Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Salamander forumers!

I never own a salamander before, but a salamander(an italian fire salamnder- what a beauty) recently caught my attention on the kingsnake classifieds, and it got me thinking, how come there rarely are salamanders for sale on the amphibian classifeds as well as the net? What could be the reason to this? They are visually spectacular in my opinion, and usually within the "pet size" that people would go for.

What contributes to the lack of popularity of the salanders? is it becuase they are hard to take care of? Is it becuase they are very hard to attain i.e rare? or are most of them a protected species?

Do people ever breed salamanders, and are they breedable in captivity? Or perhapes breeding and selling salamanders aren't lucrative enough a business, which leads to the lack of salamander breeder, seller?

I can't quite understand why they aren't as popular as frogs, snakes , chameleons , etc. If anyone can shed some light on the issue, i'd appreciate it.

I often find myself wondering the same thing, these guys are always smiling, often voracious eaters, and full of personality. I do belive they are a little more difficult to breed in captivity than some frogs are. Also, if you look at the classifieds, many of the frogs are either poison darts or poison dart mimics. Those that are not of that kind are often tiger legged or red eye tree frogs. The dart frogs have such an appeal because of their aposematic coloring, and the collector's obsession with toxic animals. The tree frogs are so popular because when you see a t-shirt or a poster involving the rain forest, you almost always see these guys. Another reason is that, quite frankly, there are many people who do not know what a salamander is. Frogs have been highly publicized in the media, whereas salamanders have not. Look at cartoons, television shows, or even your local pond. How often do you see a salamander in any of these places???? Breeding and selling is based on demand, and many breeders (understandibly, if that is how they make their living) are just out there to make a buck, and if you can produce a real life Kermit the frog, or little guy on the Smacks box, you are going to sell animals to many people as pets, not just herpetologists and collectors. On that same note, I am glad that salamanders are not as popular. We have a great deal of native salamanders in the United States, and I think they are great wild animals. The dart frogs, etc. come from South America, and if those countries want to allow their natives to be shipped off to other countries for the pet trade, so be it, but we do not need to remove our native salamanders from the wild on such a large scale basis.
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1.0.0 Thamnophis proximus
0.1.0 Rana catesbeiana
0.0.3 Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium
0.0.1 Graptemys ouachitensis