How to Feed Baby Tree Frogs

Frogs make interesting and undemanding pets. Several species of tree frogs are popular in the pet trade, including the American green tree frog, White's tree frog and the Pacific Tree frog. Depending on the species, the female can lay anywhere from 400 to 20,000 eggs. They hatch into tadpoles, which will later transform into small versions of their parents.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Aquarium with air stone, air pump and heater
• Good quality fish flakes
• Algae wafers
• Small pieces of vegetables
• Baby crickets or small mealworms
• Separate tank for crickets

Hungry, Hungry Tadpoles

1. Set up the tadpoles' tank. They need a heater, air stone and air pump to operate the air stone. The water needs to be dechlorinated and kept at about 78 degrees. Adding plants or gravel is optional. On average, one tadpole needs 2 gallons of water to thrive. Expect some tadpoles to die. Remove the bodies promptly.

2. Move the tadpoles in with a crushed algae wafer or decaying pieces of vegetables that will create algae. The tadpoles will also eat their own droppings. If you don't move the tadpoles, they will die from lack of oxygen in the water or they will be eaten by their mother.

3. Feed a pinch of finely crushed quality fish food flakes once or twice a day as the tadpoles grow.

4. Introduce small mealworms or small feeder crickets as the tadpoles grow legs and the tail begins to shrink. They also like flies, if you can catch them.

5. Set up a small tank for feeder crickets. By the time the tadpoles have changes into tiny frogs, they will be entirely on an insect diet.

Tips & Warnings

• Depending on the species, it can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months for the tadpoles to transform into tiny frogs. It's best to have the female lay her eggs in the tadpole aquarium, but you can also move the newly hatched tadpoles to their aquarium with a net and add crumbled algae wafers to get the algae growth going. Tadpoles will often eat less when their tails are shrinking.
• Don't clean the tadpoles' tank too often because they will need to eat the algae growing in it. Don't let your tree frogs breed unless you have a separate tank ready for the tadpoles to grow up in and a potential home for the tadpoles. Don't feed any insects that have been sprayed with insecticides. That will kill your tadpoles.

Resources

• A Guide To Keeping Tadpoles
• Red Eyed Tree Frog Tadpoles & Froglets Care
• How to Succeed With Your New Green Tree Frog