Science Sunday: Frogs

I just had to share that our third tadpole finally got front legs this past week 

Aug 30th

and as of today has already lost his tail.

I was so concerned about them not having anything to eat at first.  I was doing some research and found out new little frogs can no longer eat lettuce and are not yet able to eat insects; their digestive systems are changing.  They are nourished in the interim by the nutrients in their tail as it is reabsorbed.  I found that information here.  

So, we then had to figure out what they needed to eat when they were able to.  In the above link I saw the suggestion to try fruit flies.  Easier said than done.  I didn't follow their directions (not sure how they figure you would be able to get their jar full of flies in any better than I did because they still fly up), instead I put a piece of tomato in a yogurt cup on the sink.  Boy do the fruit flies enjoy that.  Then I used a fish net to catch them.  My reasoning  for this was because the fruit flies usually fly up and away, if I had the net above the yogurt cup I could trap them, place a piece of paper on the opening and get them into the tank quickly. I figured I would then have a little longer to get the cover back on because they would be in the net a while longer.  It did work, but the flies stayed on one side of the tank and the frogs were on the other, where the rocks were.  I kept trying to nudge the flies and I think the one frog did catch one.  (The girls enjoyed watching them jump).   I don't think the flies were getting enough though.  I was getting really concerned, so today I tried something different.  We got a jar, filled it part way with rocks, placed a tomato with a hole in it in the jar and placed it in the water.  I left the lid half way off the tank and allowed the fruit flies to take the bait.  After a few hours (yes we still have fruit flies pretty bad and are trying lots of different trap ideas) I closed the lid and waited to see if they were eating.  They get very alert, but were still having trouble with the flies being on the one side more than the other. We had even moved a rock to the middle, but they seem to prefer the right side of the tank.  Anyhow, fortunately for the frogs, Steven came home from his fiances with a plastic bag with some regular house flies trapped in it.  We let them go through the hole in the cover.  The frogs were able to eat right away.  That was fun to watch.  Sorry, no pictures :(

I wasn't prepared.  

So we will keep them for now, as long as we can still get them food and can find them some greenery, I hear they like moss, just gotta find some.  

Next week we will hopefully have something new to post about.  That is, if my friend is successful in finding us what she promised to find us.  Stay tuned.

Here are the pictures from earlier this week:

September 2nd:

September 3rd:

This guy is really alert, think he might have had 

his eyes on a fruit fly.

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Science Sunday