Fire salamander questions.

I have recently acquired a fire salamander. It looks pretty healthy and my set up meets the reccomendations on the various caresheets that i've read. I'm now going through the new animal anxiety phase. there are earthworms and woodlice in the spacious naturalistic environment and of course I have no way of telling if it has eaten any of these! When I offer it earthworms with a tweezers it refuses. It also seems to be quite inactive, rarely venturing far from its bark hide. Is this normal, and will it become more adventurous as it settles into its new home?

Hi Peter..that sounds typical of a fire sal ,they are nocturnal and rarely venture out durin the day but come out as it gets dark to hunt for food. Once he's settled in he might learn to take food from tweezers as quite a few of mine do .You could try spraying his enclosure a little this might temp him out as in the wild they come out after rain to feed. Try dropping a piece of earth worm or wax worm in front of him ,this may temp him..

Thanks, Ian,
i tried the dropping an earthworm approach but he ignored it! I reckon he's just not hungry yet.

Ian is right

Hi Peter,

The FIRE Guru Ian Riggs is absolutely right (And he should know, he is an expert on the species).

I have kept them on and off for over 20 years and as Ian says they are very nocturnal and quite shy at first.

Give it some time and dont 'pester' it too much...let it just settle in.

When its hungry you will know....as Ian says spray the tank in the evening and if it comes out ....its likely to be hungry. Then just drop food near it and let it make its mind up. They arent the quickest at catching stuff so dont be surprised if food wanders past and it doesnt do anything. However when they are hungry they can be very 'quick of the mark'!!!!!

I'm interested to see pics of the viv you have it in?

Best of luck...try not to worry it will probably settle....but DONT forget...another valid tip from Mr Riggs....keep the temperature down...they dont like it warm...and certainly not above the early 20's.

Cheers,

Mike.

PS Have attached some images for you of our large male Terrestris and the tank he shares with his 'ladies'!!!

Hi there Mike and thanks for the info and the pics. that's a fine looking animal!

Okay, the salamander still looks ok, but I haven't seen him outside of his bark hide for a number of days (or nights now). Just how long would you reckon he would go without food, assuming that he's not snacking on the woodlice that are in the viv?