Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do any of you own any wild salamander species....particularly the reb backed salamanders of the eastern US??? We have alot of them near me and they are so adorable. I know what their living requirements are since I have been catching and releasing them for a while now. They live in the forests near my house and that have some small vernal pools. I was wondering if they made good pets (wild caught ones) but I am at a loss as to what to feed them should I get one. They are so tiny, that I'm afraid even baby crickets and mealies would be too large for them.
Also can anyone tell me where I might find the beautiful marbled and spotted salamanders? So far, I have only encountered the red backed salies in the forests under fallen logs and deep leaf litter (I live in New England). Even if they do not make good pets, they are still fun to observe. Thanks in advance!!!

I just visited the caudata site to make sure the sallies I am seeing are actually red backed sallies but there is no picture of them and the site does not mention that their geographical range extends to New England. But the description seems the same!!! Can anyone tell me what kind of sallies I am seeing???

>>Do any of you own any wild salamander species....particularly the reb backed salamanders of the eastern US??? We have alot of them near me and they are so adorable. I know what their living requirements are since I have been catching and releasing them for a while now. They live in the forests near my house and that have some small vernal pools. I was wondering if they made good pets (wild caught ones) but I am at a loss as to what to feed them should I get one. They are so tiny, that I'm afraid even baby crickets and mealies would be too large for them.
>>Also can anyone tell me where I might find the beautiful marbled and spotted salamanders? So far, I have only encountered the red backed salies in the forests under fallen logs and deep leaf litter (I live in New England). Even if they do not make good pets, they are still fun to observe. Thanks in advance!!!

Don't know how to tell for sure if your guys are the redbacks but here is a site with picts.
Food for them is tiny, pinhead crix and or flightless fruit flys and tiny earthworms. For the normal pet owner that is gonna be a pain and for that reason I wouldn't recommend keeping them as pets. If you are willing to buy fruit fly cultures and or pinhead crix or breed your own crix then I would say go for it. I have had good luck with Redbacks turning into fat little things on this diet.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/idguide/redback.htm

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Sonya

Thanks for replying and for the reference site...I think I'll try taking care of one (I already have crickets, mealies, leos, anoles, and two leo eggs sitting in the playroom) so one cute lil salamander won't hurt. I can get some fruit fly cultures at Petco as well as baby crickets so I think the salamander will do well. If not, his original home will only be a short walking distance away. Will it be okay in a plastic shoebox (with a lid of course) on damp, unbleached paper towels???

Rick:: You would be better off with moss it will hold the water better. I also used to think that keeping small salamanders and tiny dart frogs were a pain until I discovered flour beetles. These are tiny mealworms about the size of a pinhead cricket. They don't smell like fruit flies and they are much easier to culture then crickets. You keep them in a jar filled with half way with flour and clothe rubber banded over the top so that they can breathe. The culture is easy to take of and needs little care. I add a piece of vegetable once every month for water, they don't need much. To feed them to your salamanders, you just sift them out of the flour with a strainer. I have been feeding my animals from the same culture for years and I have never had any dietary problems with them. You can get them at most places that sell fruit fly and etc., or you can catch them by leaving a pan of flour outside covered with a screen, in a dry location for a couple of days.

Petco will not have small enough crickets, but you can order them on the internet or get a good pet store to order them for you; the catch phrase is "pinhead crickets" referring to their size. Fruit flies are good as well though they tend to die quickly until you have some experience with raiing them....and watch out if even a few get loose in your house you will have them forever.
Springtails (tiny white bugs)also make a good food for smaller salamanders; you can often dfind these hopping about in the leaf litter where the slaamnders live.

The best arrangement, i think for keeping them is to scoop up a large amount of leaf litter and "pre-soil" from near the collection site. It will probably include quite a bit of natural food for the salamander. I have never seen earth worms small enough for red backs to eat but sometimes you can get them to eat live (aquatic) blackworms or bloodworms by dropping themon the soil. these worms will die in mater of minutes without water however. But they are preety easy to find at good aqaurium stores.

Keep humidity high but leave a dry spot (a larger enclosure like a ten or fifteen gallon tank helps you have enough space for this. The more soil and leaf litter you can add (several inches is good) the better. You can use moss from a pet store but wild ones are better.
I have not seen mnay terrestrial salamnders with problems due to "wild bedding"

Last year I tried keeping a two-lined sal that I found in the woods out back. It would not eat anything I offered it, just sat there while fruit flies and tiny crickets crawled by. After a week we decided on letting him go. I personally never could get a local sal (slimies, redback, twolined or dusky) th feed in captivity, maybe someone else has. I like to stick with the mole sals like tigers and spotteds, they have great appetites.
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*~Ginevive~*

The spotted sals are very hard to find! I live in NY and though we turn up logs everywhere in the woods near our house, we have never seen them. But we did manage to find several egg sacks frrom spotteds, and we are walking back there every few days to check on their progress. Their parents seem to have vanished! But every other creekbed rock you turn over, there's bunches of twolineds and duskies.
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*~Ginevive~*