Monday, May 12, 2008

Amphibians In The House!

Maybe you missed my December post about my poorly-thought-out Christmas gift for Jonah. It was a frog habitat. Read it here, or I will summarize why a frog habitat may not have been the best thing to buy:

1. Frogs make organic matter. (Duh! But for some reason I didn't really think about that fact.)
2. Frogs raised in the frog habitat can not be released into the wild.
3. Frogs live for up to 5 years.
4. Frogs eat live crickets and/or potato bugs.
5. Frogs have to be fed live insects every 2 to 3 days.

Today we received two live tadpoles in the mail . Currently the tadpoles are getting acclimated to their new home. They seem to be in shock, but the directions assure us that even if they float upside down, we should give them 24 hours to perk up. Our tadpoles are not floating upside down, but they are laying low for a while. I'm sure they are perfectly happy, or they will be as soon as we can start feeding them the tadpole pellets they came with. (We have to wait 12 hours.)

Too much food will increase the "organic matter" which we are supposed to clean out of the habitat with a turkey baster or large eye dropper. Doesn't this sound like fun?

I should probably download some kind of age appropriate home school unit on life cycles so I can get the biggest bang for my 5 years of frog misery. Jonah may as well learn something while we are sharing our house with a couple of amphibians.

Here's hoping for a 1 year life cycle.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

Wow! Thanks for the heads up! I absolutely hate frogs (my husband could tell you all kinds of stories) but my daughter loves them. I think we will pass on a frog habitat as a gift any time soon! I sure hope yours has a short life.

Catherine said...

I learned this weekend that frogs are a symbol of wealth and good luck.

Good luck with the menagerie you're collecting. Do hamsters eat tadpoles?

Mandy said...

next time (as if there will be a next time :) get the caterpillars that turn into butterflies, there in a cocoon for most of the time and then you get to release them in... perfect

Anonymous said...

I totally want to do the butterfly thing. It seems way easier. Ladybugs seem easier than the butterflies. We got an ant farm and are waiting to get the ants in the mail. I KNOW those ants are going to get loose in my house. I am dreading it.