Kids Coop - raising tadpoles

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Its Kids Coop, please link up your child orientated posts and check out what others are up to. This week I'm linking up the following:

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(Goblin is 43 months)

This year I decided to brave raising tadpoles with Goblin. He was very excited when we brought home a big blob of frogspawn from our local pond. We put our tadpoles in pond water in a big glass vase on the windowsill (which isn't in direct sunlight) with some aquarium plants to oxygenate the water. 

I learnt last year that tadpoles will die if you put them in fresh tap water - the chlorine kills them. So I took a big milk carton to the pond to collect water. But I also filled a bucket with tap water - if you let it sit for several days the chlorine dissipates enough  to put the tadpoles in.

The first few water cleaning exercises were not a huge success. I tried to fish the tadpoles out with a ladle but they got wise to it and started hiding in the corners where the ladle wouldn't fit.

So Hublet came up with a cunning plan. We used two big bowls. We filled one with the fresh water and in the second we placed a sieve. Then we poured the tadpoles into the empty sieve bowl. The tadpoles got caught in the sieve and we quickly transfered the, to the clean water bowl, then let them swim out of the sieve before pouring the clean water plus tadpoles back into the vase. So far this seems successful and not too traumatic for the tadpoles.

They have been eating lettuce which we boiled and then froze (I discovered that this is what they like to eat from How to raise tadpoles). But in the last week we have started including bits of cooked bacon which seem to be very popular. And excitingly the tadpoles have developed tiny little back legs. I am slightly disturbed by their attempts at suicide but trying to jump out of the tank. At the moment their undeveloped legs mean they haven't been successful but I will have to keep an eye on them and maybe lower the water level soon.
We'll keep you updated with their progress.
And now to the linky


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