Raising frogs?

[Alice]

Has anyone done this?

 

Someone gave us a bunch of frog eggs they had collected (I guess from a pond) and I think it would be fun to raise them...but I'm full of questions..

 

What do I put them in?

Can we keep them outdoors? I saw a lot of info online about aquariums but I'd prefer to have them outside. With a 17 mo old in the house, they'll have a better chance of survival.:001_smile:

What do we feed them?

Can we release them in the wild when they are frogs?

 

I did call our local nature center and they were moderately helpful. She gave me a little advice but mostly was discouraging the idea of removing the eggs from the wild. Which in principle I agree with...but now I have the eggs regardless. She also made it sound really complicated and like I needed to buy a lot of special equipment. (Aquarium, Aerator, etc). I was kind of thinking put them in water in the backyard...provide some kind of food and see what happens.

 

Help!

[Jenstet]

There are frog kits you can order online. Maybe they sell frog food.

I have considered getting one of the kits but I have heard frogs can last years. Our local educational supply store has a frog that is 17 years old.

I would let them go in the pond if that is where the eggs came from. Otherwise you could be raising frogs for awhile.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I was told that you could feed them gold fish food (at the tadpole stage). When I was a kid we had eggs just in a dishpan outside in the yard (no aerator). My BIL has an old aquarium with aerator on this back porch with the frog eggs. I think the idea with the aerator is to make sure that there is enough oxygen in the water.

[Robyn]

My aunt fishes a bunch of tadpoles out of her pool every spring and we usually take one. I have a small aquarium I put them in and feed them fish food. I throw some rocks in there so they can climb out when they are ready. You could probably just use a plastic storage bin or something similar.

 

When they are frogs we let them go again. I've never done anything special with them and we've never lost one.

 

Make sure that you get a screen cover for the container when they grow legs if you do decide to keep them indoors. It is not fun to chase a little frog around your kitchen. -Although my ds found it hysterical.

[Alice]

Thanks for the help! We decided to "release" the eggs back to a local pond. This might be a fun project another year but right now it was stressing me out for whatever reason. My son liked the idea of letting the eggs have a better chance of survival..so everyone is happy.

 

(Robyn-We let them go before I read your post...I might not have been as stressed. Sounds pretty simple the way you describe it. I'll have to remember that next time. )