Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I have tiger salamanders, and they don't want to eat earthworms or nightcrawlers, even the small ones. But they will eat crickets like there's no tomorrow-----I buy them from the store because they are not easy to find and coat them with vitamins, but this is very expensive compared to just digging some worms, and less nutritious.

Any advice on how to get them to eat worms? I dangle it in front of one of their faces, that doesn't work, I put it in front of them and let them crawl around, and the salamander will look at it for awhile and then ignore it....but put a cricket in there and ZAP! He's gone! Has anyone else had this experience?

Yup. Neither will mine:
http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Amphibiary/Atigrinum.html
Individual animals have preferences. See alternative suggestions in the url above. Pay money for food? Not likely:
http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Amphibiary/frogfood1.html
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Mike.
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http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Amphibiary

Mike, you have an awesome website, I printed off the whole section on tiger salamanders, and it is good to hear that your salamander will burrow and go for weeks without food----I take it that you will not uncover him or bother him to eat and just let him seek it out when he seems hungry? I am going to find some woodlice and put them in the tank too, that is a good idea---didn't know they would be a good source of calcium, excellent.

How skinny does your tiger salamander get when he is fasting for weeks at a time? Does he just ignore worms, then? I wonder if it is the smell that turns some of these guys off---weird.

Thank you for your advice, I am anxious to know if your sally has any other idiosyncracies....how old is he?

I had two tiger sals a while back, and one was as yours, only eating crickets, nothing else was eaten no matter what I tried.

The other though had a great appitite, but did not seem too keen on earthworms, untill by accident I dropped one into the water bowl I had in the set up, while the sal was having a soak.

The salamamnder went crazy swimming about chasing the worm, eating it when caught.

I carried on doing this,and after a while the sal got used to this happening, and would look up eagerly if in the water bowl and I approached the tank.

It carried on ignoring earthworms that were just dropped into the tank though.

Great idea, will try that-----I rarely catch them having a soak but will keep my eyes peeled!

"Mike, you have an awesome website, I printed off the whole section on tiger salamanders, and it is good to hear that your salamander will burrow and go for weeks without food----I take it that you will not uncover him or bother him to eat and just let him seek it out when he seems hungry? I am going to find some woodlice and put them in the tank too, that is a good idea---didn't know they would be a good source of calcium, excellent."

I don't deliberately uncover the animal, but I do clean the viv out regularly every 1-2 months, replace the substrate, etc. and this usually means it is out and about for a few weeks. After a period of regular feeding, it tends to dig itself a new borrow and disapper for a while.

"How skinny does your tiger salamander get when he is fasting for weeks at a time? Does he just ignore worms, then? I wonder if it is the smell that turns some of these guys off---weird."

The main problem with this species in captivity is obesity! They are desiged to feed for part of the year and fast for part of the year. I would not regard mine a skinny, just lean, like a healthy wild specimen. Not liking earthworms seem to be quite common in tigers.

"Thank you for your advice, I am anxious to know if your sally has any other idiosyncracies....how old is he?"

Not sure, purchased as an adult, but probably between 3-6 year old.
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Mike.
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http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Amphibiary

Mike,
Thanks so much for the reply, that was another question I had that you answered, was it normal for these salamanders to burrow for long stretches---glad my salamanders are acting healthy.