Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's been no rain for two weeks already and I can't find a single
redback salamander for my ringnecks. Although I put a lot of live earthworms in the plant pot and the snakes did get in and out of the soil all the time but I didn't see any fresh poops. So I think either the snake is not interest in the worms or the worms move too fast for the snake to catch. Today,I went to the pond and catch a baby frog about the size of a dime (actually I can catch a lot of frogs if I want) but I hesitate to feed it to my snakes as I heard that frogs carry a lot of parasites that might harm my ringnecks. The fact is salamander has much less chance to carry parasite than frog because redback salamander is not aquatic reptile. Now I just have to pray for heavy rain to find the favorite food for my ringnecks.

What are you talking about? Aquatic herps now carry more parasites than land dwelling herps? Both salamanders and frogs have a large chance of carrying parasites. As do many WC herps including snakes, lizard, turtles, etc. So if you are so eager to feed sals, then just go right on ahead.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

I wish my northern ringnecks enjoy worms as much as salamander but they don't. It's true that both salamander and frog have a chance carrying parasites. Same goes to cats, dogs and human, but what I am saying is which has the highest probability to carry this harmful parasites, the fact has been proved that the frog do has more chance to carry parasite and possible carrying many more different kinds of parasites compare to salamander.It is because some parasite larvae are aquatic and they pick up their host in the pond and they have absolutely no effect on terrestrial salamander. Please go do your research and I bet you will find the same answer. The first place to do your homework will be Google, hope this will help.

I just went through pages of articles on google on the subject of parasites of aquatic and terrestrial amphibians. I found nothing to suggest that aquatic amphibians are going to have more parasites.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

Hello,

Deformities in reptiles is the result of parasite infection as already proved by scientist through controlled laboratoy experiment. Therefore I would say the more deformities discovered in certain species (frog) indicate the higher probability of carrying the parasite by that species. It happened that the parasite TREMATODE larvae that do all the damaging to the frogs is also aquatic. The following clipped paragraph from national geographic further confirm my believe.

" Abnormalities have been documented in 52 species of amphibians, mainly FROGS, in 46 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Reports of deformed frogs have been particularly common in New England and the Upper Midwest and on the Pacific coast. " http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0709_020709_deformedfrogs.html

Hope this will answer your doubt.

it answers nothing. It just says that a lot of deformities appear in anurans when they are exposed to a certain aquatic parasite as far as I can gather. I have been out partying all night and I refuse to read the whole article as of now. My snakes, frogs, and lizards have had many types of internal parasites yet none of the showed deformities. So wait...maybe there are parasites out there that don't cause deformities! WOW! And I saw no comparison/contrast between aquatic and terrestrial amphibia in your excerpt. All it said was that abnormalities were most common in frogs. It said nothing about other internal parasites, just the ones that cause deformities. I had actually found many articles like that one, but I had skipped them based on the fact that they only talked about parasites that caused abnormalities. So get back to looking and find me piece that proves that frogs have MORE parasites (including ones that DO NOT CAUSE PHYSICAL DEFORMITIES). Thanks and hope that clears things up some.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

Let's do some mathematics now

1 plus 1 = 2 agree ? Yes

Aquatic parasite plus Terrestrial parasite = 2 parasites

Tadpole plus Frog = vulnerbility for 2 parasites attack

Terrestrial Salamander = vulnability for 1 parasite attack

Obviously the frog do has more chance to carry parasites and possibly carrying more differnet kinds of parasite because of it's amphibian nature. If this doesn't convince you, I have nothing else to say.

Hmm...but since 1 1 equals two you must also realize that many terrestrial salamanders start out as aquatic larvae. Hmmmm...By your reasoning, toads as well would have less parasites, even though they start as tadpoles and develop in water and return to water to breed. HMMMMMM.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

If you go back to my very first post, I am basically comparing frog and redback salamander.The Redback salamander lay their eggs on land and the larval stage is spent in the egg capsule, so the entire life of redback salamander is spend on land. I think this should conclude our discussion. Thanks anyway for your interest in this subject discussion.

Whenever I had my ringneck collection feeding on worms and nightcrawlers, I would feed them frozen thawed, with most specimens I needed to leave the food in overnight. I had a few that would take them from my hand as well though.
I have found that most northerns prefer and favor salamanders as food, and I can't get them either now(even though it's been raining) and the last 3 times I fed Giant, she ate F/T slimy salamander scented pinky mice.
Michael
Never-the-less, ringneck snakes still do love their worms. I'd say you should try frogs if you have nothing else available.

Michael's Place

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www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Michael_Fedzen@hotmail.com

Hey man ! did you get a new camera LOL, this picture is awesome, so much difference from those you posted before. I never have a problem to find redback salamander after the rain, but first I need it rain so to flood the salamander out of their burrow. I will be very patient to keep trying feeding my ringnecks with worms and that is my ultimate goal. Thank you very much for your advice and I will feed them frogs as last resort.

lol no that isn't my pic, I wish I could get a new camera but I can't right now. That is a awesome pic though.
Michael
Michael's Place

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www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Michael_Fedzen@hotmail.com