Hello!
I recently went over to a family member's house where I found that they had stumbled upon some tadpoles and collected six of them for their kid to "raise." Being a mildly experienced frog owner, I attempted to steer them in the right direction with the tadpoles, but unfortunately they just weren't having it. I did notice one tadpole had sprouted both his back and front legs, so I managed to convince them to keep their little tank tipped so that the metamorphs could leave the water when they were ready. Immediately after tipping their tank, the one little metamorph made his way out of the water and refused to go back in, and when my family went inside, I decided I would take him home and give him a fighting chance.
I've got the little guy in a small plastic tank at the moment lined with paper towels. I placed a small pool with steps in it and nestled it in even with the paper towel, although he hasnt gone near it. I have a big piece of leaf litter in there so that he can hide. I also have a background on the tank to keep him more comfortable. (it must be a scary world for this little guy!) He has no light source at the moment!
He's been with me since friday evening, and his tail is almost gone at this point! I got him some flight-less fruit flies and dusted them in multivitamin and calcium with d3 just in case he was ready to eat. I put about 5 tiny flies in his cage, and he seemed interested, but never actually tried to eat them. He seemed more scared of them than anything.
During the transformation from tadpole to metamorph, he was able to climb up the tank wall from the water, which leads me to believe that he is a tree frog. I am in maryland. The tadpoles were very dark in color with no spots (That I saw! I honestly didnt get a very good look due to murky water.) He is now about the size of a dime, if not smaller. He's still dark but he now has what appears to be 6 spots along his back.
I know that it is still very hard to identify him at this point in his life, but I wanted to throw it out there and see what you guys thought!
Also - any advice that you can give me to help this little guy along would be greatly appreciated!
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