Feeding Juvenile S.s.terrestris

Hi Caudata,

I recently got my juvenile terrestris a couple of days ago and have been feeding them small crickets by putting a couple in the tank so they can hunt. I was wondering if this method is ok? I'm a little bit worried whether they are eating their fill. Also how regularly should I be feeding them? Am I right in thinking I should give them a calcium supplement every week?

Thanks very much and sorry for all the questions, its my first amphibian so I'm a little inexperienced.

Keiron

Hey, well first of all some people do that and the animal eats all of its food. Sometimes food's leftover. Also depending how big your tank is the crickets can hide and your salamander won't find all of them or you'll find some crickets dead. And sometimes the crickets breed in there if the animal dose'nt eat them all (that's what happened to my green tree frog's tank). So what is best is to feed it crickets everyother day since its a juvinile as much as he can eat with out stopping for too long and as it grows into a adult you could feed it every 3 days.And yes the calcium is good and when its a baby/juvinile it should get calcium but don't over do it.Give it calcium everyother feeding and when it gets older you could start giveing it multi-vitamin supplements since they dont need as much calcium when they are adults since there bones don't need to grow as much.

I would recommend NOT putting in extra crickets beyond what they eat in a day. If the crickets run out of other things to munch, they have been known to bite amphibians.

In addition to calcium/vitD powder, vitamin A is also important for amphibians, so a multivitamin powder is also a good idea, right from the start.

In addition to crickets, most Salamandra will readily learn to handfeed on pieces of earthworm. In my experience they grow much faster if they get both foods, not just crickets.

Earthworms are by far the best, they are rich in calcium. If you can dig some out, it's probably the best food for them... BUT, catch and feed, do not store them more than a 3 or 4 days or they will go bad quickly unless you have a worms set-up. If you do keep some a few days,keep em in the fridge. Finally, get them from a yard where no pesticides / chemicals are used!

Hey, well first of all some people do that and the animal eats all of its food. Sometimes food's leftover. Also depending how big your tank is the crickets can hide and your salamander won't find all of them or you'll find some crickets dead. And sometimes the crickets breed in there if the animal dose'nt eat them all (that's what happened to my green tree frog's tank). So what is best is to feed it crickets everyother day since its a juvinile as much as he can eat with out stopping for too long and as it grows into a adult you could feed it every 3 days.And yes the calcium is good and when its a baby/juvinile it should get calcium but don't over do it.Give it calcium everyother feeding and when it gets older you could start giveing it multi-vitamin supplements since they dont need as much calcium when they are adults since there bones don't need to grow as much.

Click to expand...

This statement shows only how to kill a fire salamander. Were did you get such ideas my friend? Have you kept or breed any of the Salamandra species?
I hope you dont take it personally but better point the mistakes than a forum outsider take them as good advises and put an end to his own critters.

-Personally I recommend a small staple of 4-5 non dusted crickets / week complemented with 2-3 earthworms (Dendrobaena sp. / Lumbricus terrestris) Of course all of them adapted to the size of the salamander. This staple could go for a hole life. With the feeding items being offered bigger for no confusions. Some other oriental species of salamanders or the african ones might need complementary calcium or vitamins but not in S. salamandra's case.

Cheers
Jorge

eljorgo said:

This statement shows only how to kill a fire salamander. Were did you get such ideas my friend? Have you kept or breed any of the Salamandra species?
I hope you dont take it personally but better point the mistakes than a forum outsider take them as good advises and put an end to his own critters.

-Personally I recommend a small staple of 4-5 non dusted crickets / week complemented with 2-3 earthworms (Dendrobaena sp. / Lumbricus terrestris) Of course all of them adapted to the size of the salamander. This staple could go for a hole life. With the feeding items being offered bigger for no confusions. Some other oriental species of salamanders or the african ones might need complementary calcium or vitamins but not in S. salamandra's case.

Cheers
Jorge

Click to expand...

Ok but thats not going to kill it.I don't have a fire salamander but I have other caudata and thats what I do and they did'nt die.Just saying what work's for me in my expirence.

And can you tell me what I said wrong so I don't say it next time,maybe the part the juviniles eat every other day?But other then that I don't see what I said wrong though.

Some subspecies of S.salamandra do require calcium suplements like for example S.s.gigliolii (but others too) as they live in calcareous areas and rely on a significant intake of it with their food.

Thanks for all the advice guys will really help my little manders. I was thinking of setting up a wormery so I can have a plentiful supply of earthworms so I'll do that now If I find white slugs I can feed them that can't I? Only the small ones of course.

Thanks again guys I'll be sure to upload some pictures of my tank and salamanders at some point and see if you think its a good set-up

Keiron

AW: Feeding Juvenile S.s.terrestris

Hi Keiron,

you can also feed some small isopods, either small woodlice from your garden or from the forrests or those white tropical dwarf woodlice that are sold by some petshops and internet shops.
My salamanders prefer earthworms and slugs, but they eat woodlice, too, and woodlice contain a good amount of calcium. So they are a good addition to earthworms.
And woodlice that are not eaten may stay in the terrarium because they help to keep it clean a bit.

You asked if you can feed the white slugs from your garden. They are discussed controversial as slugs sometimes feed on carrion and excrements and may contain parasites and other disease-causing agents.
But slugs belong to the natural and preferred food of fire salamanders and I think it depends on the location where the slugs live. I regularly feed small white slugs from my garden to my salamanders (when I started keeping salamanders, nobody had internet and nobody thought about parasites in slugs) and they never caused any harm to my salamanders. They love the white slugs even more than earthworms and the slugs - if not infested by parasites - are a healthy food and many species of slugs contain a good amount of calcium because of the remains of their internal shells.
I'd say, as most European white slugs (white or grey garden slugs) mainly eat plant material, they are usually harmless, but with a certain residual risk. And of course you should not collect them near fields where pestizides are used or if your neighbours use slug pellets or other pestizides.
I would avoid the big red "Spanish slug". It is said that they more often feed on carrion and excrements and are much more likely to contain parasites. And they seem to taste awful, too.

If you think the risk of feeding collected slugs is too high, you can collect the eggs of slugs. Put the eggs together with a little damp moss into a container with a tight lid and put it at a cool dark place until the slugs hatch. Check regularly if the moss is still damp (not wet!) enough and if the slugs already hatched. When the tiny slugs hatch you can either feed them immediately to small salamanders or newts or you can put them into a bigger container with some damp moss, some pieces of bark and some food until they are grown and big enough.
Those slugs that hatched in the container are a safe and healthy food for salamanders.

Good luck with your little salamanders!

Peter

I feed all of my caudates on garden food, which in practice is mainly small slugs, earthworms and woodlice. I also give them baby snails with the shells crushed occasionally. Slugs are the staple, and they do very well on them. Earthworms are also good but they don't seem to put on weight so quickly with worms, and of course the worms tend to burrow into the substrate if they aren't instantly eaten. The way that all caudates feed on slugs suggests that they 'know' what to do with them (quick grab followed by rapid head shaking to wipe off slime). I tend to feed the sallies individually one at a time rather than chucking them into the tank, and the result is that most of my animals are pretty tame.

Young Salamandra can eat some surprisingly big slugs. I obtained some 5cm specimens this year after a long time without, and they immediately settled into taking slugs up to 1cm or so extended.

I hadn't come across the parasites thing before but I suppose it's a possibility. Then again, wouldn't earthworms be likely to carry parasites too? And come to that, earthworms may eat some pretty unsavoury things.

The point about slug pellets is well made. I don't use many slug pellets in the garden and never collect slugs from anywhere near where I've pelleted.

Tristan

I too feed slugs to my caudates, so far with out any problem. I do not however use slug pellets at all now as my slugs seem to travel surprisingly large distances.