Food to get thin animals eating

Hi all

I recently acquired a reasonably large group (9) of Salamandra salamandra salamandra juveniles. Unfortunetely, when they arrived a number were looking pretty thin. Six have started eating crickets and earthworms are are starting to turn a corner, but three seem to be refusing food. These are also the thinnest animals - the angle at the back of the jaw and the pelvic bones are visible. They have so far shown now interest in crickets or chopped earthworm. I have them separated and housed on damp paper towels with moss and a hide. They seem to be settling down a bit now with less pacing. I don't want to put them into a naturalistic setup yet as I don't think they will be able to find food easily. Are there any other food types, or any other treatment, that might arouse an interest in eating? Unfortunately, they are too small for waxworms and I don't have access to a culture at the moment (making a new one would take too long to produce now, anyway).

Thanks

C

If i still had Achroia i´d send you a culture :S
Try looking for someone who has them, they are substantially smaller than Galleria but equally as good at getting a salamander´s attention.
If you still have woodlice i´d give them a try...you never know...
Tiny slugs might also work, although if they are not going for earthworms, everything else seems unlikely.

I have pretty good luck with waxworms for picky animals....

Travis

I had this problem with a Salamandra juvenile in the past but it didn't end well. Knowing what I do now I would have approached it differently. I know you are hesitant but I would suggest a separate, small naturalistic setup with lots of live foods and only one or two hides for the smaller individuals. With only a few hides you can leave pieces of cut earthworm, or other slower moving prey like spikes, slugs and waxworms at the "entrance". Try feeding in the evening or in low light. I used this method recently with a T. marmoratus juvenile that was not interested in food and after a few weeks it is now actively feeding whenever I open the lid of the enclosure. Good luck, hope you can get your little ones to eat.

A quick update:

Of the three animals, the least skinny one recovered very quickly. The smallest one died within a couple of days. I think the chronic starvation combined with being shipped with a heatpack was too much. The third animal is still alive and living in my wine cooler at 16C. It is still on paper towels, but I have added some large dead leaves and a bit more moss. This way I didn't have to disturb it too much. It is very flighty, but has started to eat again very occasioanlly. It is still very thin, but has definitely stopped losing weight. Eva has kindly offered some Achroia, which should hopefully kick start its appetite again.

I contacted the shop about this - we had discussed not using a heatpack in the transit box and I found it weird that all the animals were great apart from the three very thin ones. The owner was very apologetic and angry with his staff for putting the heatpack in (in his words, it was lucky they weren't all dead, having got up to about 30C for a few hours) and for selling the three thin animals, which were not meant for sale. I have been offered replacement animals once they get more from the breeder. This was a very refreshing attitude from a pet shop - I had prepared all kinds of arguments and threats to use in the case of them not accepting responsibility!

C

That's almost unbelievable. I've never had such an experience with a pet shop. How refreshing. I've had succes with feeding cut up waxies for animals which are too small for whole specimens. Call me a brute, but there's way more gruesome slaughtering going in our back yards.

I must admit I'm not proud of some of the things I've done to innocent earthworms in recent months..!

Live red mosquito larvae spring to mind. They are small enough and will stay alive and wriggle for one or two days on moist paper towel. Could be worth a try.

Hi Henry,

I will give those a go until the Achroia arrive.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone - it's never nice working with a species for the first time and having this happen!

C

Not sure about Salamandra, but many other salamanders find maggots irresistible. It seems to be related to their odor from the behaviors I have seen them elicit.

Tim

A lot of the time with reptiles it's more about force feeding them when it gets to that point. If they haven't eaten in a long time they tend to kind of shut down.

Before my sals were persuaded onto earthworms, I found that they loved little/baby woodlice that I just collected around my house and garden. Don't know if you've tried them yet but it's worth a try. Good luck