Tiger Salamander Needs Immediate Help

[mlewis51295]

Okay, my boyfriend is away at college, I live with his family. Before leaving for college he had previously owned 2 Tiger salamanders for about 2 years. They lived in a soil habitat with salamander friendly water, the perfect temperature, moss and were fed newt and salamander bites. The female had always been bigger than the male. During one of my boyfriends visits he decided to get 2 new baby (still in water form) salamanders. He created a salamander friendly water cage, without doing research he put the two adult salamanders into the water habitat [even though later upon my studies that is not good to do unless they are mating]. The original male tiger did fine, he swam, he ate, he had a blast it looks like. From the time we put the female in she did not seem to like it. She never left the land, always staid in the hut, and [due to a previous issue she has neurological issues with walking] she was constantly laying on her back, the hut was big enough, I would even set her up on her belly and 2 minutes later she'd be laying back on her back. With the progression into a water habitat I kept the newt and salamander bites, but also fed them worms. I left for about 2 weeks to stay with him at his college, when I returned the female was extremely scary skinny and apparently had not been eating [his sisters were feeding them]. I have now moved the original male and female back to their previous land habitat. But as I'm observing the female has no want for food. I'm trying to nurse them back to health, but she doesn't seem to want to eat. How do I get her to eat?

 

[sde]

If I were you I would try chopped earthworms or nightcrawlers, they absolutely love them! They are very healthy too, and the wiggling attracts the salamanders.

I would give it a try. And are the adults back to a terrestrial setup? Because that is ideal.

Hope this helps! -Seth

 

[RPM]

To entice the female to eat, try crickets that are fast moving and may interest her more. You may want to isolate her from the male during feeding attempts as he will eat the crickets intended for her. If she accepts crickets ( or other fast moving bugs) you can wean her back over to earthworms later on. You could also try a mouse pup if you have access to one. Also what I would suggest when the temperature permits, is placing her outside in a cage during warm (40F degrees plus) rainy evenings. Then return her back inside early in the morning. This may stimulate her back to feeling more like a salamander again.
There are issues with your female if she favors laying on her back. I have no idea what is the cause or correction for this condition.

 

[Ominojacu]

I have had this happen in the past were a salamander appeared too thin and refused to feed. What I had to do was gently open the mouth with an index card and force feed it with a small gold fish, and a drop of diluted liquid vitamin. If you have to do this, you will need two people, one to hold the salamander and the other to administer the food. I chose to force feed a gold fish for two reason, first they go down extremely easy and are impossible to spit back up, seconded they are loaded with fat and will bring the weight up quickly. The salamander I had to do this with responded quickly and was eating again on her own within a week, and is now eight years old.

 

[RPM]

Gold fish are known to frequently carry pathogens and therefore are not recommended as food for salamanders.
You have to be extremely careful force feeding a tiger salamander. You can easily break their jaw by opening their mouth. Do not use two people to conduct this as it is difficult to gauge the force you are using and do not use an index card. If it must be done, slip your fingernail and fingertip between their lips, then a fingertip of the opposite hand to gently pry open the mouth, then slip a finger into the back corner of the mouth wedging the mouth to remain open. Forcep feed the food into the back of the mouth. Remove the finger from the corner of the mouth and hope it doesn’t spit it out. One could use a bite sized section of fresh water fish or even a small section of night crawler if that is all you have. But this should only be done as a last resort and may need to be repeated for a while. I only use this method if one goes off food for 2-3 months.
As I said earlier there are other issues with this salamander. Try allowing the salamander to chill out for a while without disturbing it in the terrestrial set up. Their appetites are usually stimulated in the spring season.

 

[Ominojacu]

I disagree with the idea that Goldfish represent some extra threat of pathogens. Goldfish are captive bred and pellet fed, the likely hood of internal parasites that could affect a Salamander is extremely low. This is one of those myths, continued by people repeating unsubstantiated information. Probably started by someone selling crickets! I would really like to see a video of someone trying to force feed a salamander by themselves, good luck with that!

 

[Jan]

I disagree with the idea that Goldfish represent some extra threat of pathogens. Goldfish are captive bred and pellet fed, the likely hood of internal parasites that could affect a Salamander is extremely low. This is one of those myths, continued by people repeating unsubstantiated information.

When purchased as a 'feeder fish' from pet shops, goldfish are often maintained in deplorable conditions (dirty water, dead and unhealthy looking fish in tank, etc.) thus I may well be concerned with pathogens.

A prudent approach when selecting food items is to offer a diet that closely resembles what the species would eat in the wild with the greatest variety possible. For this reason, I personally would not advocate feeding goldfish to a terrestrial tiger salamander.

Goldfish offer very little from a nutrional standpoint to a tiger salamander, are fatty and an unnatural food item for terrestrial caudates.