Yellow spotted salamanders

[ann]

My young son recently caught two juvenile yellow spotted salamanders. He is a nature enthusiast and he often catches many critters that we winter-over or just keep for a few weeks then set free. We would appreciated any advice on feeding or things we should add to the terrarium for these salamanders. We would really like to winter them over in a .terrarium (10 gallon) and then set them free where we found them. My son has added crickets and spiders to the tank. I think they are too big and would like to add leaf liter and some dirt from our compost pile and maybe a plant. We would love some advice about there care.

Ann & Ben

 

[jennifer]

Hi Ann & Ben, if you are keeping other captive animals, it will not be a good idea to release the animals back into the wild. It is easy for them to get germs from other captives, then introduce these germs to local wild populations. Some localized amphibian declines, for example, have been attributed to the release of captive Xenopus frogs.

We have good caresheets for 2 related salamander species here:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_opacum.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml

If your compost pile has worms, be sure to add some of those. Spiders and woodlice (pill bugs) are also good.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml