From Frog Eggs, to Tadpoles, To Frogs!
My son and I have been watching the frog life cycle unfold before our eyes. Over the past few weeks, we've recorded in photos and text our discoveries as we observed frog eggs hatch into tadpoles, and then tadpoles grow, change shape and metamorphosize into frogs. Now we're observing our young frogs hopping around their terrarium, eating bugs, hiding in the moss in their terrarium, and climbing here and there on the various items we've added to make their habitat more interesting for them.
We've provided some tips we've learned about raising frogs. We've also shared additional factual information about tadpoles and frogs.
The whole process is still going on, as we've had one tadpole just become a frog today! Therefore, check back often as we continue to update the site with new information!
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Frog Life Cycle
Tadpole Metamorphosis
Frog eggs are the first stage in the frog life cycle.
Our frog eggs hatched into tiny tadpoles!
Our tadpoles are changing shape!
Growing hind legs is the next stage.
Front legs come after the back ones.
Next young froglets lose their tails.
Raising Tadpoles and Frogs
How to house frog eggs and tadpoles
What to feed tadpoles
Supplies You May Need For Your Tadpoles
Changing the water in your tadpoles habitat.
Our Frog's New Home
Humidity in your frog habitat
How To Catch Tiny Bugs For Your Young Frogs To Eat
More About Tadpoles and Frogs
Photo credit: JH from Finland
How do tadpoles and frogs breath?
Frog Skeleton
Classification of Frogs and Toads
What is the difference between frogs and toads?
Items For Sale
Books About Tadpoles And Frogs
Supplies You May Need For Your Tadpoles
Tadpole Habitat
Additional Photos Of Our Frogs
I think I can, I think I can....A young froglet emerges from the water
Should I stay, or should I go? Moving into a terrarium
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Tadpoles Metamorphosis
These drawings show some of the changes that tadpoles go through on their way to becoming young frogs. Tadpoles start out with a head/abdomen and a tail. Next their back legs begin to grow. Front feet pop out next. Gradually their tail gets smaller and smaller until it's completely gone.
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Frog Eggs are the First Stage In The Frog Life Cycle
April 30: Day 1 of our Frog Life Cycle Project
Frog eggs appear as tiny specks of black inside a jelly like substance.
A friend of ours has a pond in her backyard. She gathered up some of the frog eggs in her pond to share with the various members of our small homeschool group. We're studying the frog life cycle in our science curriculum, and what better way to learn than to observe the process first hand?!
The picture above is of our frog eggs resting in the bottom of a container of pond water. They resemble a chicken egg,(one that's been opened and poured into a bowl) in that they have a center part surrounded by an almost clear jelly-like substance. Frog eggs don't ever have a hard shell surrounding them though.
One difference between frog eggs and toad eggs is that frog eggs are in blobs or clumps, called frog sprawn, and toad eggs are in strings.
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Our Frog Eggs Hatched Into Tiny Tadpoles!
May 2: These tadpoles hatched overnight last night!
Tadpoles, or polliwogs as they are sometimes called, are the second stage in the frog life cycle. These photos are enlarged so you can see them better. Each tadpole in this photo was actually smaller than a centimeter. Notice the clear covering over the tadpoles' tails.
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Our Tadpoles are changing shape!
May 9: The tadpoles are now one week old.
Our tadpoles are a week old. Look how much they've changed! Their bodies are now rounder and their tails are skinnier. The clear substance surrounding their tails is barely visible now.
Although they have plenty of room to swim around, they spent most of their time facing the sides of the bowl until today. Their activity has definitely increased now.
The photograph above is enlarged, but you can now very clearly see the tadpoles' eyes even to the naked eye.
(Check back in a few days for more photos of our tadpoles, as we continue to document their metamorphosis into frogs! But don't leave yet! More information is below!)
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Growing hind legs is the next stage
May 25: Three of our tadpoles now have hind legs!
Both of a tadpole's back legs appear at the same time.
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Front legs come next
June 1: One of our tadpoles got front legs today!
He still has a really long tail, but is looking more and more like a young frog!
Next young froglets lose their tails.
Actually, it's not that their tails fall off. It's that they get shorter and shorter.
Notice the difference one day makes!
This is the same froglet as the one in the photo in the previous section, just one day later!
This was taken from the outside of his home, and shows his underside.
His tail just barely touches his water. It will probably be completely gone by
tomorrow or the day after that. You can see his rock in the background.
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How to house frog eggs and tadpoles
Planning in advance is essential for frog eggs and tadpoles!
Chlorine will kill tadpoles within 30 minutes or so. Either collect sufficient pond water for your frog eggs or tadpoles (and be prepared to go back for more later) or use tap water which has been set out for at least 5 to 7 days (in the sunlight, if possible) to allow the chlorine to evaporate.
Another option is to purchase de-chlorinating drops at a pet store. Read the directions on the bottle to find out how much to add, based on the amount of water you are using. Then, after adding the drops, wait until the following day before using the water to ensure that all the chlorine is gone.
The Container / Habitat
Although you can't tell it in the picture,
this is one of those larger rectangular sizes
of food storage containers. It will work fine for now.
A large jar, plastic container, fish bowl, or aquarium will work fine for the initial days of raising frog eggs and tadpoles inside. Around the time their front legs appear, a flatter container (or an aquarium with only a few inches of water in it) will work better so that you can add a rock that has a relatively flat top surface that rises above the water.
Many people also raise tadpoles outside in kiddie pools, ponds, garden fountains, etc. A friend of mine has wild frogs lay eggs in her small kiddie pool every year, although she does nothing to encourage this other than not empty the pool each spring!
The Sun
Although too much sun is not good for tadpoles, they do need a little sunlight each day in order to make vitamin D. Tadpoles that don't receive any sunlight may not develop into frogs. Please be careful in supplying this sun so that you don't overheat the tadpoles or their water!!
The Rock
As the tadpoles grow, and gain both back legs and front legs, you'll need to add a rock for them to hop on to get out of the water. Otherwise, they may drown when they suddenly reach the stage where they need to breath air! (It may happen sooner than you think, too! They don't have to have completely lost all of their tail before reaching the state where they breath with lungs.) It's best if the rock provides a gradual slope for the young froglets to climb out on. Also, once they are able to hop up on the rock, you'll need some sort of lid or they'll hop right out!
If you are raising the frogs outside, simply make sure they can easily access the land when they reach the stage where they need to get out of the water.
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Tadpole Habitat
Animal Planet -planet Frog
If you would prefer to purchase a pre-made habitat for your tadpoles, here is one you might like to consider. It has a pool for the tadpoles to swim in, and also easy access to the dry land above, offering the frog a place to go when he becomes able to breath through his lungs.
What to feed tadpoles
Frog eggs don't need anything from you in order to thrive, except for clean, chlorine-free water, and pleasant room temperatures.
Once the frog eggs hatch into tadpoles, you can feed them goldfish flakes. Our tadpoles are also enjoying goldfish granules that sink to the bottom of the bowl, and algae nuggets, all three of which are available in the fish supplies section of many pet stores, as well as on this site.
Another option is to boil lettuce for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the water off, chop the lettuce up a little, and freeze it in ice cube trays or ziplock bags. Freezing it softens the lettuce to where they can more easily eat it.
Don't overfeed them or their water will get cloudy.
Tadpoles Eating Goldfish Flakes
May 11 - The Tadpoles Are Just Over A Week Old.
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Supplies You May Need For Your Tadpoles
These are all available at most pet stores, but I'll provide them here for those who would prefer to shop from home. Some type of water conditioner is necessary to remove chlorine from tap water. Chlorine will kill tadpoles.
Changing the water in your tadpoles habitat.
Your tadpoles' water will likely need to be changed every so often. The frequency of water changes depends upon how many tadpoles you are caring for, as well as if you are over-feeding them (as that quickly clouds the water).
To change their water, prepare another container with room temperature chlorine-free water. (We keep some extra prepared water on hand at all times while raising tadpoles. Just put water in a large bowl, add the water conditioner drops to it, and keep it nearby for use whenever you need it.) Then use a net or spoon to gently scoop the tadpoles up and transfer them to the new container. Do the process quickly, so that they are not out of water very long. Lower the net down into the water, invert it some if necessary, and allow the tadpole to swim out on his own. Be very careful while adding the tadpoles back into water as you don't want any tiny feet to get stuck in the net!
If the container you have just added your tadpoles to is large enough to be their new home, wash the other container and store it for the next time you need to change their water (or fill it up with chlorine-free water for later use). If you have only added the tadpoles to a temporary container while changing the water, rinse out and dry their home, then very, very carefully and gently pour the tadpoles and water back into it. (Or use the net again to transfer the tadpoles back, making sure to use room temperature de-chlorinated water.)
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I think I can, I think I can....
Our Frog's New Home
Here's how we set up our frog terrarium.
In this photo, our tiny new froglet is resting on the side of his former home
- the container with a rock and water in it. He's not yet left the safety of his
previous home in order to explore his new terrarium.
On the floor of our terrarium is astroturf carpet which we purchased as "reptile carpeting" at the pet store. We added small plastic plants and also a large rock and plant aquarium decoration, in order to give our tree frog something interesting to climb on. We put in a plastic dish of water which is shaped somewhat like a rock in the middle of the terrarium. Also covering the middle section of the terrarium is moss, which most frogs love as it retains moisture and increases the humidity in their home. One one side of the terrarium is a little plastic hut which will serve as a cave for our frog to hide in if he desires.
Underneath one side of the terrarium is a heating element. This provides a little warmth for our cold-blooded frog. He can choose to be over the heated section, or the non-heated section, depending upon what he needs at that moment. The heating element came in a "tree frog kit" that we purchased at the pet store.
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Should I stay, or should I go?
How To Catch Tiny Bugs For Your Young Frogs
Once your tadpoles become frogs, they'll need live bugs to eat. This youtube has some awesome tips on catching bugs for your frogs!!
Flightless Fruit Flies
These can be fed to your froglets. Each culture should continue reproducing fruit flies for a month or more.
If you find you aren't able to collect enough bugs for your frogs to eat using the methods above, or if you'd just prefer a simpler way to supply your frogs with bugs, pinhead crickets or flightless fruit flies are enjoyed by most young froglets and can be purchased. You may be able to find flightless fruit flies or pinhead crickets at your local pet store, but not all pet stores carry them. You can also purchase flightless or wingless fruit flies or pinhead crickets online. Flightless or wingless fruit flies are much easier to deal with then regular fruit flies you catch outside....especially if you have a terrarium inside and would prefer not to have fruit flies flying all around your house!
Each container of fruit flies will continue producing more fruit flies for a month or more, as long as you keep at least a few adults in the container. You only need to shake a few fruit flies (per frog) into your frog's habitat every day or so, depending upon how quickly they get eaten.
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Another method of catching bugs for your frogs!
P.S. My friend said that she found it easier to remove the handle on the butterfly net when using it for this purpose. The handle just got in the way.
Thanks for the tip, Randi! :-)
Fish / Butterfly / Insect Net - Large
Amazon Price: $4.49 (as of 01/05/2010) 
Butterfly Net
Amazon Price: $8.48 (as of 01/05/2010)
Butterfly Net
Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 01/05/2010)
What You'll Find On This Page
Humidity in your frog habitat
June 4: This little fellow hatched from an egg, into a tadpole, 33 days ago,
and left the water as a frog two days ago. He's just over a centimeter big
when his legs are pulled in close to him.
Our terrarium often has water droplets on the glass, and although it makes visibility for us a bit harder, it's good for the frog. When we want a good view of our frog, we can just lift off the lid.
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Books About Tadpoles And Frogs
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June 11: There are now 5 little frogs in our terrarium. They enjoy being either in high places or under the cool moist moss.
June 26: As of two days ago, we have 7 little frogs. They're eating crickets, fightless fruitflies, and a few bugs we catch.
How do tadpoles and frogs breath?
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Frog Skeleton
Classification of Frogs and Toads
Frogs and toads are amphibians.
The class "Amphibia" refers to amphibians. Amphibians means "double life" in the Greek language, because most amphibians live part of their lives on land and part in water. Amphibians are cold blooded and have a backbone. They differ from reptiles in that they don't have scales and most lay their eggs in water. Salamanders, newts and caecilians (worm like animals) are also in the Amphibia class.
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What is the difference between frogs and toads?
There are several differences in the bodies of frogs and toads.
Toads have short hind legs, which are better suited for walking than hopping.
Toad
Frogs like to live around water.
Toads like to live in drier areas.
Frogs have slimy or smooth skin.
Toads have dry skin with warts.
Frogs have a narrower body than toads.
Frogs' eyes stick out more from their bodies than toads' eyes do.
A group of frogs is called an army.
A group of toads is called a knot.
Frog
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- Jimmie Jimmie Nov 30, 2009 @ 5:22 am
- Amazing lens! Favorited and gladly featured in the Nature Study section of the Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Headquarters.
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- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Nov 24, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
- I see that your son is a fellow frog lover.
This lens is now featured on All About Frogs.
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- paperfacets paperfacets Oct 15, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
- Perfect lenses for learning. Very professional. Enjoyed this very much.
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- JoyfulPamela JoyfulPamela Oct 1, 2009 @ 8:39 am
- The pictures and information are awesome! You did a fantastic job on this lens. Thank you! Pamela
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- homebasedangell homebasedangell Aug 12, 2009 @ 10:03 am
- Oh my gosh, this is one of the most informative lenses I have seen! I can't wait to have my two daughters read this. I wish there was a rating for a 10*, but I guess I'll settle with a 5*.
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- Janiece Janiece Jul 24, 2009 @ 6:13 pm | in reply to Jeremy
- Hi Jeremy,
Other than using a spoon to scoop out the mosquito larva, I don't have any ideas for you. I have heard that the tadpoles will eat the mosquito larva when the tadpoles grow larger, but haven't experimented with that myself!.
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- andreaberrios andreaberrios Jul 23, 2009 @ 12:49 am
- Thank you for this wonderful lens. I love reading it and the pics! 5* from me and favorite! Check out my Cute Frogs Lens when get a chance. Thank you again!
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- Richard Richard Jul 13, 2009 @ 10:47 pm
- Janiece
My almost three year old great grandson came home with a bucket of tadpoles. Most have now become frogs and I have been having quite a time getting insects small enough for them. Your site was a lifesaver. Even Logan(my ggs) enjoyed it. Thanks. God Bless Homeschoolers!
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- Jeremy Jeremy Jul 12, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
- Hi, We have a bunch of tadpoles in our kiddie pool. It is also beginning to have some mosquito larvae in it. Are there any necessary steps in cleaning it so that the tadpoles will prosper and the mosquitoes will not? Thanks..
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- tandemonimom tandemonimom Jul 7, 2009 @ 8:15 pm
- Excellent page! Welcome to The Homeschooling Group!
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