog watch began.  Every day we fed them either small aquatic animal food bought from a local pet store or we boil lettuce and serve that to them (cooled).  We keep the tank reasonably clean and make sure to use either rain water that we collect or water that we gathered from the water source where we caught the tadpoles.  We have learned the hard way not to use tap water!  It is fun and educational to watch your tadpole for the back legs to pop out, then for the front legs and finally for the tail to start to disappear.  It is gratifying to care for a tadpole and then release it back to the wild as a frog. 

A Couple of Ideas to Think About as You Care for Your Tadpole/Frog:

Try to gather extra water in a bucket from the water source where you caught your tadpole.  You can use your water to clean the tank as needed.  Tadpoles don't do well in tap water...the chlorine doesn't agree with them

Try to release your frog in the same place that you caught your tadpole---not always possible if you caught your tadpole in a seasonal puddle that drys up.

Not all of your tadpoles will make it to frogs.  This year we had a tadpole that was cannibalistic...something we had never seen before.  No matter how much food we put in the tank Lunker would be caught eating other tadpoles.  He was a large tadpole when we caught him so we will avoid catching extra large tadpoles in the future.

Have fun!

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