Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in central WI and came into the possession of this little sallie. actually not that liitle. approx 4 inches. my son's friends found it and wasn't keeping it moist or fed properly. I have it in a 20gal with wood chips and shredded leaves. he gets misted 2x daily and has a shallow dish of bottled water. He keeps himself buried the majority of the time, so my qestion is, when it gets fed, is it ok to leave the 'prey' loose in his tank or will the food bother or harm the sallie while it is snoozing? Also, since it is winter here and he would most likely be hibernating now, is there any thing special that i should do for it to imitate winter?

If you plan on keeping it as pet for its whole life then keeping it at one temperature year round is perfectly fine. What are you feeding it? I personally wouldn't let any earthworms loose in the tank. I usually cut each worm in half and then throw the 2 pieces in front of a salamander and if it doesn't eat them after a while (but they always do) then take them out. Any crickets you put in there can run loose as long as you don't put in a whole bunch. Your salamander may also like dirt or bed-a-beast as substrate, but not peat moss. Bottled water is ok as long as it is spring water. Dechlorinated tap water is cheaper.

I would agree with this poster on care of a blue-spotted with a few additional remarks:
1.Vivarium can be maintained at the same temp year around as long as that temp is at or below 72 degrees F.
2.Too many loose crickets can attack a salamander
3.Earthworms are a perfect food for sals. As this is a small sal, worms should be cut up. Using a toothpick or tweezers to feed the sal works well. Don't let worms loose in the viv...they bury and you won't know what nutrition has been consumed.
4. Organic top-soil mixed with coco-fiber substrate is good. Leaf litter for blue-spotted is good (they particulary hide under leaf litter)...a few hides would also be a good idea - flat rocks/flat wood, etc.
5. Dechlorination only works if your water contains chlorine. If it contains chloramine, decanting will not remove this. Bottled spring water would be a good alternative.
The other things that you are doing..such as misting the viv, are good.

What you need is the dechlorinating solution that removes chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals.

I use Repti-safe water conditioner for reptiles and amphibians.
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"I am all that is Divine, I am all that is Evil.
I am the one who brings forth Death,
On the wings of a Weevil." JSKII

Why would you take something from the wild first of all to keep as a pet, just let it be in its natural home? Secondly, why would you take something from the wild when you don't even know how to care for it properly? Just something for you to think about.

Slight error of mine, I failed to realize that you said that some of your sons friends had found the salamander. In this case, if they had decided to keep it, and it wasen't kept properly, you are doing a good thing to try to care for it as best you can. Still, you should tell your son and his friends that it is not good to take animals from their wild habitat. I misread your post the first time, so I'm sorry I actually thought you were the one who had caught it and decided to keep it. Good luck.

Yes, my son knows better, he came to me saying that these boys had it and he felt sorry for it, so I went to his mom and got it from them. I figured it was too late to throw it back out in the cold now.
What about meal worms, can they just be let go in the tank.
I know with my bearded dragons I always remove their food, but I figured with the substrates being different, they may be ok with the sallie

If you are worried about live food stressing the little guy out you could always try frozen foods. Check out your local pet stores aquarium section...and ask for blood worms. They usually come in small frozen containers with 15-20 "pockets" of frozen red mosquito larvae. They are about 1 cm cubed and are fairly easy to feed. Simply thaw one of the cubed in some sort of feeding dish and place the dish near where ever your salamander likes to hang out in his tank. It shouldn't take long for him to figure out that the dish represents food.

My salamander loves these things and I usually find him near the food dish in his tank. About every other feeding I will either substitute or mix in salamander bites. These are little pellets (also found near the aquarium / herp section in pet stores) that are designed to sink to the bottom of an aquarium for aquatic salamanders and frogs. Mine has been feeding fine on this diet for over a year now and is appears healthy in both appearance and behaviour.

Mealworms are ok, but not real big ones. I have never been able to get any of my salamnders to eat any food that doesn't move on its own.

They can be kept the same as the marbled salamander in the following care sheet.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_opacum.shtml

Ed

it sounds like your salamander's got it made! as far as the prey, as long as you don't keep too many in there. as a rule of thumb don't keep more than three. if they stay in there for more than a few days take them out. good luck!