Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i would be interested in seeing pictures of your setups, as well as any data on the species, number and percentage of offspring successfully produced.

i understand the concept of "cycling" to trigger breeding behaviors, but are there other factors involved? does anyone use a drip or rain/mist system? any tips or advice would be glady appriecated.
thanks in advance

-SFgeckos

Tiger salamanders as well as most species of Ambystoma have never been breed in captivity aside from neotenic individuals.

-Sfgeckos

No one has successfully bred and documented in captive tiger salamanders that were not neotonic. Neotonic individuals have been bred. I've heard that some labs may have force bred terrestrials through hormone injections. People are unsure of what triggers Tigers to mate in the wild...so success has not yet been acheived. I believe that some individuals have managed to get their males into breeding mode but the females haven't. That's just hearsay though.

If you're looking for info on successful captive breeding of tiger salamanders you aren't going to find any right now.

I am currently attempting to work with as many ambystomids as I can obtain in hopes to establish captive breeding. Feel free to contact me if you want to share information and/or ideas.
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Hope my opinions help,
Rob

I have bred them with the use of hormones. I am also working on breeding them naturally. From my research, I believe that only problem with breeding them is providing them with a deep enough water source and a corresponding temperature change. In the wild they look for still water at least 18 inches deep when the temperature drops below 58. Normally they will not breed if they all the available sites are too shallow. I have bred spotted salamanders that were over wintered and placed in a cold rain chamber in the spring, so I think that would be a good idea as well. Good luck, and let us know if you have any success.

Hi Rick,

You've bred spotteds in indoor setups without injections? That's quite a great accomplishment. Please go over to caudata.org's forums and post photos, and in depth explanation of how you've done it. No one prior to you has been able to succeed with indoor breedings with that species, so it's quite a breakthrough and your information would prove invaluable.
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Hope my opinions help,
Rob

It was several years ago and I don't have any documentation. I am suprized to here that this species is not being bred without hormones, since I read instructions on how to breed them from some book or magazine, this was almost ten years ago so I am afraid that I don't remember the source. Basically they were fed heavily with suppliments in the summer and over wintered in the fridge for three months. Upon emerging from hybernation they were placed in a rain chamber that was three to four inches deep with water with styrofoam floats. The temperature was set at 60-65. As per the instructions that I read, they were kept in absolute darkness with constant rain for two weeks after which egg laying occured, spermophores were also found.