I am planning on building an outdoor year round habitat for tigers,marbleds and possibly spotteds and am looking for some helpful info.
I live in the NE USA and my winters average 32 degrees in jan but may occassionally drop into the teens or very occasionally the single digits.winters are wet.summers are dry mostly but humid and july is usually 80"s to 90"s occassionally over 100.tigers and marbleds are in the wild here but spotteds are only found about 100 mi away.Of course my specimens would be captive bred I"m just making the point the salamanders can take this climate.
Here are my plans.Any changes or modifications would be appreciated.I am trying to recreate a local swamp.
Our frost level is 12 to 18 inches in winter.I was going to dig a hole 4 ft deep by 3 ft across(circular or square.I was going to fill about 6 inches with gravel in bottom then about 12 inches with fine sugar sand like we have under our swamps and woods.then about 2 ft of peat moss and on top of that about 6 inches of spagnum moss on top of that.running to bottom would be pvec so i could check the standing water level and adjust it with the seasons.i was going to make this out of red brick and concrete and hopefully waterproof.I imagine this large of an enclosure would"nt need cleaning often.maybe yearly i would have to dig it out and redo it.i have well water and it's good.i could use that or get our equally good though acidic swamp water.i was going to mak a wire mesh lid to keep them from climbing out and the cats and birds from going in.my yard is shaded so sun shouldnt be a problem.
How do you think this setup would work?can i place marbleds and spotteds in with tigers or am I asking to lose them even if their well fed?Is their any posts already on this subject?I haven't found any and wouldnt want you to have to rehash something thats already been beat to death.
Thanks for any help.
Al

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