He's started digging...

[IanF]

My Tiger Salamander's gotten to early adulthood now. Unfortunately he's taken up the habit of worrying me severly.
Basically he would burrow an inch under the dirt in his tank before, but for instance today, I found him (after spending half an hour digging) under 6 inches of dirt, near the base of the tank. He repeated this the day before. To be honest and don't mind not seeing him it's just I get worried about wether or not he can breathe under all that dirt? If there were to be cave-in, surely the air supply would be cut off. Am I just worrying too much or do I need to take precautions?

 

[xMIDNIGHTx]

IanF, they are called mole salamander for good reason! This is very normal for tiger salamanders. If they were not burrowing or hiding it could be a sign that something is wrong. If you have the right substrate and it isn't waterlogged I would not worry at all. This is perfectly normal.

I leave half clay pots in the ground and they seem to like these. Half logs and piping also provides a "hide" that they like. With all the hides in there they still dig down under the substrate all the time.

Tigers normally burrow down during the day to keep cool and moist and come out at night to feed.

Hope this helps!

Mitch

My Tiger Salamander's gotten to early adulthood now. Unfortunately he's taken up the habit of worrying me severly.
Basically he would burrow an inch under the dirt in his tank before, but for instance today, I found him (after spending half an hour digging) under 6 inches of dirt, near the base of the tank. He repeated this the day before. To be honest and don't mind not seeing him it's just I get worried about wether or not he can breathe under all that dirt? If there were to be cave-in, surely the air supply would be cut off. Am I just worrying too much or do I need to take precautions?

 

[IanF]

Thanks Mitch. I know they're Mole Salamanders but surely they're not terrestrial submarines.
He's got tons of hides scattered around the place aswell. Geuss I just needed reassurance that I didn't need to baby him.

 

[pete]

They can burrow pretty deep in the wild. I wouldn't worry about it, as I'm sure that you don't worry about the worms in your yard suffocating. As long as you're keeping him fed, I'd let him go wild with the digging. It's an interesting question, though. I suspect that the oxygen consumption of a small cold-blooded animal is much lower than the large warm-blooded mammal that you are. I'm sure that they have other features that allow them to survive there subterranean life.

 

[Jan]

My Tiger Salamander's gotten to early adulthood now. Unfortunately he's taken up the habit of worrying me severly.
Basically he would burrow an inch under the dirt in his tank before, but for instance today, I found him (after spending half an hour digging) under 6 inches of dirt, near the base of the tank. He repeated this the day before. To be honest and don't mind not seeing him it's just I get worried about wether or not he can breathe under all that dirt? If there were to be cave-in, surely the air supply would be cut off. Am I just worrying too much or do I need to take precautions?

If the husbandry is appropriate, it is very normal for him to dig and dig deep..... and he can dig up as well as down as he needs to do....and there are pockets of air in the burrow in the substrate. I wouldn't worry about a cave-in. These guys breathe by several mechanisms including pulmonary (lungs), cutaneous, and buccopharyngeal. They breathe through their moist skin for absorption of oxygen and disposal of carbon dioxide - the costal grooves increase the oxygen exchange surface area. His environment needs to stay moist to help his skin stay moist. Don't worry about his digging if all else is ok.

 

[IanF]

Yep everything else is fine, I'll leave him to it then. And thanks for your imputs.

 

[John]

"Terrestrial Submarines" - great phrase that really sums up many Ambystoma species, particularly tigers. My method for getting around this is to "train" them into knowing when it's feeding time - before I feed them I always tap a few times on their box quite loudly. This almost always leads to heads popping up within a minute or so - think of the video to Michael Jackon's Thriller where the zombies climb out of their graves.

 

[duggie26]

People seem to understand when I call my Tigers "Terrestrial Submarines" to explain all the crazy digging. What's more, they are as amused as I am with this apt behavioral description. [Surface! Surface! FOOD! . . . Aye, Captain!] Thanks and a tip of the hat to IanF for his handy phrase!