Adopting Frogspawn

[Malcolm Banks]

[quote=posie;600923]With regard to 'moving' spawn etc, there is an issue not only with the adopted ones bringing in disease to it's new home, there is also the fact that they will not have the inborn resistance to the local problems lying dormant in it's new home, which the existing residents will have. Similar thing to this is....if a newborn orphaned mammal is given colostrum from a doner, it best to be a doner who has been living in the same area, as close as possible, in order to get the maximum protection from 'local disease' and etc. Colostrum from further away is better than nothing, but not as good as 'local' colostrum. QUOTE]

Supposing the mammal was orphaned by a disease that was new to the area? In that case colostrum from a mammal that had survived the disease in another area would be better. This could also be the case if the disease was transmitted in colostrum. Sorry, being pedantic again but there are a few other holes in the general theory of local immunity. In amphibians, as in hens, passive immunity (ie colostrum) is transferred with the egg.

Going back to newts, they mate May-June I think (mine did last year) and the prenups and nups are quite entertaining-I remember reading some threads on this last year (have a search) and the description of the tail waving etc are very good. They are not shy about it either, early evening was a good time in my pond. They lay eggs up until mid July and if you are patient you should be able to observe this also.
According to them as knows, if you don't got fish then there's good chance you will have newts - Happy newt hunting, saw my first one of the year today, a happy chappy
M

[posie]

Congratulations, so you are a Newt Daddy. I've seen one in my pond, but with Harry Heron dining regularly, who knows what the situation is. .......Yes I agree that there are some other circumstances that affect the colostrum issue, but unless you know they are there you cannot cater for them, so you just follow the basic rule. Anyway, that said, if you've got an orphan mammal you are glad enough to have anything near suitable to give it, to stop the wingeing Aaaahhhh Bless..

[reino]

Hello there,
Tobyh mentioned that he thought last years tadpoles wouldn't be breeding this year. I adopted some tadpoles last year and we saw a few frogs in the garden last summer.
I've checked the pond for the last few nights and there are two in there, croaking and spreadeagled on the top.
I was hoping for frogspawn this year but am now wondering if what Tobyh says is true?
Reino

[reino]

I can answer my own post .......a lovely big batch of frogspawn appeared overnight.....I can only assume it's from last years frogs.
Reino

[Naturenutz]

Great news on your frog spawn .On the subject of diseases,i often here people say about transferring diseases,what diseases are we talking about ? if a pond has frogspawn and other aquatic life surely its just as healthy as our fresh home dug pond ,and probably even more healthy. I am not saying its ok to take spawn,exspecially from wild ponds but if were honest many people pass spawn from garden ponds.I dont see the problem,infact the more the merrier.Most of our garden frogs and spawn originate from wild pond spawn collecting in bygone years in my opinion.

[dampflippers]

Originally Posted by Naturenutz

Great news on your frog spawn .On the subject of diseases,i often here people say about transferring diseases,what diseases are we talking about ? if a pond has frogspawn and other aquatic life surely its just as healthy as our fresh home dug pond ,and probably even more healthy. I am not saying its ok to take spawn,exspecially from wild ponds but if were honest many people pass spawn from garden ponds.I dont see the problem,infact the more the merrier.Most of our garden frogs and spawn originate from wild pond spawn collecting in bygone years in my opinion.

The diseases I know about are Ranvirus or Red leg disease in frogs, and the Chytrid virus.
This download from Froglife - conserving native frogs, toads, newts, lizards, snakes is quite useful: http://www.froglife.org/FAS/FAS7.pdf
Another nice download of the Froglife magazine here: http://www.froglife.org/Newsletter/FrogpageNov08.pdf

And this is where froglife would like you to report any amphibian deaths of any sort for their survey:
Froglife - information on disease

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by reino

I can answer my own post .......a lovely big batch of frogspawn appeared overnight.....I can only assume it's from last years frogs.
Reino

I think Toby's right I think frogs need to be 2 or 3 years old before they can breed. I suspect your frog are new frogs arrived because they think your pond is now suitable. Frogs are far more widespread that people realise because they tend to be active at night when no one is looking!

[reino]

Thanks Gill for your reply,
I had no idea they didn't lay the following year. I'm still pleased though as we've obviously got new frogs as well now. The more the merrier!!
Reino