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Tiger Salamander

Suzyyyy

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Hey, I ordered a tiger salamander from www.reptilecity.com, and he arrived about 2 hours or so ago. I put he into it's terrarium but ihe's just sitting there. I tried placing him into some very shallow water (without handling him a lot) and him started moving around a bit, but it was weird, he was like thrashing or something, swinging his head one way and his tail another, so i took him out of the water and placed him on some moss right beside it, and he's spent the last hour and a half or so just sitting there not moving at all. Could he just be in shock from the trip? I draped the nearby curtains all around his terrarium to reduce light, but he's still just sitting there... I hope he's alright because i've wanted a tiger salamander for a long time and i've read about what good pets they make... Can someone help me please?
 

Suzyyyy

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Oh and he's producing quite a bit of slime (not enough that it's sticking to the moss he's on, but enough that you have to go wash it off your fingers with warm water instead of just simply wiping it off). I don't know if this means anything or what =/
 

Abrahm

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My guess is he is just stressed. This animal was plucked out of the wild sold to a distributor, kept with huge amounts of other salamanders in a tiny box, shipped to your pet store and then shipped to you. He hasn't been well taken care of and he is stressed. The best thing you can do is make sure the habitat is well set up with access to shallow water, places to hide and then shut off all the lights and leave him in the dark until later tomorrow. Resist the urge to peek in on him or poke him or make him move. Salamanders are quite sedentary, they don't move often. If he thinks your a big predator waiting to eat him he may just be freezing to not be noticed.

He should quickly adapt as long as you keep handling to a minimum. I also wouldn't try to feed him until tomorrow or the next day. Use a nice wriggling earthworm near one the hide that the animal is using to coax him into eating.
 

dane_zu

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what temp is his tank at?

when I was driving home with my spotted sals the car got really hot and thats how they acted untill I cooled them down with some cool water
 

Suzyyyy

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Well none of that matters now because he's dead... at least i think he is... =/.... Thanks for the attempted help =D
 
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