Wild tiger hibernation

[matt]

I caught a tiger salamander in my yard about 2-3 months ago. Winter is coming in and it is starting to get cold and so is my basement(where the salamander terrarium is). It is still 18-22 degrees celcius so its not too cold. But he is starting to dig alot more and is staying underground for 2-4 days at a time. I am wondering if since he is wild and use to hibernating if thats what he is doing. I am worried he will keep trying to hibernate and waking up and get stressed out and die.

Any info appreciated.

 

[joan]

They don't hibernate. Tigers are natural burrowers and will spend most/all their time underground and usually only come out at night when it's really moist to feed. So when he comes out, he's probably hungry!

During the winter as it gets colder, he'll eat much less, about once a week, give or take.

 

[jennifer]

Lots of people keep tigers indoors for years. The lack of true "winter" does not appear to hurt them. It's great that you have a basement for him, it will be even more important in summer.

 

[matt]

thanks for the quick replies. I just wanted to make sure since he hasnt had a winter indoors where its not cold he might be confused. The basement does work great. At first i had him in my room but when it was warmer my room on the top floor was starting to heat up to about 25-27 degrees on hot days so i moved him to the basement right away.