What Else Can Tadpoles Eat Besides Lettuce?

Baby tadpoles usually eat plant matter, but the future frogs can safely consume a few other foods. Cold organic lettuce free of harmful chemicals is the ideal thing to feed them, but they can also handle bits of vegetables and fish food if those foods are served in the right portions.

  1. Algae Discs

    • These concentrated discs of sea algae are sold commercially in pet stores, aquariums and online venues. The discs are packed with vegetables and are perfectly suitable for other species of bottom feeders. The blue-green algae in the discs, spirulina, contains a lot of useful vitamins, minerals, protein and carotenoids (an antioxidant). The tadpole should be fed an algae disc once each day; any uneaten discs should be removed from the water after 12 hours.

    Vegetables

    • Vitamin-enriched dark and leafy green vegetables, like spinach, can be fed to young tadpoles. Boil dark vegetable scraps to soften them before freezing the food and dropping it in the tadpole's water. The scraps should be no bigger than the size of one cube in an ice tray. Feed the tadpole a cube of frozen greens once every three days.

    Fish Food

    • Many tadpoles dine on common fish food. These flakes of algae, protein and minerals provide a complex blend of nutrition. Those tadpoles classified as top and semi bottom-feeders are able to consume the flakes floating at the top of the water tank. Bottom-feeding tadpoles will stick to sinking foods like the algae discs and lettuce. Packages of goldfish food and tadpole food are sold in pet stores.

    Method

    • Uneaten food pieces should never be left to sit in the tadpole's water. It will pollute the environment and have a negative effect on the polliwog's health. If the pellets, lettuce or flakes are not eaten within 10 minutes of the deposit, clean it out of the water.