Foods a Baby Leopard Frog Eats

Southern Leopard Frog Tadpole

• The female southern leopard frog lays several hundred eggs in clusters just below the surface of the water. Breeding occurs from November to March in the southern part of the frog's range and March to June in the northern part. The eggs hatch in about 53 to 60 days and the larva lives as a tadpole for around 90 days. Just before it transforms, dark spots appear on the tadpole's tail.

Rio Grande Leopard Frog Tadpole

• The Rio Grande leopard frog, whose habitat is from Central Texas and south into Vera Cruz Mexico, will lay eggs in both temporary and permanent water. Its tadpoles can be found not only in streams and rivers but in stock ponds, cattle tanks, canals, drainage ditches, arroyo pools, and temporary bodies of water in shrub land, savanna and the desert. The Rio Grande and leopard frog lay eggs on underwater vegetation.

Plains Leopard Frog Tadpole

• The plains leopard frog is found in arid regions like the plains and prairies of eastern Indiana to South Dakota and eastern Colorado, where it sits on mats of vegetation at the edges of shallow streams and ponds. They breed from February to October and lay light gray eggs in still, temporary or permanent bodies of shallow water. The eggs hatch in five to 20 days, and it takes the tadpoles three months after the eggs are laid to transform.

What They Eat

• Southern leopard frog tadpoles eat algae, plant matter and organic debris. Rarely when it grows larger, it might eat insect larvae. The tadpoles of the Rio Grand and Plains leopard frogs also eat algae, inorganic debris, and diatoms, or one-celled plants. When any leopard frog tadpole becomes a frog, it will eat insects, spiders and other arthropods. A tadpole in an aquarium may also be fed tadpole food or flaked fish food. Once in a while it can be fed lightly boiled or steamed dark green leafy vegetables like spinach or lettuce (but not cabbage), algae disks, very finely ground goldfish food or trout chow. Also, rabbit food pellets can be crushed and fed to tadpoles. Flakes of hard-boiled egg yolk can also be added twice a week for protein. Later, as the tadpole turns into a frog, it will change from eating plants to eating insects like aphids or mealworms, and small crustaceans like brine shrimp and daphnia.