Please help feeding question

Hi,
I have had my salamander (bam) for 4 months now and in the last month or two his feeding habit has become a lot worse! I posted about 3 weeks ago explaining this, and since the problem has got so bad I think he could become seriously injured.

I feed him with tweezers, as when I let his food lose he cant catch it, just a mouth full of substrate.
The problem- Its got to the stage that each time I feed him he will attach himself to the tweezers and eat up them just like snakes. I cannot close the tweezers fully incase im squishing his mouth then he would not be able to retract, nor can I leave them fully open as this looks awful and makes his mouth very wide. So I am juggling with one hand trying to get him of and the other making sure the tweezers are not hurting him. this makes feeding him very stressful and worrying for me (not to mention him) Its been as long as 10 minutes trying to get him of the tweezers.

I have tried holding food higher, I always hold it above him at a 180 angle so its harder for him to latch on, I leave as much dangling down for him to grab on for as possible.
It may not sound very well but it looks horrible and has become a really big problem, I hear his teeth grinding on the tweezers to help him climb up holding his whole body on the tweezers with his mouth.

He is a very active salamander and never really burrows much, very healthy and loves his food and will strike every time at anything entering or observing his cage(as per his name) and also regularly baths.

If anyone has ideas, tips or solutions I will be really really really grateful, so will he!
Thanks.

What are you feeding him with the tweezers? If you tried night crawlers it would probably be easy for him to get just the worm and not the tweezers. Maybe invest in some plastic tweezers, or try and feed him something that you could leave in a shallow dish so he wouldn't be eating substrate. Hope this helps!

Have you tried using your fingers instead of the tweezers? Or a larger piece of food, so he bites the food and not the tool? Another possibility is to get rubber-tipped feeding tongs, like these:
Silicone Tongs - Useful Things for the Kitchen & Bar
Amazon.com: Endurance® Silicone Tipped Tweezers: Home & Kitchen

thanks for the quick response guys

I feed him crickets as ground is frozen with lots of snow at the moment and no place sells earthworms, I use plastic tweezers they're yellow reptile ones, thanks for suggestions though.
Im scared same thing will happen if I hand feed him he will probably climb up my finger.

I will try leaving dead crickets in shallow dish, and then worms when I can get them, if he does it again (if he doesn't take food from dish) I will try get someone to take a picture of him doing it.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it as I need any advice at the moment as have no clue how to stop it.

You can order worms online.Try worms direct and yorkshire worms

Kathryn93 said:

Im scared same thing will happen if I hand feed him he will probably climb up my finger.

I will try leaving dead crickets in shallow dish, and then worms when I can get them

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Tiger salamanders can have very aggressive feeding behaviors. Hold a large cricket by both of it's hind legs stretched out right in front of his face - if he latches onto your finger it won't hurt as they do not have teeth per se...feels like sandpaper. My fingers have often been 'latched onto' by an overly aggressive tiger.

Leaving dead crickets for him will not be effective. Terrestrial tigers are opportunistic predators and will only eat live prey.