WARNING! This is not a professional website! I am NOT an expert. Do NOT believe everything on this site.

Last Updated: 2/24/08

Helping Frogs and Toads to Overwinter
Frogs Dying in Early Spring
Overwintering Frogs Indoors
Frog and Toad Information Table
Feeding Frogs and Toads
Raising Green Frogs from Eggs to Adults
Frogs On Nets
Frogs and Fish

There is a section on salt and frogs in my African dwarf frog section.

Hibernation for Aquatic Frogs:

A common problem for pond keepers is overwintering frogs. Most aquatic frogs overwinter inside ponds whereas toads and some frogs overwinter in dirt outside of the pond. Often tadpoles are bought, turn into frogs, but die over the pond's first winter in climates where the pond freezes. To increase the likelihood of frogs surviving the winter, a few things can be done. First, as with fish, the pond should not freeze over completely. With a few rare exceptions, if the frog freezes, it dies. Also, keeping a hole open in the ice using a de-icer, aerator, or waterfall allows gas exchange to occur. They may seem dead but frogs are breathing very slowly through their skin while submerged over winter. They can suffer from oxygen depletion in an iced-over pond just as can the fish.

Frogs usually bury themselves in dirt and muck in the bottom of a pond but not as deeply as an aquatic turtle. They cannot bury too deeply too long, or they will suffocate. Therefore, it is somewhat advantageous to leave some debris on the bottom of the pond. If the pond is too "clean," then the addition of a container of sand or soil can provide a home for the frogs. Putting clay soil or sand in a cat litter pan and sinking it to the bottom is one possibility. Frogs will also dig into plant pots. My green frogs and bullfrogs often do not bury at all but just sit on the liner among the leaves. A few leaves can be left on the bottom so that the frogs can sleep under them. Finally, to reduce the chances of frogs being eaten over winter, be sure to provide lots of hiding places as with the fish.

Over winter, frogs turn dark and mushy and look dead. Their color tends to match that of rotting leaves on the bottom. On warmer winter days, they may move around a bit at the bottom. Often, they will not respond to stimulation (much). Do not disturb them unless fungus is seen growing on the frog, and the frog is degrading which are signs that it is in fact dead. Dead frogs are usually upside down. A predator such as a raccoon, heron, or a large fish would have no problem eating an overwintering frog since they are very slow. Hiding spots can include clay pots and PVC pipe. Most plants have died back over winter and provide little protection. Their pots of course do provide a convenient place in which to settle.

Someone asked me if frogs hibernate with their eyes open. Well, my frogs appear to hibernate with their eyes shut so that would be normal. Frogs that die often also have their eyes shut (if sealed by yucky stuff) but they may be open as well. A hibernating frog should still respond to touch somewhat. If you are not sure, remove the frog. Smell it. Look for mush or fungus. If the frog stinks, is mushy, and does not move, it is dead. If it just died, it may be hard to tell. You can slowly warm it up to room temperature inside. If it does not "wake up" shortly after being warmed, it is dead. Anyway, I hope you do not find any dead frogs!! There is a photo of one lady's hibernating frogs at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/yurgen/frogs.html. It looks like one green frog at the top and two large bullfrogs. The photo link was posted to rec.ponds on 12/14/02.

I was asked on 11/3/03 by Ronna at what temperature my green frogs stop being active. I would say it is the same as the fish, about 50-55 degrees F when they no longer come out of the water. If the air temperature is 55 or above, even if the water is a few degrees cooler, they sometimes still come out to sun on warm fall days. If there is a warm stretch even in winter, they may come out. They are slower and look yuckier as far as consistency and color, being more brownish black than their summer time green and vibrant colors. Above 60 degrees and the frogs come out for sure. In fall, the bullfrogs often get on top of the nets and bounce around. I have a section on that below.

Here is an article I wrote for Organic Gardening that includes a section on overwintering aquatic frogs indoors.

Hibernation for Toads and Terrestrial Frogs:

Terrestrial toads hibernate by burying below the frost line. Providing lots of areas with leaf litter, logs, and moist dirt will help toads hibernate. Terrestrial frogs such as the spring peeper and wood frogs, hibernate in cracks among rocks and logs or among leaf litter. Since these locations freeze, so do the frogs who have a natural antifreeze in their bodies. Providing piles of rocks, logs, and leaves can help terrestrial frogs hibernate. Also, leave some dead trees and fallen logs around.

For more information on winterizing ponds, visit my pond winterizing page.

For a short discussion on frogs overwintering, see my December 2005 pond newsletter.

For an article on how frogs overwinter, check out this web site.

There seems to be a common problem in ponds with aquatic frogs where they die right about the time that the ice melts in the ponds of colder regions. In Maryland, this happens in my ponds in late February. Frogs that die this time of year are found upside down on the bottom of the liner. Their tongues are usually hanging out and drained of color. Sometimes the tongues are wrapped around their heads. The skin is usually slothing off with patches of whitish foggy skin. The frogs are drained of their normal color but this is perfectly normal for a hibernating frog (to blend in with the muck on the bottom of the pond). Each year, I normally lose a few frogs this way but in the spring of 2000, I fished out over a dozen such victims. In February and March of 2001, I removed about a dozen dead frogs, and few live frogs were seen. Frogs often die over winter if the pond freezes over completely. Toxic gases build up under the ice and fresh oxygen cannot get in. The frogs and fish suffocate.

My pond retained openings due to a de-icer and waterfall plus my fish are fine so I know this is not what happened to my frogs. My pond has enough leaves in the bottom, pots, etc. for the frogs to root into to hibernate so that was not the problem either. When I asked the newsgroup rec.ponds about this, I got a number of replies. Some people pointed out that amphibians are facing declines in populations and deformities throughout the world. This is very true but I do not think it has to much to do with my particular problem. Then, someone mentioned that since 1999 was a record drought year, the frogs may not have obtained enough insects to eat before hibernation. When the water warmed up, the frogs were simply empty of food reserves. All the frogs did appear emaciated so this makes sense to me. I did hand feed a few frogs a few times in the summer of 1999, and they were especially hungry. There were few insects around. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

On 3/22/00, I found two dead green frog tadpoles as well and began to find a few more in 2000. Perhaps my green frogs (adults and tadpoles) have been targeted by some amphibian disease or parasite. The wood frogs seemed unaffected as they laid eggs in 2000. Of course, they overwintered outside of the pond. In March of 2001, again a dozen or so dead green frogs and green frog tadpoles were removed from my ponds. The fish and wood frogs experienced no losses.

Chytrid Fungus:
During the summer of 2000, a large percentage of my previous year's tadpoles died during metamorphosis. Through a message on the newsgroup, rec.ponds, I became aware of a new fungus that is occurring in the US and specifically in my state of Maryland. It is the chytrid fungus. I am not sure if that is what my frogs and tadpoles had/have. It is said to be carried by tadpoles and only strike them when metamorphosing. It gets frogs at any time which fits what happened to my frogs. All frogs and changing tadpoles that died had some sloughing, white skin. For information on chytrid fungus, go to this site for a bunch of links (this site may no longer exist; please e-mail me if you know what happened to it.). If anyone knows of someone to whom I should report this possible case, please e-mail me.

Frogs in my 153 gallon pond:

I cleaned out my 153 gallon pond on 3/26/01. There were 8 dead green frogs, 2 dead pickerel frogs, a few dead tadpoles, and 2 dead trapdoor snails. Three live green frogs and two live female wood frogs were found as well as hundreds of ramshorn snails and green frog tadpoles and 19 fish. The pond is deep (2 feet) but narrow (just a few feet) so I would bet that oxygen depletion over winter was a factor. The pond has a de-icer but I kept switching half a dozen of them in and out as the de-icers would stop working and freeze in quite often. Next year, I plan to put an air stone into this pond over winter so that, hopefully, no more frogs will suffocate! On 11/10/01, when I removed the filter for the winter and added the de-icer, I did add an air stone, powered by a Luft pump. I hope it does the job!

Note: The Tetra Luft pump is a must-have pond supply but they no longer make it! There are very expensive larger aeration systems that are just too big for ornamental ponds. One possible replacement for this system might be the OASE pond-air aeration pump which costs about $53 in 2002. Two places that sell it are Aqua-Mart and Drs. Foster and Smith. I got one, and it is not what I thought. It sucks air off the surface and mixes it in the pump and spews it out. It does not look like it would work in freezing temperatures but I will use mine to add oxygen to my large pond in summer only. I used it for one year, and it died. Guess what! Now, I see that Drs. Foster and Smith carries the Luft pump in their aquarium catalog! It does not contain the outdoor cover but it looks like the same one! You could cover it with a plastic storage box or something. I bought one on 1/25/05 and found out that it is a Coralife Luft pump and not a Tetra Luft pump so it is different but looks like it should work the same.

Good news! On 3/29/02, I cleaned out the 153 gallon pond and found NOT ONE DEAD FROG! So, the air stone must have worked! I have removed a dead pickerel frog from my 1800 gallon pond this year but that is it! I found 13 live frogs in the 153 gallon pond. They were all green frogs. The wood frogs did not come to breed this year (probably due to the drought and fluctuating temperatures). Only 7 live fish remain in this pond so the tadpoles, frogs, and snails mostly have it to themselves! Here is a photo of the frogs waiting in a pot while I clean the pond. You can see heads from six of them.

Bad news in 2003. When I cleaned the 153 gallon pond, I found one scrawny young green frog, a female wood frog (who had laid eggs the week before), two green frog leg bones, and one green frog vertebrae, and that was all the signs of frogs. The pond still had hundreds of green frog tadpoles but something happened to the green frogs so that they never it made it to overwinter (if they had, they would be dead or the bodies still in the bottom, at least partially intact). I think the worst drought in 100 years cut so far back on the insect prey available that they must have starved to death. I hope it does not mean that some predator has learned how to kill them efficiently or the tadpoles will not stand a chance when they come out as frogs. I miss them so much! Check out my section on green frogs and my spring 2003 newsletters for more information. On 4/30/03, I found my last adult male green frog; all that was left was his head, feet, and spine. The rest was bitten off obviously. Maybe the bullfrog did it or the raccoon. There are maybe two small green frogs left, that's it except for the tadpoles.

Sorry if this section is a little confusing.

Aquatic Frogs with No Place to Go:

I am adding this section due to a number of people asking about what to do with frogs over winter if they cannot live outside. This may be the case if the outdoor ponds are too shallow, the frog has been a pet, the person has moved, etc. There are a few options.

1. Hope the frog leaves and finds a deeper pond. Such a pond must not freeze at the bottom, be in good condition, and preferably have an opening in the ice over winter.

2. Move the frog to a more adequate pond.

3. Bring the frog indoors and hibernate it. The advantage of this is that it more closely matches nature and requires little work.

4. Bring the frog indoors and keep it warm, active, and fed all winter. The advantage is that you can monitor and enjoy the frog. While mortality this way may be lower, hibernation normally extends the lives of those animals that hibernates and better prepares them for the breeding triggers of spring.

Be sure to identify the frog to be sure it is an aquatic hibernator. Bullfrogs, green frogs, and pickerel frogs hibernate under water. If the frog is a tree frog, spring peeper, wood frog, or other terrestrial frog, it hibernates on land, behind bark, around trees, or under the ground. Toads also hibernate on land.

Hibernation Indoors for Aquatic Frogs:

Keep an aquarium or indoor pond (any non-toxic container; Rubbermaid or Sterilite storage containers work well) in a cool area such as a garage, shed, or basement where the temperature is preferably between 35 and 45 degrees F. Fill the container half full of water. If it is cool, the frogs will just stay in the bottom. Land areas are not needed while aquatic frogs are overwintering but no harm would come if they were provided. Do not feed. For cover, a few leaves suffice. Adding dirt or sand will just make a mess. Keep the area out of direct sunlight. Put a net or lid over the container but be sure there is good ventilation. If desired, very light aeration will help ensure there is enough oxygen for the frogs. Strong filtration or heavy water movement will disturb the frogs.

Keeping Aquatic Frogs Indoors and Active During the Winter:

A setup for an aquatic frog indoors over winter that is to be kept active is basically either a terrarium or an indoor pond. Be sure to include a lid or net on the top, ventilation, filtration, and some indirect sunlight. Frogs only eat live foods such as insects, snails, spiders, or worms. The easiest foods to buy include crickets, mealworms, and earthworms. Aquatic frogs need both water and land areas. They will use the water more so two-thirds water to one-third land makes sense. They will enjoy a shallow water area where they can stand in the shallow water with their heads easily out without having to do any work.

Hibernation Indoors for Terrestrial Frogs and Toads:

These animals hibernate on land. They can either be hibernated or kept active. To hibernate them, put them in a secure container such as an aquarium or plastic storage container with a lid with ventilation holes. Keep them in a cool area such as a garage, shed, or basement where the temperature is preferably between 35 and 45 degrees F. Fill the bottom with about half a foot of leaves, twigs, etc. For tree frogs, add some bark or pieces of wood as well. The animals will bury into it and wait. Do not feed. To provide appropriate moisture, there are a few options. Into the substrate can be mixed damp sphagnum moss. Wet paper towels that are partially squeezed dry can be placed into the container and changed every few days. A small dish of water can be put into the setup. The setup may be misted on occasion. Toads do not need much moisture but terrestrial frogs need more. You have to balance their need to stay moist with the desire to prevent the growth of molds and other yucky stuff that likes moisture.

Keeping Terrestrial Frogs and Toads Indoors and Active During the Winter:

Set the animals up in a secure aquarium. Keep them at 60-75 degrees F. Frogs and toads only eat live foods such as insects, snails, spiders, or worms. The easiest foods to buy include crickets, mealworms, and earthworms. For the smaller animals, try wingless fruitflies too. Provide a small dish of water for them to drink. For substrate, reptile bark, sphagnum moss, leaves, etc. may work. Dirt is usually messy.

These are the species of frogs and toads that have laid eggs in my ponds. Most frogs and toads like shallow water that is still and full of plants and other stuff for their offspring to eat. Frog eggs are usually on the surface in clumps of jelly while toad eggs are deeper and look like long black necklaces wrapped around plants, etc. In every case below, the female is significantly larger than the male with the exception of the bullfrog where the male is the larger sex.
To help narrow down which species you have if you find eggs in a pond, also see the pond egg identification guide.

Frogs and Toads

If you need to feed a frog or toad for some reason, there are a number of food choices. Captive frogs and toads, as well as those in need in the wild due to drought, can be fed many live foods. When my green frogs needed a meal, I would just place a bug near them, and they would grab it with their long tongues. Frogs and toads generally do not take non-living foods. Store bought choices to feed include mealworms and crickets which come in various sizes and species to fit the animal being fed. For information on taking care of and breeding crickets and mealworms, see my sailfin lizard page. While bullfrogs and larger frogs will reportedly eat live fish such as minnows or small goldfish, they may not do so. Large frogs sometimes will also eat small mammals such as the mice that pet stores sell to feed to snakes. In my opinion, it is much easier to stick to insects. If you have land that you can visit, you can catch crickets, grasshoppers, flies, beetles, butterflies, and moths to feed frogs or toads. I would not suggest catching butterflies since they are often imperiled themselves but in my ponds, the frogs ate butterflies almost exclusively in the summers of 1997 and 1998, much to my dismay. The poor butterflies cannot resist the lily flowers. The frogs wait by the flowers and get almost every butterfly that visits. Lastly, nothing satiates a frog or toad better than a good old earthworm. These can be found outside by digging or bought at any pet store or bait shop. Salamanders and newts also require live foods which may include small fish, blackworms, bloodworms, earthworms, crickets, mealworms, wingless fruit flies, and countless other live insects and worms.

A frog-keeper named Larry sent me information on how he gets his frogs to eat freeze-dried crickets. He puts the cricket near the frog, shines a laser pointer on it, and wiggles the light. The frog thinks it is alive and eats it. Be sure to avoid shining the laser at the frog's eyes.

For information on raising mealworms to feed your frogs and other animals, see my new mealworm page.

This guide, while written specifically for green frogs, can be used for other species of toad and frog. The main differences are in the amount of time it takes tadpoles to develop, and their various sizes. Most frogs and toads change go from eggs to adult in one season but green frogs and bullfrogs take more than a year to do this, and thus, must overwinter in ponds.

I have raised many green frog tadpoles (Rana clamitans) in my ponds. Eggs are laid from early May into early September here in Zone 6/7. Egg masses are about 3 inches in diameter. When the tadpoles first hatch, they are tiny and not poisonous, so all fish and other animals will eat them. They can be raised in a small pond (tub pond or kiddie pool which works well) or aquarium without other animals until they are large enough to not be eaten (depends on the size of your fish and the amount of plant cover the tadpoles have). The size of their home until fall (for spring and summer laid eggs) should be at least 20 gallons with about 50 gallons being ideal. A small air stone should help keep it oxygenated but do not use a pump or filter because it will suck them in (my filter pads get covered in tadpoles). At first, like newborn fry, the tadpoles will just lay there, not move much, not eat, and do not look like tadpoles. They look flattened and not at all like tadpoles of any sort. After a few days, they will begin to swim around. They will eat algae and fish food. They may or may not eat hair algae but will eat other algae. You can add algae from your main pond to supplement their diet of fish food. I feed tadpoles Cheerios, koi kookies (sold at many pond places including That Pet Place, Pet Warehouse, and AquaMart, go here for contact information); yes, it is spelled kookie and not cookie), goldfish flake food, pond floating pellet food, and algae tablets made for plecostomus catfish. When I put in Cheerios, they all hitch on and spin it around like an amusement park ride. When I put in koi kookies, the kookie gets covered in a black mass shortly. One person says he raised toad tadpoles on rabbit pellets! So, you can try other foods but variety is best.

Change about a third of the water every week. This may be hard if there are a lot of tadpoles and little water. You can either run the water to be changed through a net to catch the tadpoles, toss the changed water with tadpoles into another pond (I do that since I have so many ponds), or discard some (to reduce their numbers). Sometimes, I just do not change the water since there are too many tadpoles, and they survive. By fall, they should be about 0.5 to 1 inch in length. Over winter, they must either be in a pond that will not freeze solid or indoors. If left outdoors, the pond needs to retain an opening in the ice using aeration or a de-icer. I have kept a few in my indoor pond over winter for the last few years, and they do well. By spring, they will have a growth spurt. By the following summer, they should reach about 2 inches or more in length. They are great algae eaters then and too big for the koi to eat (unless by accident) so they can be in with the koi. After 1 to 1.5 years, the tadpoles will metamorphosize into adult green frogs. The exact time required depends on temperature and food sources. They turn into adults about an inch in length and are so cute! By the end of that year, they will be up to a few inches long. By the following summer (two years after they were laid), they should be breeding for you. They only grow up to about 3 inches maximum and do NOT eat fish. I have lots of photos of my adult frogs on my various frog pages.

I would expect that out of one bunch of tadpoles (100-200), only have a few make it to adulthood which is fine because you do not want to be overrun! Many will starve, get eaten by each other or any animals that get to them, or die from ammonia, nitrite, and/or organic build up from overcrowding.

As adults, the green frogs can eat the foods mentioned above.

In the fall, when the pond is covered with a leaf net, a few frogs will inevitably decide to play trampoline on top of the net (watching a huge bullfrog is quite amusing). Some people use nets year-round to keep out predators. Frogs will get stuck on top of the net even more often in summer. To prevent frogs on the net in the fall, I always leave some areas of the net open or elevated at the edge for frogs to get in and out until they finally go into hibernation when it gets colder. If all the frogs are under the net when it goes on, and the net is sealed completely around the pond, then there would be no problem. But, there are going to be frogs who are off visiting another pond and come back or holes in the net where a frog can wiggle out. It is much easier to get out than back in! I have had frogs try to jam themselves through the net holes that are way too small instead of finding the edges and lifting them up (wouldn't that be nice!) to crawl under. If you find a frog bouncing on top of the net, then use a long net to either catch it and then place it under the net or use the net to coax the frog over to an area where you have pulled back the netting (easier for larger frogs). If it is pretty cold outside, this should be easy. If it is still warm like when you or I first put that leaf net on, this can be quite a fun adventure. If you cannot catch the frog, leave a portion of the leaf net pulled back for a while, and the frog should find his way back into the pond. Around my 153 gallon pond, I go a step further in making the leaf netting frog-friendly. When I drape the net over the pond, I also put it over the mum and peony plants next to the pond so that the net is actually a few feet off the ground, and all the brick area around the pond is available for the frogs to socialize until the winter sleep. The net does not go to the ground on one side so the frogs can come and go. While leaving corners of the net open does seem to be a magnet for the leaves to find that one hole, it is a compromise between letting all the leaves in and keeping all the frogs from coming and going. Once it gets cold enough and the frogs stop coming up to sun and move around, I secure down the leaf nets all the way.

Here is a photo of a pickerel frog on my 1800 gallon net on 10/19/06:
Pickerel frog on net.

A common question is compatibility of frogs and fish in a pond. In general, goldfish, koi, orfe, and any fish over a few inches in length will try to eat frog eggs and any tadpoles small and slow enough to catch. Tadpoles over an inch long are normally not eaten by non-carnivorous fish.

It is often a concern as to whether or not frogs will eat the fish. It is usually the frogs who are in more danger but some frogs can and will eat fish. Bullfrogs are generally the largest North American frogs and will happily stuff anything they can catch in their mouths. They are not perfect hunters though. I have yet to see any of my bullfrogs catch fish although they may have. Many people report small fish eaten by bullfrogs. Bullfrogs will try to catch small, slow, and/or sick fish. Fish that are larger than the frogs and healthy will rarely be bothered by the frogs. Frogs also usually will not bother with fish that are too small in relation to their size to be worth their time.

Other, smaller species of North American frogs almost never eat fish. Green frogs, leopard frogs, pickerel frogs, and a few others technically can eat fish and may occasionally get one but it is not very often. Only small, slow, and/or sick fish would be caught in most cases.

Many species of both fish and frogs co-exist in my ponds. Sometimes someone gets eaten but it goes unseen. Both the fish and frogs are more at risk from other predators like herons and raccoons than each other. But fish eat fish and large frogs eat big frogs too! There is no reason not to keep frogs and fish. I do suggest a smaller fish-less pond nearby though if you want frogs to breed without their eggs and tadpoles being eaten. When winter approaches, the now larger (so less likely to be eaten) tadpoles can go into the pond with fish. That is what I do.

Pet Link Banner Exchange:

There have been 12,809,321 visitors (file views since 2006) to Fishpondinfo from October 1, 2003 through August 30, 2008.