Your set-up is quite a bit more elaborate than mine. My sharptail was around pencil lenght and about half the diameter of a pencil when I caught him. I was planning on releasing him if I couldn't get him to take food in a timely fashion so I wanted a cage which was simply set up so I could monitor food intake.

I've got mine in what is probably 1.5 gallon aquarium with a screen top. In addition to the pin, I've got a clamp because the pin doesn't hold the lid tightly shut. The floor of the cage is covered with about two inches of bed-a-beast (a compressed cocconut fiber substrate). A piece of pine bark covers 2/3rds - 3/4ths of the tank floor and I've got a small clay plant saucer full for water on the other side. I keep the area under the bark damp through periodic misting and put various types of greens under the bark for the slugs to eat. I don't provide any supplemental heat, but he's housed indoors so the temps are usually in the low to mid 70's.

When I first got him, I would keep track of how many slugs I put in, and then I'd try to refind them all. The slugs always seem to congregate on the greens under the bark slab during the day, so this wasn't too hard.

He's constructed an elaborate burrow system through the bed-a-beast so I really hate digging him out. I know that I've got one of his sheds stashed somewhere, so I'll use that to give the scale counting a go.

Since I can readily supply slugs, I haven't felt too inclined to press the worm issue. Slender salamanders are not readily availible in my yard and in the locations where they occur in closest proximity to me, they aren't common. It's about a 45 minute drive before I can get to locations that have them in any numbers. Since their habitat (along with that of all the other critters) is rapidly being converted to vineyards, housing developments, etc. I'd feel bad collecting them in any quantity for use as feeders. How necessary do you think they are?

-Alice

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