Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Raising Tadpoles

Back in earlier spring when it rained a LOT, Alec discovered a puddle full of tadpoles near the barn.


LOTS of tadpoles!


Well, inevitably the day came that the tadpole puddle began to dry up... and you can imagine what was happening to the poor tadpoles. So, Alec and I went to the dollar store to find a tadpole pond.


We put a child's pool... our tadpole pond... in the shade of the back yard and filled it with creek water.


Then we put a chair near the pool... and voila ... our own little tadpole nature center right in our own back yard!


We feed them dog food.


We just toss a couple pieces into the pool, and they latch on!


They have really grown! Some of them are starting to grow little back legs! We put rocks in the pool for them to climb on, but they mostly still stay in the water.


I found one sitting on the rock... no tail!


Soon we can fix the rocks so they can climb out if the choose. We saved their lives!

2 comments:

  1. That is a good idea! I will have to do that next year. We usually have a lot of tadpoles in a ditch that dries up so I could do that with a little pool we already have. My 7 yr old son would love that! He had a box turtle he caught 4 days ago that he loves watching and playing with. I am now making him let it out so it can eat something! The strange thing is that turtle seems to like him!

    Have a Great Day!
    Angela

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  2. We just built a little "bridge" for them to climb out when they choose. My son is 15, but he has a form of high-functioning autism, and collecting animals is one of his joys! A word to the wise though -- cover your tadpole pool with a screen at night... I think critters have come down and helped themselves to ours!

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