Dominic wrote wondering if anyone had noticed if the frogs / toads have
spawned in the north west yet.

Depends on which north west you mean, ;-)
since I notice your address ends in .uk

Here in the pacific north west, specifically
se Washington state in US the tree frogs have woken up and I expect the toads
are out too.

Since you are just putting in a pond and don't have a base coat of natural
algae/zoo plankton for your future taddies to feed on I'll pass along my
favorite taddie food recipes.
I buy organic romaine lettuce and put it in the freezer. Chunks of this frozen
lettuce put in with taddies is a very popular food item!
I would also bring in a nice bucket full of the pond water, including a bit of
slime and mud, when you collect the tadpoles or their eggs.
All sorts of lovely little critters live in there and will be appreciated by
the tadpoles.
Tossing in a garden worm or garden snail every once in a while would be nice
too. Not too much protein though, more as a supplement. Think more along the
line of what is naturally available to them, that is a good guide to follow.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A