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Please help, Salamander won't eat. It's been a long time.

bean

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I found a Salamander in my back yard in Alberta Canada long story short he was trapped in a bucket of water so we saved him and my son wanted to keep him. I have created a nice home for him with the help of the advice on this site. He seems happy now as far as his living quarters lots of Eco Terra subtrate with coconut husk mixed in the top and some natural moss on the top. He has lots of places to burrow one cork board log and another log cave a water dish and a rock ledge. I have covered the back and sides of the glass enclosure so that he doesn't feel exposed and am only using spring water to mist the enclosure and fill the water dish. But still he won't eat. We tried some crickets in the first few days and some meal worms but he wouldn't touch them. I assumed he was stressed because his home was not set up right but now he has a nice home and still won't eat. Last night my son tried giving him earth worms cut into small sections. He is looking thinner now than when we found him and we are very concerned. Any advice on how to get our friend Ribs to eat.
 

totallyrad

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Hey welcome to the forum :]

We would firstly need to know what kind of salamander it is so if you're unsure
I would take pictures and post them so everyone can help identify it. Then we can
go from there. It's not uncommon for newts and salamanders to refuse food when
first adapting to living inside. Could not be eating for a number of reasons, probably
just due to stress and it doesn't feel comfortable yet. I would keep offering earthworms
as they are hard to resist. Do you have a humidity gauge and temperature gauge?
What is the temperature of the terrarium? Have you provided a water dish or section
of the tank with water?

I'm sure others can assist you more but we do need pictures to go from in order to help.
Good luck :) Also pictures of the habitat you have set up would help.
 

bean

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Thank you so much for your response, he just ate two pieces of earth worm and two meal worms so I think he is finally getting comfortable. He is a long toed Salamander, or mole Salamander according to the pictures I have compared him to, they are the only ones native to this area so I'm pretty sure. I can't get a picture of him at the moment because he is deep in a hole under a log. I was told that he doesn't require heat in the terrarium as he is used to the chilly Canadian nights and that it should never be warmer than about 70 degrees. I have just been keeping the ground damp for him as that is also what someone on here suggested, not too wet but not bone dry either. I mist once or twice a day depending on how damp things look. He does have a water dish in the enclosure and I have seen him walk through it a few times but that's it. I really think that I gave him a bad start, I got some poor advise from a girl at a pet store on how to keep him. I will be trying to get some more worms for him because I hear they are more fatening and better than meal worms. Do you know if I can feed him wax worms or butter worms and what about super worms?
 

Linus

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Glad to hear he ate and is acclimating to the new substrate well! waxworms are fatty and less nutritious than earthworms.. I'm gonna say keep going with worms if he's taking them. Good job :]
 

totallyrad

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yeah I would just keep worms, black worms, red worms, night crawlers, etc.
they are cheap and you can actually start a culture of them very easily inside a bin (look up tutorial)
That's what I did and I never have to pay for food again for my salamanders.
I just throw in some compost food seldomly and some damp cardboard.

i'm glad he's eating now :] you should still post pictures whenever you get a chance
i just love pictures of people's enclosures and salamanders. best of luck to you
 

evut

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Just to add to the advice already given: waxworms are not easily digestible (my salamander had an intestinal impaction from them). It's best to pierce them before offering them to the salamander.
Mealworms are unsuitable for amphibians - they are too hard and can bite.

You can find lots of information here.
 
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