tadpoles... not pets, i know but...

[yogabird]

... I have some in a jar and want to do an educational watching thing with dd's. Clearly they can't stay in the jam-jar but what do they need. {please don't say a pond/their natural habitat, because it's too late for that if we are to watch them}

A washing-up bowl and water from wherever they came from (not tap water) would be a good start.

A basin in the garden withh some leaves, grassy stuff and rocks. You need thhe rocks for them to hide in and sit on when they hatch, Also as thhey are out of their natural environment you need to get some high qualityy fishh food to feed them with, have fun educating.

don't put them straight in tap water - the chlorine kills them.

Get a bucket or something similar (fishtank ?), fill with pond water if you can or rain water, or if not with tap water that you leave to stand for a few days. Stick in some plant material (I read lettuce the other day - no idea why that in particular). When they get legs they start to eat meat (flies, slugs etc) - they will each other if they don't have other food.

You get mealworm from thhe pet shop, they will eat that.

We have them in a big plstic storage container (sunken into a semi shady part of the garden)

A few rocks and a old terracotta trough (with a door knocked into it) and a gravel beach (on top of the trough) We also bought an oxygenating plant (you can get them for about a pound from garden centres)

I give them a few flakes of fish food as well

For water we used the original pond water plus rainwater nicked from the water butt

hth

I'd really love some tadpoles for my kids to watch and learn from.
I work in a school and many years ago, we managed to kill a whole lot of them
I think they eat spinach don't they?

Where do you get them from?

they seem to like the lettuce - thanks all!

They do like lettuce, and probably spinach, and definitely little pieces of raw meat hung in on a thread so that you can take it out if it gets smelly.

Agree with OP about importance of not using tap water.

When they start to get back legs it is really important that there is some way for them to easily get out of the water or they will turn into tiny frogs overnight and promptly drown. Then you must release them asap because as frogs they only eat live, moving tiny tiny food and are really difficulat to feed.

Lots of educational things you can do with them - draw them at different phases, write down the dates you see changes and work out how long each stage is, try different kinds of lettuce/raw meat and see which is the favourite; all skills which they will need for science in school. Depending on their age (children, not tadpoles) you could start using correct vocab, such as gills and metamorphosis.

I always had tadpoles as a child and am very happy that DD aged two loves ours, although I have to watch her because she likes to fish them out and sit on the stairs with them so that she can look more closely and throws in very unsuitable items, shouting 'Eat that!'. Have just seen the new bolts for DH's tree house in the tadpole tank.