Frog Eggs and Tadpoles
A frog's life starts with eggs! Mother frogs lay hundreds of tiny eggs in the pond water. These eggs look like little black dots surrounded by clear jelly. The jelly protects the eggs from being eaten and keeps them warm.
After about one to three weeks, the eggs hatch and tiny tadpoles wiggle out! Tadpoles look nothing like frogs — they look more like tiny fish! They have round bodies, long tails, and no legs at all.
Tadpoles breathe underwater using gills, just like fish do. They swim around the pond eating algae and tiny plants. They use their tails to swim by wiggling back and forth.
A group of frog eggs is called frogspawn. One mother frog can lay thousands of eggs at once, but only some of them will survive to become adult frogs.
**Did You Know:** A single mother frog can lay up to 4,000 eggs! That is a lot of potential tadpoles!