Sick tiger salamander?

ive posted on here recently about my tiger salamander, my mom bought two on xmas this year for my son and my nephew, my nephew wasnt taking proper care of his so i asked my sister if i could have him, weve had him for about 2 weeks but my sister said he never ate while she had him, he still had his gills and was given pellets and feeder fish, since ive brought him home he has lost his gills and is now in soil/coco fiber substrate. i assume he is just stressed? but its been since xmas that we havnt seen him eat anything, ive got the tank set up as a 20gallon long, 4 hides, large water bowl, the temp is just room temp which is usually around 70degrees. ive tried meal worms, night crawlers, feeder fish and pellets, and he wont take anything. im just wondering if i just let it go and wait? im scared he will starve to death, here is a pic, mine is the bigger one, he is the wet, smaller one. he moves around some but is pretty slow.

Just from reading the caresheet here on caudata one of the issues that could be causing the smaller one stress is your temps might be too high. It suggests 65-72*F, but of course some tolerate higher temps better than others, so first thing you might want to do is drop your temps a bit.

Here is a link to the caresheet. If you haven't read it you might want to so you can see what else might be off with your husbandry: Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander

His body condition doesn't look bad. I can't see any bones protruding, he doesn't look anorexic or anything, just smaller. Force feeding is an option but it causes a LOT of stress to the animal. Maybe if you can open his mouth just a little and get a part of a nightcrawler in there it might motivate him to eat. Have you left food in the tank for the new guy overnight just to be sure he isn't a shy eater? Do you have him seperated from your current salamander or are they together? I think they should be seperate at this point because A- you don't know why the smaller one isn't eating, he could be sick and give it to your other salamander, and B- it'll be easier to monitor exactly whom is eating what. I would set up the non-eater in a hospital type set up for now until he is eating regularly.

Now mind you I don't have my tiger salamander yet... but I have been reading just about everything I can find on them so my advice comes from research not experience. Hope this helps a little.

snowflake said:

ive posted on here recently about my tiger salamander, my mom bought two on xmas this year for my son and my nephew, my nephew wasnt taking proper care of his so i asked my sister if i could have him, weve had him for about 2 weeks but my sister said he never ate while she had him, he still had his gills and was given pellets and feeder fish, since ive brought him home he has lost his gills and is now in soil/coco fiber substrate. i assume he is just stressed? but its been since xmas that we havnt seen him eat anything, ive got the tank set up as a 20gallon long, 4 hides, large water bowl, the temp is just room temp which is usually around 70degrees. ive tried meal worms, night crawlers, feeder fish and pellets, and he wont take anything. im just wondering if i just let it go and wait? im scared he will starve to death, here is a pic, mine is the bigger one, he is the wet, smaller one. he moves around some but is pretty slow.

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Tigers sometimes have trouble eating after morphing. Try crickets, their fast movements sometimes entices them to eat. Place a couple in an empty critter keeper or some other isolation cage with the salamander for 2-3 hours and see if he eats. Don't keep them in overnight in case he doesn't eat and they may harm your pet. If it eats crickets, try switching to worms, mainly Canadian nightcrawlers which are a much better food for your pet. It may take a while to condition them to worms. From your photo, it doesn't look like it is in danger of starving ant time soon. they can go at least a few months without eating, and their food consumption slows down during the winter months.

I agree with what RPM suggested. I usually don't recommend placing a tiger in a separate container to feed as this in itself can be stressful, but in this case it may be reasonable if you haven't already done so. This will allow you to establish if he really is or is not eating with no competition from the other sal. I agree that crickets would be a good choice to see if he responds to their movement. The chance that he will eat pellets at this point is slim to none - these guys are attracted to prey by motion.

Your temp at 70F should be fine. I would not try force feeding - unless you are experienced, this can cause harm to jaw structures.

I'll just add my $0.02: if you're afraid the salamander isn't eating, take the bigger one out and try feeding the smaller one in its normal environment. That way it isn't freaking out from being moved, and it also doesn't have the bigger one around to stress it out.