Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How do you raise these miniature tadpoles once they become frogs? I scooped some little black tadpoles from a nearby pond and kept about five of them to see if they'd become frogs. Well, they have, but they're as small as my fingernails and impossible to feed.

My question is, what can I feed them and how can you take care of these miniature tadpoles, the ones that are too small to even eat a gnat?

So... why didn't ask this before you picked up the tadpoles?

They are most likely toadlets, and need to be fed everyday. If you can not secure food for them very soon, you should release them where you found them. They have very low energy reserves. They can eat fruit flies and pinhead crickets.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

I agree, they sound like toadlets. Flightless fruitflies (D. melanogaster) are an appropriate food item. If you have housed them near other amphibians or reptiles that are not collected from the same location then you should not release them due to the risk of introducing pathogens to the local populations.
There are a number of places you can order fruitflies. (If you have a Petco near you, check them they sometimes carry fruitflies). You will need to add a vitamin-mineral supplement to the fruitflies to prevent "MBD".

In a pinch you can also collect leaf litter and allow them to feed on the insects in the leaf litter as a supplement to the fruit flies or to hold you over until you get fruitflies.
You will need to replace the leaf litter daily. Dig down a couple of inches to get to the moist layer and look for a concentration of invertebrates. Collect this and spread it in a thin layer on a piece of plastic or wax paper in the toad's cage. The toadlets will then be able to catch and eat the invertebrates out of the leaf litter.

Ed

I just got some tadpoles too, i was thinking i could feed them ant eggs. Also how long would it probably take for them to turn in to little froglets/toadlets after hatching?
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Denise (Mom) and/or Jared (son)
Take care!
0.0.1 Brand new baby Ball Python - Eragon or Saphira
1.0 Ball Python - King Jake
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Merlin
1.0 Pixie Frog - Pixel
0.1 Blue-tongue Skink - Gila
2.0 Chinese Fire belly Newts - Fred n' Ed, and Ed n' Fred
1.0 Black Cat - Shorty
1.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa - coming soon (completing brumation with present owner before joining our home)
0.0.4 Tanks waiting on us to decide what is going in them! LOL

Probably can't feed them ant eggs as ant eggs do not move. Therefore, they are not recognized as food. Most toad tadpoles I see transform in under a month, though it varies between species and between the tadpoles themselves.
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Andy Maddox
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The Reptizone

If you steal in hunger, I will kick you when you try. These stand for me. Name your god and bleed the freak. I'd like to see. How you all would bleed for me.-Alice In Chains

If you mean what do you feed them while they are still tadpoles, then as long as they are not a filter feeding species like Xenopus then a good quality flake fish food is a good choice. This can be supplemented occasioanlly with black worms or a piece of earth worm.

If you are referring post metamorphosis then the food has to be alive and moving. Most anurans will literally starve to death surrounded by non-moving food items.

Ed

I'm talking about the tadpoles that have those sucker mouths like a plecostomus, what do i feed those?
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Denise (Mom) and/or Jared (son)
Take care!
0.0.1 Brand new baby Ball Python - Eragon or Saphira
1.0 Ball Python - King Jake
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Merlin
1.0 Pixie Frog - Pixel
0.1 Blue-tongue Skink - Gila
2.0 Chinese Fire belly Newts - Fred n' Ed, and Ed n' Fred
1.0 Black Cat - Shorty
1.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa - coming soon (completing brumation with present owner before joining our home)
0.0.4 Tanks waiting on us to decide what is going in them! LOL

snip "then a good quality flake fish food is a good choice. This can be supplemented occasioanlly with black worms or a piece of earth worm."

Ed

mine have been eaten baby crickets termites and little other invertebrates
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1.0.0 pine snakes
1.1.0 FBT
0.0.5 american toads i think
1.0.0 garter snakes
1.1.0 RES
1.1.0 Eastern painted turtles

It is also possible to remove all those tiny invertabrates from leaf litter with a kitchen strainer, a small bucket and a low wattage light bulb. Fill the strainer (the ones with the circle of fine mesh and plastic handle) with leaf litter and place this over a small bucket or tupperware. Hang a low wattage light bulb a few inches above the leaf litter and wait a few minutes. Most of the life in the leaf litter will not tolerate high temperatures so they will move to the bottom of the strainer to escape the heat. Come back to the container and then tap or shake the strainer and out of the bottom will fall 100's of tiny creatures. It's a great way to vary a tiny frog's diet. Good luck,
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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
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4.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
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2.1 Mantella crocea
0.1.4 Mantella madagascariensis
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
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0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.1 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis

Thanks Ed and Hecktick. In response to Colhichine's comments, I GOT THEM BECAUSE IT WAS INTERESTING!! GET IT!! PLUS I FED SOME TO MY TURTLES, OKAY!!

Now, in the aftermath I thought Why not see if I can raise a couple of these little creatures. But hey, MAYBE I'LL JUST FEED 'EM TO MY TURTLES, EH!!

Man, some people come across like they're Mother Nature herself.