We are the kind of people who stop to move a turtle off the road. To some of you going to the trouble of saving turtles, tadpoles, newts, and frogs may seem foolish or a waste of time. But to us, a life is a life, and all life is precious.

So when one of the small ponds on the farm started drying up, we went out to help the tadpoles and newts. We gathered quite a few that we released into another pond immediately, but a few we saved to watch them grow.

Newts are fragile fellows so it is best to release them pretty quickly. They do not like life in captivity no matter how short a time or how posh the accommodations.

You can see how cute the baby newts are and the adults are pretty cute also. But again, they are fragile so we put the newts into a new pond quickly.

The tadpoles we decided to keep a few for a life cycle lesson.

It should be obvious but in case it is not, Do Not handle your tadpoles anymore that is absolutely needed. You may need to net them and pick them up to put them into a clean water container but do not pick them up and play with them. The salt on your hands is not good for them. And if you have anything else on your hands, such as hand sanitizer, soap, oil, sunscreen, or any number of other things, you could harm or even kill the tadpoles.

There is also the risk of hurting or squashing them, so it is best not to handle them.

With tadpoles, they do not require feeding for the first couple of weeks. It seems odd, but their bodies will absorb their tails, giving them the nutrition they need for the first few weeks of life.

This is similar to how newborn baby chickens can go a day or two without eating. The yellow tip on their beaks is a nutrient pack that feeds them the first day or so. Then, of course, they must have food and water. Usually, the mama chicken will take them food or bring them to it but that is a different story. Back to the tadpoles.

You can safely keep tadpoles for several weeks until they mature so you can watch the life cycle progress. The kids love to see how life changes and grows. Be sure you have a solid, water-tight container for your tadpoles. They must stay in the water at all times when they are new. Also, be sure to use rainwater or pond water. Processed water with cleaners and chemicals will kill your tadpoles.

It is good to note when the tadpoles have legs, they are very capable of jumping out of your container so be on the lookout for that.

Once the tadpoles get older and get their legs, they will need a place to get out of the water for short periods of time. Give them a rock just a bit above the water level so they can climb out and back into the water as they like. It is good to note here that it is possible for frogs to drown. Not all frogs can stay in the water. Rain frogs and the brown peep need to be moist but not in water all the time. Toads do not stay in water at all. They do stay in moist dirt but not water. Only the bullfrog will spend most of its life in water. Although, even bullfrogs can, will, and do come out of the water for short times.

As we already said, tadpoles do not require feeding until they get older. If you have several tadpoles that are different ages, go ahead and feed them just to be sure everyone is happy and well cared for.

We grow meal worms so we have them on hand and gave some to the tadpoles when they get some legs on them.

Many of the tadpoles we saved were already well on their way to adulthood so we only had them a week or so. But it was fun to watch them grow.

The most accurate indicator of age is their tails. In case you did not know, new tadpoles have long tails and no legs. They start off just an oval with a long tail.

As they mature the tail gets shorter and they start to grow legs. This process is fascinating to watch. One day there are no legs, the next morning you can see a leg, then another, and so on. As we said, the tail will also get shorter as they age.

Once the tadpoles have four legs and no or almost no tail, they are almost totally mature adults. This is when it is best to release them or you may wake up one morning to frogs hopping around your kitchen. Let us tell you, running around on all fours trying to nab hopping frogs in the house and under furniture is not as much fun as it sounds. Ok, the kids have fun. But you do risk the frog being injured by accident. Or worse not finding them and they dry out and die.

So releasing them is the best thing for them.

This batch of tadpoles was different for us. We normally get the big, green tadpoles that turn out to be regular bullfrogs. But in this group two turned out to be green rain frogs, one was a brown peep, and only one was a bullfrog.

This was fascinating for us as we had never seen rain frogs or, brown peep tadpoles before. It is interesting to see that the rain frog, peep, and bullfrog start off as the large green tadpole.

This is odd to us as the bullfrog is a very large animal. The rain frog is only the size of a quarter and the peep is smaller than that.

We have had small, black tadpoles before and they turned into regular land toads. So the size difference between the tadpole and the adult rain frogs and the peep was new to us.

The two rain frogs and the peep we decided would do best in the rain barrel. The barrel is filled when it rains and stays full or with at least some water in it all the time. These kinds of frogs need to stay moist but not in water so the barrel seemed a good choice. In the rain barrel, the frogs could stay wet, finish growing up, and leave whenever they wanted to.

The bullfrog we released directly into the pond. It was small but very ready to leave our care.

We hope these tadpoles will be safe in our yard and pond so they can grow into happy, adult frogs.

Frogs do have quite a few predators and can be eaten but we have hope that our little friends will make it to a long, and happy life.

This learning experiment was fun and safe for everyone involved. We do not go out of our way to find and keep tadpoles but if they are in need of saving we will help them out. Wildlife should not be kept as pets, as they are born to be wild. But tadpoles can be kept for a short time and watched without causing them harm.

This is a good experience for kids so that they can see the life cycle up close. There are many different kinds of frogs and toads. If you are interested or can get your kids interested, you may want to do some research on your own. Frogs and Toads are wonderfully fascinating creatures. Neither frogs nor toads have teeth or claws, so they are harmless and have very little in the way of self-defense.

In case you do not know, frogs are water fellows, like bullfrogs, whereas toads are land lovers, like the little brown guys you see out at night.

Another thing about frogs and toads, is they eat insects, pounds of insects every night. So if you come upon a frog or toad, do not mess with it, it may be eating the bugs that are looking to eat on you. Frogs and Toads are our friends.

We hope you have enjoyed seeing From Tadpole to Frog: The Life Cycle of the Frog. Hopefully, you have a better understanding and respect for frogs, toads, tadpoles, and newts.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.