Operation Tadpole!

Last week while hanging out the washing, Zeppelin and i found about 400 tadpoles swimming around in the smallest puddle ever in my back yard. The puddle was drying up fast so we rescued all that we could (about 200!) and made them a home. The next day the puddle was dry and the remaining tadpoles had gone to froggy heaven.

Google became my best friend for the next half hour as we found out what to feed them and how to take care of them. I thought back to my childhood when my cousin and i would catch them while my uncle would go fishing and we would take them home.... that's all i remember.

So it was off the the shop to buy a lettuce to boil and freeze for the little guys. We also went to the pet shop and brought fish flakes and a little net. Zeppelin loved it and kept asking when they were going to grow their legs... i told him it would take a little while!! He wakes up every morning and says 'hello my little babies' then we feed them and they go nuts! They love food! All they do is eat, well, they have nothing else to do i guess. Because there are so many, we feed them a few times a day and all the kids in the street come to watch.

I will update this post as they grow, they are actually quite cute, i cant wait for them to get little leggy's!!

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Here they are with tiny little legs!! Some of them are progressing much faster than others, there a quite a few with little legs and still a lot of them have none.

I must admit, i am very fond of the little fellows. There was a day when i noticed that they were very slow and sluggish and some of the big ones had started to eat the smaller ones! (eugh!).
I freaked out and jumped online and found out that when they get their legs, the change from herbivores to carnivores and need to eat insects and other foods.
I went straight to the pet shop to pick up a plant for more oxygen and a block of frozen blood worms. Since i have been feeding them blood worms, they have been perfect! I sit and watch them at feed time for so long, they are really amazing to watch.
I must admit..... I accidentally killed about 60 of the poor little guys!! I thought that the tub was over crowded and decided to move a few into another tub. Well, the next morning when i went to feed them, all the ones i had moved were stone cold dead. Not half dead, not some of them dead, ALL OF THEM COMPLETELY DEAD!! I felt so bad and i have no idea why they died????

Fast forward a week and i am watching them eat (They get fish flakes at 6:00am, boiled and frozen lettuce at 12pm, blood worm at 3:30pm and fish flakes again for dinner.) I spy a rather strange skinny looking tadpole and think he has arms.... i haven't even seen arm buds yet! Anyway here is this tiny little frog sitting in the plants, i was soooooooooo excited!! I scooped him out and put him on the rock while Andy ran for the camera, a few seconds after this photo he hopped back into the water, HIS FIRST EVER JUMP!

It wasn't until i saw him here that i noticed he was turning GREEN! A green tree frog! YAY!!
After a couple of days i counted 5 frogs. (almost frogs....) Some are still brown but 2 nights ago i came out to give them dinner and saw this little green guy ready to make his escape!