Advice on keeping tadpoles

[vole-woman]

Thie year I've brought in five tadpoles from our pond so my boys can watch them develop. Can anyone remind me:

a) what they eat when they're little (I've got Canadian weed in there at the moment, but I've heard they're partial to fish flakes - is that right?)

b) at what stage they need meat

c) when they're likely to need a rock to sit on

Many thanks!

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by vole-woman

Thie year I've brought in five tadpoles from our pond so my boys can watch them develop. Can anyone remind me:

a) what they eat when they're little (I've got Canadian weed in there at the moment, but I've heard they're partial to fish flakes - is that right?)

b) at what stage they need meat

c) when they're likely to need a rock to sit on

Many thanks!

fish flakes are probably just fine as they are protein based and you probably won't need meat at all (which is a good thing as meat can quickly pollute the water). I'm not sure about at what age they move away from algae and vegetable matter as their main food source though, perhaps when they are a little bigger and you can clearly see thiwer eyes etc try them on a little flake and see how it goes? As for a rock to sit on, I think that's when they are all legged up on all corners! Also make sure you do any water changes with either pond water or tap water that has been left to stand for a day or two to allow the chlorine to evaporate.

[vole-woman]

Thanks, Gill. Sorry it's such a basic question, but I haven't kept tads since I was a child.

[galanthus]

They begin to need protein in the form of fish flakes, chicken etc when their first legs break through. Until then they'll eat algae and are very partial to lettuce apparently. Most of my tadpoles like to bask very near the surface of the water when they're larger, so maybe popping something in to break the surface should be done when they look as if they're growing Good luck.

[vole-woman]

Chicken? Blimey!

Ta.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by vole-woman

Chicken? Blimey!

Ta.

When mine get the to the leg stage they like chopped up worms and crashed snails

[Paul mabbott]

At first they live on algae in the water or duckweed - if they begin to run out of this I tend to throw in a piece of stale bread. They do seem to prefer the bread to have margarine and marmite on it.

Or, you could do what happens in nature - put in more tadpoles: a valuable food resource.

[vole-woman]

There are, of the 5, 2 which are worryingly small...

[Dogghound]

Boiled lettuce is good if you carnt get algae. As the others have said they will become carnivorous as they develop their legs, once fore limbs start developing place a stone/brick in their and release them once they get to this stage. The two smaller ones are either smaller due to being bullied, not getting enough food, genetically smaller or are unwell. Some take abit longer to start growing as with humans.

[vole-woman]

I'll let you know what happens to the little ones.

Noticed today that a lot of tadpoles in my pond have gathered round a fat ball that rolled in there and settled on the bottom. I suppose they're eating the algae rather than the fat at this stage.