I am an occasional visitor to this site, but haven't posted in quite a while.
I am responding to the expert advice that folks are often given here. I have had a tiger for going on three years now. He's grown from about 6" to almost 9.5" in that time, and is doing incredibly well.
I don't follow all of the 'hard and fast' guidelines that are given here. My salamander's home is an acquarium, and the substrate in that acquarium is gravel. I tried dirt, but it didn't work at all. In addition to the gravel, I put a large handful of dried moss in the acquarium, a few sticks and a rock or two. About a third of his environment is water. His primary shelter is a terra cotta 'toad house.' He used to have half a coconut shell, but he outgrew it. When he is in a burrowing mood, the moss works fine for him. He spends about 75% of his time in the toad house, and seems quite content sitting out in the open too. I clean the cage about once every three to four weeks. I use tap water that I have allowed to sit exposed to the air for a week, so the chlorine can disperse. I don't worry about the ambient temperature in his cage, although it is in a spot where the sunlight never hits.
I feed him two to three large crickets every other day. The crickets are kept in a "cricket corral," receive calcium enriched cricket food, and get their moisture from a piece of potato. He kindly reminds me that it is feeding day by stomping around. He's a good, very active hunter. When I am in my kitchen, he tends to stalk me, watching me closely when I move past him. He regularly lunges at me through the glass if I lean over in front of him. In the summer time, I try to supplement his diet with grasshoppers, earthworms and roly-poly bugs from the yard.
A great pet! In this shot, he was getting ready to eat the camera and me, all in one gulp!
