A. tigrinum diet

[howard]

Tiger sal larvae are one of the most common lab organisms, and there have also been lots of field work on their wild ecology. But ADULT TERRESTRIAL tigers have been very poorly studied in the wild. Has anyone studied their wild diet? A book published in 1998 by Petranka stated that the only known stomach contents of a wild terrestrial tiger salamnder was a young field mouse. I feed my tiger primarily pinkie mice. Is this unhealthy? I think many people assume that invertebrates are a better choice, but I'm not certain about this. After all, it now turns out that wild Dicamptodons eat rodents and many species of monitor lizards, long assumed to be mammal eaters, actually prefer invertebrates. Anyone with more info? I want to provide a healthy diet to my tiger. Thanks.

 

[samuel]

I heard a high diet of pinky mice would cause ur salamander to be obese. Tiger salamanders are one of the few species of caudates that can get obese i heard. And the obesity will affect the salamander in all ways simliar to humans or any other animals. Most keepers i read feed their's mainly earthworms and crickets, pinky mice are used only as an occasional treat or to fatten up a thin specimen. Hope this helps.

 

[howard]

Thanks Samuel. I will try to switch over to inverts. In the terrarium, I see how a pinky diet can get them fat so I won't compromise its health. But just out of interest, does anyone know about the wild diet of terrestrial tigers? It would be interesting if it turned out that field mouse and vole young are important parts of the diet.

 

[samuel]

I seriously think that the tigers are too slow to actively chase small mammals. I'd SPECULATE (i dunno) that the burrowing tigers would occassionally encounter earthworms and ingest em. Perhaps the reason why no earthworms were found in the digestive tract is probably the fact that they are very digestable unlike the fur and bones of small mammals.