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Please help my salamander won't eat!!!

NaloAngel58

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Hi there anyone with good advice please help me. About five days ago I just changed my salamanders habitat. Before he had pebbles on one side of his tank and the other side was all water. And now I put a water dish for his water and frog moss. At first he would only stay in the water and the next day I can't find him because he is hurried under the moss. He eats crickets and when I feed him I hold it with a tweezer in front of him. The past four days he hasn't ate. I am very worried. I don't know if a should change his environment back to pebbles or change his food. It's nerve racking seeing him not eat. Please help.me.
 

Kaysie

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What kind of salamander is it? Can you post pictures of his set up? How warm is the enclosure?
 

NaloAngel58

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I would put a picture but I don't know how. It is a warm environment. We don't go through all the weather changes in Hawaii. So I don't have to worry about winter but if u can tell me how to post a picture I would be glad to post a picture
 

Jackulwulf

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Generally salamanders don't like warm environments. He could be staying in his water because he's too warm. If your place is warm then you should get a thermometer to see just how warm its getting. If it too warm for your salamander then he won't eat, he'll be really stressed out. It was a good idea to get rid of the pebbles though, if they were small enough he could eat them and get impacted, so keep pebbles out of the enclosure.
Once again, can you tell use what type of salamander it is? To post a picture, get an account on photobucket or tinypic, you can upload pictures there and then post the pic here. Use the [ img ][ /img ] tags to post a pic on forums. Once the pic is uploaded it will give you the link already in between the image tags so you just have to copy and paste.

He could also just be a little stressed from the changing of his tank also, when there's a big change in their surroundings they can get stressed and not eat for a few days because of it. But it would really help us if we knew what kind of salamander he is, what the general temperature of his tank is like and what his enclosure is like. Pictures would be great.
 

NaloAngel58

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He is a tiger salamander. The temperture is 69-71 degrees f. I will try to put pics up as fast as i can.
 

NaloAngel58

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NaloAngel58
 

Niels D

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The temperature doesn't have to be the problem. I would sugget you put a substrate in your tank in which he can burrow a bit more. They're molesalamanders after all. Is there a place in your tank where it's completely dry? Most (terrestrial) salamanders need the opportunity to choose between wet and dry. You can also try feeding something else.
 

NaloAngel58

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Yes he has both water and land. He is always under the ground n I always have to find him to feed him but every time I place a cricket in front of him he dose nothing. I'm worried I don't know how long he's going to do this. I have tried mealworms and that didn't work. So should I change his environment again? And if I do what should I change it to?
 

JessKB

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Hi there!
First thing you should do is read these two articles. They contain everything you need to know about properly keeping a tiger salamander.

Caudata Culture Articles - Tiger Salamander 101

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander


Tiger salamanders are mole salamanders and will remain buried a lot of the time. Most will come to the surface when they're hungry. I think you digging him up is stressing him out, that's why he won't eat for you. Moss isn't really the best substrate for him either. It would be better if you mixed some coconut fiber (like ecoearth) with organic topsoil (without peat moss) and give him a good few inches to dig in. I also don't see any hiding places in your tank. Tigers need a couple places to hide to feel secure and stay happy. That could also be why he's digging so much.

one last thing, don't feed him mealworms. He can't really digest their shells. Earthworms are the best type of food for him. If you continue to use crickets, make sure you gutload them and add a vitamin dust.

Hope that helps! You have a beautiful tiger there. :happy:
 

NaloAngel58

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JessKB you are an expert and a life saver... Thank you so much I will change his environment but what was it called? I shop at PETCO for him do you know the brand or name I should ask for? And I will get artificial plants and hideaway rocks. And I will never get him mealworms ever again. And I don't know where to get eart:Dhworms. Hahaha. But thank you for all the knowledge. Much mahalo and aloha!!!:D:eek::cool:
 

JessKB

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I'm definetly not an expert!I just had nice people here that answered my questions in the beginning too!

You can buy any type of coconut fibre expandable bedding.I think the brad I used was eco earth, but there's quite a few different brands. it just looks like a brick of coco fiber. Just don't buy anything that has cedar or wood chips in it, even if the petstore reccomends it. If you can get your hands on some organic topsoil, that doesn't have any chemicals/fertilizers/peat/ect in it, then do a mix of the organic soil and coco fiber. coco fiber by itself will be fine too. You want to wet it to a consistency where it will remain damp, but you can't ring water out of it

As far as worms go, you should be able to buy them at a bait shop, or just go dig them yourself if you don't use fertilizers or pesticides. Buy nightcrawlers, as red wigglers (most common type of worm you can buy) taste awful to a lot of salamanders, and he might not eat them.

Keep us updated on your little pal and post pictures of his new habitat when you get it set up!
 

Kaysie

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Another article you might be interested in is this article on terrestrial setups.

Also, be wary of 'hideaway' type shelters from the pet store, especially the magnetic ones that stick to the side of the tank. They're not usually suitable for salamanders, given their sensitive skin and the fact that they aren't so adept at turning around in tight spots. Large pieces of bark, broken clay pots (with smoothed edges), or other large, flat hides are much better suited.
 
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NaloAngel58

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Okay I have all your advice and facts and today I'm going to the pet store to get what ever I can for him. And I found out crickets aren't a great source of nutrition so I shall get something else. One that I have seen were blood worms. Would that do? If I can't get earthworms. And I will get pictures up as fast as I can.
 

tmarmoratus

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I would steer clear of bloodworms; frozen or freeze-dried, I don't believe they would be practical for a tiger salamander. Earthworms should be the staple in your tiger's diet.

4 days without food is nothing - a tiger with good weight and health could go a month or longer without food (though they'd prefer not to ;)). Generally, a worm or two every 3-4 days should suffice.

There's been some sound advice with regard to set-up. So long as the temperature in the tank doesn't exceed 75 degrees for long periods of time, your tiger should be fine.
 

Jackulwulf

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Crickets by themselves are a poor source of nutrition, but if you can't find anything else...or you have a stubborn fuss butt of a tiger like I do who won't eat earthworms, crickets can be an ok diet as long as you gut load them and dust them with a calcium or vitamin powder. You gut load them by feeding them with a variety of fresh and healthy fruits and veggies. As well as oats or bran. Crickets don't have to be a horrible food item if you feed them properly and dust them with calcium powder. True, earthworms are loads better because you don't have to feed them or dust them, just keep them in the fridge and they last you a long time. But if you can't get a hold of them or can't use them for whatever reason, crickets can be ok. I personally wish my tiger would eat earthworms but he doesn't, some tigers don't.
 

Aaron Chris

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When I had my Tiger Salamander I had some issues with this (not eating in habitat change), it's pretty strange. What I would usually do which worked most of the time was simply buy some crickets and refrigerate them for a few minutes (to slow them down, however, as cruel as it sounds, if you're afraid you'll forget the bugs in the fridge and kill them you could rip some of their legs off.)

So with the slowed down crickets in the cage I simply sprayed the cage with unchlorinated water to represent rainfall to get the critter active. I would usually put him in a semi-darkened space and leave for a bit, when I came back the crickets were devoured.

I know some Salamanders can be unique in their habits, so this may or may not work, but hopefully it does and all goes well.

Good luck! :)
 

asglrain

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If your looking for earthworms I do know of a shop called Waikiki worms. I got my setup from them.
 
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