Bob: Needs to go on a DIET; eye problem

[pepper]

Okay, so I'm babysitting Bob, my teachers tiger salamander while she is in surgery recovering for a few months.

He is a classroom animal, so people must be feeding him a lot, because he is so huge. I don't feed him anymore because he's huge, but I was only feeding him about one large cricket 2 times a week.

I need to know what to do to slim him down.

I put Watson on a diet, well, technically just feeding him less, and he looks GREAT!

Do I just do the same for Bob?

This...is Bob.

[Dustin Sarroca]

tredmil?

[Otterwoman]

you mean "Blob."
I have a fat T. verr that I just cut back on her worms. Instead of two worms at a sitting, I've been giving her 1/2 a worm twice a week. It seems to take a while, too, since they're cold-blooded.

[pepper]

I'll have him for probably a month or two.

[pepper]

So I'm babysitting Blob the Bob, yes he's very overweight.

Tiger Salamander

He seems to have a problem with one of his eyes, it's almost always shut, or only 1/4 or 1/2 open..

He was on gravel and water for almost his whole life with my teacher and I changed over his cage and gave him soil and some moss to bury under and a nice water dish for him to soak in.

It seems after the change, his eyes were shut more, like he was not used to the soil?

Then they got better, and now it seems one is always closed or almost closed..

Suggestions?

[Jennewt]

Since both of your posts were about Bob, I merged them into one thread.

Your approach to feeding is fine: one dusted cricket twice per week will be fine.

Regarding the eye, you need to get a good close-up view in order to see what exactly is going on. A low-power dissecting microscope or hand-lens would do the trick. But another approach is to use a camera that has a good macro function; take a close-up photo and then look at the photo. This is the approach I used when I was taking care of this sal with an eye problem:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/series_eye.shtml
There is no way I could have seen what was going on without using the camera to make close-ups.

What is Bob's usual diet? Does he get any vitamin supplements? Eye problems can be caused by nutritional deficiencies.

[pepper]

I don't think the teacher supplemented any of his food, or dusted crickets.

I've fed him small goldfish, worms, meal worms, crickets, and a few other things..At my house I do dust my crickets. So when he goes back I'll dust the ones I give him, I'm just pretty sure the students will make him get fat again.

I just put him into a pale of shallow water, I'm calling it..water aerobics haha, he needs to burn some calories

I rinsed out his eyes and it seems they had soil irritating them, they both opened up and looked the same, very clear after a rinse out and a moist Q-tip got the soil off.

Is he just not used to soil? My Watson always has soil covering him, but his eyes are always clear and fine.

Is Bob just not used to it, or what? He's been on soil now for probably 6 months.

[Jennewt]

What are the students feeding him that makes him bulk up? And who is the "enabler" who is keeping the food supplied? I would suggest that the students cannot overfeed if there is no readily-available supply of food. I hope they aren't giving him their own lunch leftovers!

I have no idea why his eyes were like that. Mole sals usually take to soil "like a fish to water". If his eyes continue to be a problem, it might be needed to keep him on a thin layer of soil where he can't dig.

[pepper]

Well that's the thing, it is a small layer of soil, not enough for him to burrow down, which is why I don't get why he couldn't clear the bit of soil, maybe it is just because he's so fat!

I don't think the teacher really "cares", her animals are in pretty poor shape. Bob is handled everyday, and people probably aren't washing their hands. Her turtle has toes that are mangled and twisted, probably broken from being dropped or whatever kids do to turtles, and he now has a large cut on his leg.

I can't really speak up because this teacher is quite stubborn..

The teacher keeps large crickets in a bin, with 4 classes a day, 5 days a week, probably 30 students a class, each feeding him a few crickets could add up to a huge amount.

[pepper]

I just put him back in his tank a little while ago, and he has the same eye shut again..

Maybe it is the soil..I don't know I'm confused.

[Jennewt]

Try keeping him on wet paper towels for a while and see if the problem goes away. If so, then it probably has something to do with the soil (or with this particular sal's own peculiar achilles heel).

[pepper]

It seems his left eye, the gold ring of color is a lot less shiny and bright then his right eye..I'll try to get some pictures sometime.

[Jennewt]

Again, I really recommend taking some good up-close photos in order to see what is going on. A lot of decent digital point-and-shoot cameras have a macro function that is good enough for this. Maybe you could borrow such a camera if you don't have one.

[pepper]

Yes I'll take some later, camera has to charge.

My camera is pretty nice and I just found the macro function yesterday haha.

[pepper]

Well he wouldn't sit still enough for me to get pictures haha.

But today I cleaned out his whole tank and put him on moist paper towels on one end, and soft moist moss on the other.

I've been feeding him way less haha, and "exercising" him in a shallow tub of water where he can actually walk around without it being extremely stressful on his body.

He already feels lighter

And his left eye is now open and looks clear.

It seems the second you put him back on soil, it is half open again, so he may just stick with either wet paper towel and moss, or smooth gravel and moss.

[Sharon]

Without pictures it makes really difficult to make a diagnoses but I was wondering..... can caudates be allergic to dirt? Or heck, can they be allergic to anything? Seeing that its not actually dirt dug up from a forest maybe something that composes the make up of the "dirt" is an irritant to him?

Sharon

[pepper]

He mainly had eco earth with a bit of organic soil.

It seemed when he was on the soil the gold ring in his left eye was not gold, Almost a dull gold color, but his right eye looked fine, and was very bright and clear.

The left was always closed, or half closed, if it did open, it took him a little while.

The second I took him out of his tank and put him in a shallow tub of water, it was wide open, and when I put him back in the soil, it closed up again.

When I put him back in the new tank, with just paper towels and moss it was open.


EDIT: I just checked on him and his eye looks okay, and is open..

Don't know what that means but, glad it's open!

[pepper]

Well I had to put some coco fiber in his house with him, because he was spending all of his time in his water dish and wouldn't go on to the moist paper towels, now he is presently buried beneath the coco fiber, obviously happy to be able to burrow again lol.

[Muffin + Crumpet + Waffle]

good luck, he's also living in a small tank, you might want to mention that to the teacher.

[pepper]

I don't know if tank size matters much, I never see him move unless it's feeding time, and a 10 gallon gives him a lot of moving room.

He literally stays in the exact same place all day and only moves a few inches at night, maybe to bury himself if he feels like it haha.