Question: Water Dogs???

[LionHart]

Hi I am wondering if is possible to own a genuine waterdog in the uk?

if so can anybody point me in the direction of where to purchase?
and when i say water dog i mean one of the following;

Genus: Necturus

Necturus alabamensis AKA Black Warrior Waterdog / Alabama Waterdog

Necturus beyeri AKA Gulf Coast Waterdog

Necturus Lewisi Neuse River Waterdog

Necturus maculosus AKA Mudpuppy

Necturus punctatus Dwarf Waterdog

Necturus sp. cf. beyeri AKA East Gulf Coast Waterdog

Any info regarding if it is possible to own these as pets in the uk is appreciated.

Thankyou.

 

[AxolotlChris]

It is possible, but they are not common.

Not sure if they can still be imported from the USA or not anymore.

 

[LionHart]

Cheers buddy don't suppose you could point me in the right direction with regard to importing could you?

 

[AxolotlChris]

No idea on importing. As far as I'm aware its either USA or Germany.

 

[Mark]

If you ever get the chance you should head down the M5 to Slimbridge and check out Jay's Necturus maculosus display tank. I don't know the dimensions but it's enormous, about the size of a double bed with chillers built in. It'll give you an idea of how to keep these large salamanders in optimum conditions before you try to acquire some. Occasionally he gets eggs but I don't know if any have been successfully raised.

I've only ever seen maculosus in the UK. Importing a small number of individual amphibians from the US is prohibitively expensive unless you can find an exporter/importer willing to add them to a much larger shipment. I tried to import 5 frogs to the UK from the US once and the cost was in excess of £1,000.