Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just caught 3 Western Long-toed Salamanders while moving a wood pile in my backyard here in Western Washington State. I have set up an enclosure for them but I am not quite sure what to feed them. They were found some distance from any water. I just bought this house and I plan to put in a pond soon so I am going to try and hold them over until my pond is up and running with some surrounding habitat for them. Any ideas on what to feed them?

sorry for the delay. You can feed them small invertebrates. Small worms are probably your best bet. I should mention though that they probably don't need to be near water except when breeding. I don't know much about this specific species but most others in its genus live most of the year underground or in your case, deep into a wood pile where it's nice and moist. They have no need for standing water and if you build your pond and release them there, they will probably leave at night. Probably your best bet is to either wait until it's raining or some time at night and release them in the woods next to a large piece of cover (loose stone, a log with space to crawl under, bark, etc). If you are still going to hang onto them though then small wriggly worms are a good idea. You may need to try feeding them yourself with forceps or tweezers but it's hard to know if they will even eat in captivity...