Monday, March 17, 2008

The First Frogs of Spring

I've been looking for frogs, and you wouldn't believe it, but I've found lots! We are are going to have a bountiful froggy year. I want to tell you how much fun it is to have a pet frog in spring. Most of the frogs you find in spring are green. Later in the season they turn a darker green and then turn tan. But some stay green all season.

How to catch a frog. If you have a sprinkler system, you probably have a green box in the ground for the controls. That is where I find my frogs. If you don't have a sprinkler box, I think I have a few tips. Go outside and look around through your garden on green grasses and on lavender bushes or catnip bushes. If that doesn't work, look under things that are laying around, such as rocks, and logs.

I keep my frogs in a 10 gallon fish tank. I can keep more then four frogs in there. Don't feel bad if you don't have a 10 gallon fish tank, other containers would work. Make sure it isn't too small though so they have room to play, and climb. Plant a few plants in it such as some weeds or grass from your garden. I'm sure you and your mom will be glad to get repurpose them.

My frogs crock often, but don't feel bad if your frogs don't crock, because some frogs don't crock often. Girl frogs don't croak, but male frogs do crock at night.

Feed your frog a fly every two days. They like other small bugs too. Put in a water dish that is 2 to 2.5 inches deep. They like to sit in it and drink from it.

How to identify if your frog is a boy or a girl. Hold your frog in your hand and look at it's ears. The ears are a disk shaped brown or silver spot on the side a frog's head. If the ears are bigger then the eyes, it is a girl. But if the ears are smaller then the eyes, it is a boy. At least this is what I have heard.

My male frogs croak the most in a grassy environment.

If you have ever kept a frog or are keeping a frog, I would like to know. Please tell me about it in the comment section.

7 comments:

Shady Gardener said...

I used to teach second grade in one of our public schools and I kept them in an aquarium, like you. Sometimes my students would bring me tadpoles. It was fun to watch them grow legs and turn into frogs. The very smallest frogs we had were only about 1" long after they hatched. They were very cute. I never kept them long at school. I was afraid they might not live in our classroom.

You have a nice, descriptive story about frogs. I really was interested in how to determine if a frog was a male or female. I'm going to have to keep my eyes open this year! :-)

Heidi said...

Once a young lady and I caught some tadpoles and hoped to raise them to mature adulthood, which we did. The only thing was that they really enjoyed hopping, and the roof of their home was not very well secured. Both our little frogs escaped, never to be found again.

I'm looking forward to meeting your frogs!

Anonymous said...

I once had a smart frog. He lived in our fish tank, and always knew when it was dinner time. We never had to coax him to eat. He would shoot straight to the surface when his food was being served and snatch it as fast as he could. Sometimes his food floated to the bottom of the tank, but he always could find it fast. I think he could smell it, if frogs smell. Do frogs smell?

Thank you for your interesting story. I will be looking for girl and boy frogs this spring. Maybe you could come look for frogs at our neighbors frog pond sometime, if it's ok with your mom.

What do you know about tree frogs? I always thought it would be fun to have a cute little tree frog someday.

Have a fun day, hopefully looking for frogs!

Shady Gardener said...

Forest Zoo,
You write interesting stories about many different subjects. That tells me that you're interested in many different things!

I have just "tagged" you. This could be an assignment! :-) Ask your mom for her help, because I tagged her, too. Take your time, but I will look forward to reading what you write!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I never knew how to tell a male from a female frog. That's really interesting. Our zoo recently said that some zoos have declared 2008 the year of the frog:

http://www.mnzoo.org/guests/specialevents/year_of_frog/year_ofthe_frog2.asp

Shady Gardener said...

I liked your story about frogs. I'm going to try capturing a frog in a bucket. I will go to Jefferson County Park. I hope I get a tadpole. I want to watch it turn into a frog. Do you have any information about catching tadpoles? My name is Frog-lover. I am a friend of Shady Gardener.

Anonymous said...

What type of frogs are those in the title picture? I've found several of those this summer but I haven't been able to identify them. Can anyone help? They are really tiny. I think I need some more info on how to feed them because they're not going for anything I give them. Can anyone help? Thanks! :)