tadpoles???

[garterman07]

does ne one feed their wild caught garters tadpoles??? i am wonderin if thats a good idea because mine was wild caught. i had no other choice it was a long story but it couldn't stay where he was or he was toast. but any ways theres a pond not too far from my house and i can get tad poles and small frogs should i feed him those? (the pond and area i am in now is too cold for him to be let go) what should i do

[Boots]

That is a very good question. I had no idea so I did some digging and here is what another website said


Well, I hear they LOVE lettuce. Boil the lettuce for 10 to 15 minutes and then drain it. Chop it up a little, and then you can lay it on a tray to freeze it. For average home ponds, use an icecube tray- 1 cube every couple of days should be enough. For smaller tanks, just lay some flat on a tray and freeze it, and keep it in a baggie in the freezer. Give the tadpoles a pinch every few days. How to Raise Tadpoles (http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/) Good Luck.

Jason

[Cazador]

Tadpoles are fine, but they're very fatty. At some point within the next month, you should either start feeding animals with more bone or go to the pet store and buy a small jar of calcium powder. Be sure to check out the "diet" section of the general care sheet.

Rick

[garterman07]

can do m8!!! and i believe he ate 2 of the 3 worms...if not they disapeared in his substrate .... =\

[crayguns]

I overwintered a garter by feeding it minnows from a bait station. This worked fine. Fresh minnows are avalible year round at most bait stations. My snake also ate them thawed out. Garters are related to water snakes afterall.

[adamanteus]

I often raise tadpoles for use as feeder frogs. I am raising a pool full this year.

I feed them on fish-food (which they go wild for), mixed salad leaves and later on daphnia and tubifex.

Once they've changed into frogs I'll feed them on micro crickets a couple of times, then freeze them for baby Garter Snake food.

[Stefan-A]

That's pretty much how I used to raise them as a kid. Fish food and the occasional dead guppy when they got bigger. But I released them once the tail was gone.

It was of course against the law, since the species is protected.

[abcat1993]

What kind of fish food? I ask since: 1. There are tons of different types 2. I used tubifex for my guppies, which makes it fish food.

[adamanteus]

I just use your ordinary, general purpose flaked fish-food.

[Stefan-A]

Any type actually works, the tadpoles can eat anything.

[abcat1993]

Maybe I'll raise some toad tadpoles so they don't get eaten by the lawnmower.

[drache]

I often raise tadpoles for use as feeder frogs. I am raising a pool full this year.


James
if you are raising them in an outdoor pool, wouldn't they be subject to some of the same parasites as w/c ones?

are tadpoles themselves prone to having parasites?
I found a store that gets them sometimes and I'm wondering whether I need to freeze them, if I want to use them for scenting

[KITKAT]

James
if you are raising them in an outdoor pool, wouldn't they be subject to some of the same parasites as w/c ones?

are tadpoles themselves prone to having parasites?
I found a store that gets them sometimes and I'm wondering whether I need to freeze them, if I want to use them for scenting

Yes, to avoid parasites you will need to freeze them for at least 14 days.

Tadpoles are VERY full of parasites.

[hissy100]

Tadpole may not be a good idea to feed your garters. wild caught tadpoles have heavy parasite loads

[adamanteus]

Doubtless tadpoles carry parasites, whether or not these parasites pose a threat to our Garters I'm not convinced. I have been using tadpoles as a seasonal variation in my Garters' diet for the past 30+ years and I've not had a problem so far. They are certainly a part of a Garters' natural diet.

[drache]

our local store get tadpoles in once in a while and I asked Jeff to get some the idea was that I would freeze them and then use them for scenting
what he brought home were two gigantic tadpoles nothing like the ones of my childhood
I ended up feeding them to the concinnus mom, because she's the only snake I have that's been in the wild fairly recently
she's also the one I was going to use the scenting for, since she still won't take rodents
she won't take dead fish either though
between her gravidity and our move I haven't worked on that issue yet
but she sure ate those tadpoles fast

[Josh]

...gravidity...
that cant be a real word lol

[Stefan-A]

that cant be a real word lol
Definition of gravid - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=gravidity)

[Josh]

sorry.......lol

[drache]

thanks Stefan
I knew gravid was real
if gravidity wasn't (like my spell-check says), it ought to be
now I know I'm better than the spell-check