Help with Long-toed salamander (A. macrodactylum)

We just found this adorable little guy in our driveway tonight.

I'm 99% sure this is an eastern Long-toed salamander, but of course I could be mistaken. He's about 3 1/2 inches long, coloration and shape exactly like in the species profile on your site and others. (Sorry no digital camera) Plus we live in the correct range for this species.

We are in Washington state just west of the Idaho stateline. Weather has been getting down to freezing at night, but we just had a couple strong rain-showers which appear to have brought this guy out of hiding. We also found a huge toad but he seemed lively enough so we released him in a safe place outside our home...

The salamander was sluggish outside and almost seemed "stuck" to our driveway so we brought him in and he is now in a quarantine container with some damp moss and leaves, and a few flightless fruitflies. He immediately seemed to "perk up" when we got him indoors so not sure how well he would have done in the cold weather... It just seems really late in the year for this little guy to be out and about.

Anyway, wanted to ask if anyone is familiar with this species, its care and what you would recommend. I am comfortable keeping him or releasing him, whatever is best for the little guy... I don't normally believe in wild-catching, but we just weren't sure this guy would survive the cold.

I currently am raising three other species (all captive-bred). I have a vivarium with some adult Japanese fire-bellied newts (C. Pyroghaster), Japanese gold-dust newts (juveniles) housed in a terrarium "nursery", and am setting up a terrarium for some red efts I recently purchased who are in quarrantine.

Any information anyone could share on the long-toed salamander would be appreciated.

Thanks,

From what I've heard, A. macrodactylum are not difficult to keep. They become tame with time, and thus can never be released back into the wild. These caresheets would be the closest:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_opacum.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml
For setup ideas, there are terrarium photos here:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/setups.shtml

Thanks for the info.... so maybe housing him/her would be the best choice, rather than releasing him... I tried feeding him some fruitflies but so far he doesn't seem to be too interested in them. I dangled some live blackworms in front of his nose and he perked up but didn't take a bit yet.

We'll keep trying and hopefully he'll get hungry enough to eat soon...

Thanks for the info!

I finally got a picture of the little guy! Sorry this isn't the best camera

So am I correct in identifying him as A. macrodactylum? Any experts want to weigh in?

**edited to say the round object next to the salamander is a banana slice. I put it there to attract the fruitflies so that they'll stay IN the container...

Thanks!


(Message edited by farvoyager on October 20, 2006)

Hai deborah, you can be sure it is a longtoed. I ma busy at the moment reactualising my article on captive husbandy of this species which I now keep for about 11 years. I hopeto set this article online in English, the current version is Dutch. I have bred with them in the last 8 years. They are not all that easy but not very dificult either. Goota go now, but will come back on th subject later

Thanks Henk!!!! Any further info you could post when you have time would really be appreciated!! Especially regarding care, set-up etc.

thanks!

Hi Deborah -
I keep these guys here in Seattle. Mine were given to me by a friend who found them in his boots when he went out camping. lol Anyhow, they do very well in a moist, well planted terrarium with lots of hiding spots. They have a small pond for soaking in if they chose (I don't have male/female so breeding isn't an issue). They are really active at about 5-6 pm around this time. I went outside the other day and found a bunch of them under a log. They were gathering together to stay cool (we had a really warm day - rather odd). Anyhow, they aren't all that difficult to keep in my opinion. I enjoy seeing them when they want to be seen and mine eat small crickets, because the fruit flies didn't appeal as much to them. They also like small spiders and pill bugs.

Hey thanks for the info Chad I'm a bit phobic about spiders so probably won't feed any of those - but pill bugs are easy enough to find.

This little guy has been settling in nicely, he's been feasting on california blackworms and seems to really like those. I was culturing them anyway for some of the juvenile newts so there are plenty to go around.

Hey, how big do the long-toes get when they reach adulthood? This one is around 3 inches now but I swear he/she has grown in the past few weeks since we gave him a home!

Hi Deborah, what you have is a Central Long-toed Salamander Ambystoma macrodactylum columbianum. 31/2 in. is about max for them. They are fairly easy to maintain. Don't forget to keep it cool in the summer.

Thanks Mark! He (she? sorry not too good at sexing yet) seems to be doing really well. Blackworms are a definate favorite, he gobbles them up like candy.

Our baby gold dust newts are about to be graduated from the "nursery" - a 5 gallon tank - so Long Toes will inherit that tank for himself.

Cool in summer is no prob, the newts have an air conditioned room

Thanks for identifying him - I had the long-toed part figured out but wasn't sure if it was eastern, western or which.