We have eggs
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Found this in the froggie house pond this morning. Pic isn't great, but there are little black dots in each clear egg sac. The egg mass is positioned between one of the stones in the pond and the rim of the pond.
The males have been trilling pretty much every day, so it shouldn't really be a surprise to see this, yet it is. Of the twelve frogs, I have seen five that trill, indicating they identify as males.
That means there could easily be five or more females.I've wondered how the males know when the female is at the water. Outdoors, the males trill from trees, bushes, foundations of buildings, and all kinds of places not immediately adjacent to the water. How do they eventually find one another to get together at the edge of the pond when they start so far apart?
Hubby jokingly said we'll have to separate the males and females. LOL As if I would do that. He's afraid we'll have tadpoles.
I'm not afraid.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@george-k said in We have eggs:
Cool stuff.
I'm retired, so I'm not available should an epidural be required.
Froggos are so smart, they have a system that doesn't require such things.
The female gets very round when she's full of eggs, and the males sing their best trills to woo her. She selects her beau of the evening and meets him at the pond. He squeezes her sides to push out the eggs, fertilizes them, and bids her a fond adeiu until she is ready for another tryst.
The eggs are on their own to develop into tadpoles, which are still on their own to develop into froglets, which are still on their own to grow up to become the next generation to raise more babies without any work other than to deposit their genetic material into a pond. Raise your hand if you just realized frogs are smarter than we are to have such a carefree system.
The upside for us is the relationships we can have with our offspring, and the babies of our children. In some cases, that can be a tough call.
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@mik said in We have eggs:
Aare they free range eggs?
Sort of. The froggo house is quite large, and they have room to jump, climb, hunt, sun themselves, and find a nice soft leaf for a bed. With its base, it's five feet tall, giving them at least four feet of climbing height, which is key for tree froggies. Their house is quite generous compared to what is recommended, but then the folks making the recommendations probably aren't thinking there will be a dozen frogs in it.
They get fresh water every day, and as many crickets as they want, with some special treats of houseflies and blue bottle flies. Oh my, they love those. Crickets get dusted with vitamins and calcium every time they are put in the froggo house.
The frogs as a group are eating about fifteen to twenty live crickets a day, and I now buy live crickets in bulk to keep a supply at hand. The last order was for 2000 1/2-inch crickets. Ayup, 2K of the little buggers. That should last at least six weeks, maybe longer. I keep them fed and watered, too, every few days. Seeing 2000 crickets all together is quite a sight.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
Now I’m thinking about frog penises, and whether it’s as weird to eat them as it is to eat frog legs. Yesterday I drove through Wyoming and had dinner at a place that offered Rocky Mountain oysters. That remains the weirdest thing I’ve thought about over the past couple days.
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@horace said in We have eggs:
Now I’m thinking about frog penises, and whether it’s as weird to eat them as it is to eat frog legs. Yesterday I drove through Wyoming and had dinner at a place that offered Rocky Mountain oysters. That remains the weirdest thing I’ve thought about over the past couple days.
Actually...If you're frogging, you don't just eat the legs. There is enough meat on the back, that it's worth keeping when you skin them out.
BTW, did you try the oysters?
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
From MN DNR:
Gray treefrogs breed in May when they move to breeding ponds. Clusters of up to 30 eggs are attached to vegetation near the surface of the water. The eggs hatch in three to six days. Tadpoles transform within two months. Adults reach maturity within two years.Time to mark the calendar to start watching for hatching of eggs. It's hard to know whether they were fertilized or not, so it could be a bust. I will be very careful when adding fresh water to the pond to not disturb the egg mass.
Science in action here, folks! Biology 101 all over again, minus the dissections.
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Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. – Mike Ditka
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@catseye3 said in We have eggs:
@brenda said in We have eggs:
He squeezes her sides to push out the eggs, fertilizes them, and bids her a fond adeiu until she is ready for another tryst.
Leaving her holding the bag.
Men.
Not really. She walks away from the eggs never to return as well. The eggs are on their own, and that continues the entire lifespan of the tadpole, froglet, and frog. It's a rough world out there for the froggos, I tell ya!
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@jolly said in We have eggs:
@horace said in We have eggs:
Now I’m thinking about frog penises, and whether it’s as weird to eat them as it is to eat frog legs. Yesterday I drove through Wyoming and had dinner at a place that offered Rocky Mountain oysters. That remains the weirdest thing I’ve thought about over the past couple days.
Actually...If you're frogging, you don't just eat the legs. There is enough meat on the back, that it's worth keeping when you skin them out.
BTW, did you try the oysters?
Nope, settled for a ribeye and French onion soup.
Have you tried them? What did you think?
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As the evening sun goes down, I wonder whether there will be more eggs put into the pond tonight. I would like to know which frog is already producing eggs, and whether any of the males are ready to fertilize them.
Froggo mating is pretty simple, not racy. The male frog just hugs the female. No viagra, no nothing. Just some pond water.
Special note @jon-nyc -
As soon as the sun comes around in the morning and shines in the window by the froggo house, they start climbing up the screen to sun their bellies. I really should take another picture of them doing that. The other day, there were five of them sunning their little white bellies at the same time.Every time they do that, it reminds me of you and the thread about suntans where the sun usually doesn't shine.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@george-k said in We have eggs:
@brenda said in We have eggs:
Froggo mating is pretty simple, not racy.
Unless, of course, you're a froggo.
Remember Jurgi and Emmie?
One evening, Emmie came walking down the center of the porch toward our chairs. She was huge. Her sides were distended so much she was only walking, not hopping. She looked over at Jurgi, who was snacking on bugs by the bug catcher, and she made a chirp that sounded like a command while looking right at him. She left and Jurgi followed. The next morning there was a huge pile of eggs in their pond by the porch.The next evening, Emmie hopped up to the porch looking just like her old self.
