The Frog's Life Cycle

When frogs lay eggs, they can lay thousands at a time. Sadly, usually more than half of the eggs are eaten before becoming adults. Even once the eggs are hatched, the young, unexperienced tadpole faces many dangers. Frogs usually lay eggs in masses (called the frog spawn), but toads lay them in long chains.

The cell in the egg splits in two, then four, then eight and so on until it begins to look more and more like a tadpole floating around inside the egg. The mass of cells begins to form and embryo. Gills and organs start to grow. The eggs usually take 6-21 days to hatch for the average frog.

After developing for 21 days (living off the yolk in the egg), the egg hatches and the tadpole attaches himself to a weed in the water (for most frogs, not all). Then, the tadpoles grow until they are large enough to break free into the water, and this can take from 3-21 days. The tadpole really only consists of a gill, some organs, a mouth and a tail. He is very sensitive at this point and prone to many dangers. The tadpole feeds on smaller plants in the water.

The gills, at this point, start to get grown over by the skin and tiny teeth that grind food and turn it into oxygenated particles form.

After a while, little legs and arms start to pop out of the tadpole's skin and the head becomes more distinct. The little body grows longer. Lungs begin to develop, which prepares the baby frog for his life on the land. By this time, the tadpole looks like a frog with a long tail.

The frog starts to shed his skin and lips. Their mouths widen, and they lose their teeth. The tail grows much smaller. Tadpoles will not eat while their tail is shortening, because they get all the nutrients they need from the tail.

After a strenuous 11-16 weeks, the frog is now an adult ready to lay eggs and start the process over. The tail is either a tiny stub or gone completely. The frog has all it needs to survive on land.

(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Raising a Tadpole

Raising a tadpole is fun and easy. There are a few basic rules, but they will all pay off when you see your little baby tadpole turn into a grown frog! Tadpoles can live in plastic cups with seran wrap covering the top until they grow into frogs.

It usually takes eggs 6-12 weeks to hatch into tadpoles. If you happen to get your tadpoles in the winter, don't worry. Tadpoles usually grow slower when it's cold. When tadpoles grow legs, you will need a container where they can climb out of the water to breathe. Otherwise, they will drown.

Clean Water
One of the first and most important things you need to maintain is clean water. Tadpoles thrive in clean water, and, just like any other animal, don't do that well in dirty water. You should clean the water only when it really looks dirty, not just on a regular basis. Otherwise you might stress your tadpole.



Cleaning the Water
Cleaning the water for a tadpole is much easier than cleaning the terrarium for a frog.

• Ziploc bag (make sure it has NO holes)


• Fresh water that is the same temperature of the water your tadpole has been staying in.


• Plastic cup


• Plastic spoon


• Seran wrap

Take some of the dirty water from the tadpole's cup (it needs to be enough to cover your tadpole). Zip the bag shut and pour the dirty water out. Fill a new cup with fresh water and gently pour your tadpole (there will be a little dirty water added to the clean water, but there's not much you can do about it) into the clean cup with fresh water. Cover the cup with seran wrap.

Feeding
Your tadpole will first have to eat lettuce until he is bigger. Then he can start to eat small crickets and fruit flies, and bloodworms later. Tadpoles love lettuce and the best way to feed it to them is to first boil it for ten to fifteen minutes. After you boil it, chop it into tiny pieces and freeze it. Feed your tadpole a pinch of the frozen lettuce every day.

Tadpoles will also eat spinach (prepared the same way as the lettuce), tadpole food or fish flakes. Feed the flakes to the tadpole every other day. When the tadpole starts to grow legs and is able to climb out of his container, you can start feeding it small insects, like fruit flies or gnats, every two days.

Don't overfeed your frog. This enables the water to get dirtier much faster.

Water
When housing your tadpole, never ever use chlorinated or distilled water. Distilled water is sometimes said to have nothing harmful in it. The fact is, it has nothing in it at all, not even good minerals. Use dechlorinated tap water.