The Ranidae: How to breed, feed and raise the edible frog by Unknown

The spawn or egg takes from four to six weeks to hatch to the shape of a tadpole, and the tadpole takes about four or five months to hatch or change its shape from that of a tadpole to a small frog, which is done as stated in previous paragraph. Frogs are very prolific. One bunch of spawn, from large, well developed frogs, and of five years of age or over, will produce or hatch over one thousand tadpoles. But of course all of these will not be raised to become small Frogs. But a great proportion of them can be if properly cared for and you have the proper facilities.

The beak of the tadpole is adapted to the eating of leaves and other vegetable foods, and on which they could entirely subsist. But it is well to give them access to small insect food, much of which they can get from surface of water. The food changes entirely when the tadpole develops into a Frog. When a frog, the food is entirely insect or live food. It is well, sometimes, when you cannot get facilities to supply naturally plenty of insect food, to take some of the smaller Frogs and tadpoles and place them in the ponds with the growing Frogs, and allow the Frogs to live on them. They must be fed live food. Chopped meats and food of this character will do for tadpoles, but must not be used too freely, as they do not eat it readily, and it only decays and a stifling stench follows. If your ponds are connected with a running stream, much of the insect life for the tadpoles and smaller Frogs is brought into the ponds by the stream, which is very desirable, and saves much extra work. Leave the tadpoles in the nursery pond until they have developed into Frogs. The tadpoles are fish in a sense and will eat most anything, either vegetable or animal matter. In fact, he is a scavenger, and will clean out the ponds. But as soon as he turns into a frog, he requires a different class of food, as he is an amphibious animal. Remember this, as herein, is one of the secrets that have caused so many failures. THE FOOD FOR FROGS IS ANIMAL FOOD.