We had moved the turtles outdoors and still have the turtle tank set up in the house. So, when the children collected a mess of tadpoles during a play date, we had a perfect environment to keep them viable.
The tadpoles seemed to adjust to the tank quite well. We were not sure what to feed them and scoured the internet for advice. From dried ground lettuce to fish flakes, everyone had an opinion. We decided to go with fish flakes, since we had them on hand. I crumbled the flakes daily and fed the tadpoles. They are hardy eaters!
Little Man woke every day and raced to the tank. Had the tadpoles changed? Were they getting legs? For a few weeks, nothing looked different on them. When were they going to change?
On the fourth week, we began to notice little leg buds. Those buds quickly turned to back legs and then front legs seemed to just appear without warning. The tails were still there and our little tadpoles looked funny as they swam in the tank.
One morning, we noticed that we had an actual frog! Soon the tank was filling with little frogs known as Spring Peepers.
Little Man was put in charge of removing them from the tank and placing them outside in the bushes. Now, when we are out at night, we hear our little frogs sing.
