Question: Feeding and Tank Questions

[krwallis]

Hello all! I have a recently morphed tiger salamander. I purchased him as a "baby dinosaur" from a mall but within a month he was morphed completely to a land animal.

My first question is about feeding him. He is about 6 inches long and I have a box of large fishing earthworms that were given to me. They are HUGE, about as long as my "Rex" and a quarter-inch or so in diameter. I have been afraid of overfeeding him or them being too big for him to eat so I cut them down to about 2 inches and give him one a day to every other day. He has gotten very active and will chase our fingers along side of the cage snapping. I assume this would mean he is still hungry. Would it be safe to give him a whole one (cut smaller or whole) or will he hurt himself over-eating?

My second question is about his tank. Right now I am only using paper towels to cover the glass on the bottom. He has a log that he hides in and small bowl of water that he climbs in from time to time as well. What would be a good "dirt" or "soil" to put on the bottom or should I use some river rocks? How deep should the bottom be? I want to get him in the best setup I can...

Thanks for all the great advice!
Krwallis

 

[oregon newt]

Tigers always act hungry and ask for food. Try feeding every other day or every three days with a worm that's 2 inches or a little bit larger. As for the substrate, you can use coco fiber or topsoil without anything added such as perlite. Have you read this http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml? It will give you helpful information.