Taricha granulosa wild diet.

[eljorgo]

Hello there. A while for me since last posted a thread.
This time I wanted to ask the fellows from the other side of the big pond witch prey items do Taricha eat in the wild. I was told and got confirmed they are not, as most Salamandridae, nuts about earthworms. They really prefer insects and small pray items. I got mine feeding on frozen live bloodworms for now and they're doing great. and they need to eat daily or 2 in 2 days. But they're juveniles... How about when they reach adulthood? Will they feed in same food, will they keep refusing earth worms? Witch kind of food should I get for them when they get bigger and need more amount of food? Witch types of animals are they used to eat as adults in wild? So, people who own/owned adult Taricha or get to see them regularly in wild, led me a hand on this issue please :happy:

That's all for now:wacko:
Cheers and thanks,
Jorge

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Taken off of AmphibiaWeb.org...

The adult diet consists of a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates as well as amphibian eggs and larvae. Invertebrate prey include crustaceans (especially amphipods, copepods, and ostracods), insects, arachnids (spiders and mites), mollusks (gastropods, small freshwater bivalves), annelids (oligochaetes and leeches), and freshwater sponges (Chandler, 1918; Farner, 1947; Evenden, 1948; Packer, 1961; White, 1977; Taylor, 1984). Vertebrate prey consists of amphibian eggs and larvae (Chandler, 1918; Evenden, 1948; Pimentel, 1952; Neish, 1971; Nussbaum et al., 1983; Blaustein et al., 1995; Rathbun, 1998), including eggs of conspecifics, long-toed salamanders, northwestern salamanders, northern red-legged frogs (Rana aurora), Pacific treefrogs (Pseudacris regilla), and western toads (Bufo boreas), conspecific larvae, and tadpoles of northern red-legged frogs and foothill yellow-legged frogs (Rana boylii). Small fishes may be eaten on the rare occasions when they can be caught; upon being collected, a rough-skinned newt regurgitated a 7.5-cm- (3-in-) long rainbow trout (Pimentel, 1952).

As for my 14 adults? They absolutely devour worms!

 

[otolith]

I've watched granulosa and torosa chase down dragon and damselfly larvae, gammarus and scuds in the shallows at some breeding sites here in California.

When I used to keep them I never had any issues feeding them earthworms. They also readily ate Eisenia sp. which a lot of other newts don't seem to like.

 

[Scottie]

Hmm, I never knew that Rough Skinned Newts didn't like earthworms. Mine must be the exception because they go crazy for 'em!

 

[VoodooJackal]

My adults also seem fond of earthworms. No problems getting them to eat.

 

[JReed]

We have 9 adult Taricha granulosas and 18 captive bred juveniles. The adults (like others posted here) are crazy over earthworms in general. However, the species of earthworms seems to matter, and I think this may be a part of the issue. Mine prefer baby nightcrawlers. They do not like “troutworms” or some of the other compost-type earthworm species much (bad tasting excretions I think). We also feed our adults small crickets. I have one individual who definitely likes crickets the best. Another who will not eat crickets at all. The adults also will eat bloodworms, though I do not personally do not prefer bloodworms for adult Tarichas as you need to feed them so many (basically converting the tank into a bloodworm colony!) . However, my terrestrial juveniles (8 months old) are doing great on bloodworms as their main diet for now.

 

[Argus654]

to go into about them eating amphibian larve I put some long-toed salamander larve in their tank when I was looking for a small container to hold them in until they morphed, and my T Grans ate them all in 5 minuets of them going into the tank....all 16 of them....

 

[JReed]

Sorry about the sad ending to your long-toed salamander larvae! However, I guess I'm not surprised. When my Tarichas get in a "feeding frenzy" ....all that is small and moves... watch out!

 

[spoons]

mine don't like earthworms either, they sometimes eat them but i always find them regurgitated later, as for amphibian larvae, i had two T.Grans in a tank with a breeding colony of C. Orientalis ( it worked with no problems for 10 years, so please no species mixing lectures..) and they never touched the larvae, but saying that they were very well fed.

 

[JReed]

Just wanted to clarify that the earthworms my Tarichas eat are cut into smaller, easier to swallow pieces. They usually have difficulty handling full length worms..