I have 6 gray tree frog tadpoles and two of them just started climbing around today and yesterday. They still have a really small black tail left on them. What should I feed them when they are that small and how should I feed them.

-thanks

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Welcome to the boards.

They probably won't eat for the first week out of the water. After that you need to offer them really tiny food. Pinhead crickets, fruit flies, etc.. As they grow you can drop the fruit flies and go to slightly larger crickets.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Welcome to the forums also!! Nice to see another Michigander on the boards!!! I live in lower MI (Kalamazoo). Haven't seen many gray tree toads this year in my immediate area. Recently lost mine He must have been several years old already as he was ~3 inches from snout to vent. Mine was pretty hand tame & would eat a cricket from my fingers when offered. Once again, WELCOME to HC!!!

I thought I'd tag on to this thread, since I'm about in the same situation. My Gray Tree Frog has been eating wingless fruit flies for about 2 weeks now. (He started climbing around the tank on Aug 4th with an itty bitty tail, but now he has no tail and bounces around a lot) He still seems a bit small for the crickets I saw in the pet store the other day.

When do I start introducing other food? Is there anything else I should be doing now for him?

Here are my most recent pics - I'm guessing he is about 1/2" long. I keep forgetting to measure him when he is on the side of the tank.

http://gallery.me.com/stephaninie#100040

Thanks,
Frognut

Oh he is just darling!!! You could try pinheads, they are just slightly bigger than fruit flies. They do grow up fast though. If I ever manage to breed my own crickets, I'll probably end up with too many and i'll share since you are so close... but that's a big "IF"

Haven't had much luck

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Yeah, once he grew from the tadpole I knew there was no chance of me setting him free (if I thought I had a chance of taking care of him, that is). Even my husband, who likes to pretend he doesn't care about the pets is enamored with Clyde (I do hope he turns out to be a boy or she just might have a complex with that name.

Ok, so now I'll start looking into the pinhead crickets. Um... while you are at that store in essex tomorrow, could you check out their supply of pinheads too? I'll be going out this week to get Clyde some more food and I'll head there if they have them.

I was just pondering the possibility of raising my own crickets, but the thought of crickets all over the house is just too much for me (and I'm sure my family will commit me if I tried it). I'll just wish you luck instead!

Thanks again for your advice.

Frognut

Well, my crew eats anywhere from 1000 - 1500 crickets a month, so it's starting to get kinda pricey. Raising them myself would save me around $40/month. And yes, I have crickets all over my basement. I vacuum up little cricket carcasses regularly.

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

So what is this I was reading about dusting the food? Do I need to start with some sort of supplement with Clyde yet? When I switched the tadpoles and Clyde around in their habitats (Clyde has the 20 gallon tank and the tads have the smaller tank) he looked a bit skinny. I will pick up more food for him tomorrow, but I was a bit worried about him tonight.

He was still active - and a little put out that he had all this extra space but nothing to climb on. (He was actually pouting while clinging to the wall of the aquarium) Climbing stuff will come tomorrow when I have a chance to properly clean the stuff.

I'm having so much fun planning out his home, and watching the other tads grow so they can join him so he is not lonely. I am on the lookout for a larger tank, because if all 4 make it I'll need a bigger home. Although two are most probably the same tree frogs as Clyde, the other two are still pretty small, and they are darker in color so I'm not sure what they are exactly. Only time will tell.

Thanks,
Frognut

If they are darker and smaller, they may be toad tadpoles. If that's the case they can't be kept in the same tank as the Grays.

You probably need to up your prey size. They go off the fruit flies pretty fast. Rule of thumb is the prey should be the size of the width between his eyes.

And look on Craig's list for tank deals. I have found some great ones!

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.