Not right?

Hello,
one of my salamanders has been down deep in the dirt for a month now. I dug her up a couple weeks ago and she refused to eat. I was kind of scared to look for her again cause I didn't know what I would find but here she is alive and all however she just doesn't look right. Her and seems a little puffed up for not having eaten and usually she is the first to get the worms and always at the surface. I feed them earth worms, they stay in a 20 gal tank with coconut fiber soil and living plants.

Hi melgado, do you know why she decided to dig down into the substrate and stay there in the first place? is there something you changed in your husbandry for example was there a drop in temperature, did the substrate dry out even for a shirt time or maybe the humidity dropped. In the wild, these animals burrow deep to avoid adverse environmental conditions.

Looking at the photo she looks very healthy to me, well covered. Maybe she needs a bit of a break befor starting to feed again.

Please keep us up dated.

im not really sure why she would have buried herself, it did get a little dry on the top but it usually doesn't affect her. she's always been up on the surface and eager to eat. funny thing is her friend has been opposite of his normal behavior too- he's usually under ground and but hungry when i dig him up and now he's on the top of the soil and acting very hungry. after posting this and digging her out, she has re-buried herself yet again. so my question would be how long can these guys go without eating? she hasn't shown interest in eating for a month now, i certainly wouldn't want her to starve to death. I'm happy to know that you think she looks healthy!

She looks quite rotund! Is the male like this too?
At this stage, I'd not be concerned that she hasn't eaten for a month as she's not at all bony and being under the substrate would mean she's been inactive which would help preserve body mass.

no he's thinner but he has always been thinner, she has always been a fatty. i was concerned about that too, she looks bigger than the last time i saw her but it has been 2 weeks or so and i may not be remembering properly....

Hello melgago,
I think you should leave her alone until she reappears. It looks as though it is developing eggs.

Has she got access to a nice, big bowl of water?

Do you keep your salamanders at a fairly stable temperature year-round?

I have noticed that my salamanders do this occasionally too and I have assumed that it is because they do not get a good, deep cool down period in the winter (I live in Florida). It's like they go into a mini hibernation period. Every so often one animal will disappear for a week to a month. He or she will not eat at all during this period. It used to worry me greatly, and I would dig out the missing individual after about a week to check on them. After doing this several times though, I realized they were not loosing any significant weight and seemed to be fine - though perhaps a little groggy until they'd eaten a worm or two. Eventually I made myself leave any buried individuals alone to see what would happen. Turns out that if they were left undisturbed (with maybe just a quick poke under the soil to make sure they are still alive once a week but not digging them out completely), they would emerge and return to their normal behavior on their own when they were ready/hungry. I have multiple salamanders in each of my tanks, but this usually only happens with one individual at a time. To me, that signifies the cause is not a major environmental factor. Otherwise several animals would exhibit the same behavior... right?

This is just one keeper sharing anecdotal experience, but I would recommend leaving your little girl alone for now. Just keep her tank clean and the soil moisten and she should come back out on her own when she is ready to eat

thank you for the info! I just don't like it when I haven't seen them for a month. I really started to think I was going to be digging up a dead salamander... I know they can go a long time without eating but I never know when it's been too long. I'll happily let her do her own thing! I try to keep the temperature in my room around 67-ish but we live in texas and have to have a window unit in our room cause our house is old. Probably the only thing thats been inconsistent is the moisture, I usually just pour roughly 4 cups of water in there every few days because I'm bad about misting on a daily basis. The plants love it and neither have had any problems with it up until now...

melgado22 said:

thank you for the info! I just don't like it when I haven't seen them for a month. I really started to think I was going to be digging up a dead salamander... I know they can go a long time without eating but I never know when it's been too long. I'll happily let her do her own thing! I try to keep the temperature in my room around 67-ish but we live in texas and have to have a window unit in our room cause our house is old. Probably the only thing thats been inconsistent is the moisture, I usually just pour roughly 4 cups of water in there every few days because I'm bad about misting on a daily basis. The plants love it and neither have had any problems with it up until now...

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Dear melgado, I reckon every single person who has ever kept burying salamanders get to worrying about digging up a dead animal if they haven't seen them for a while. It's called being a responsible owner who is concerned for their animal's wellbeing. You are to be commended for this. I've a large (well fed) female S.s.gallaica who I haven't seen in three weeks and she gives me the exact same worry and concern as you do. I have to resist the urge to dig her out.

blackbun said:

dear melgado, i reckon every single person who has ever kept burying salamanders get to worrying about digging up a dead animal if they haven't seen them for a while.

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i agree!