Concerns with tiger salamanders

[tigerlover]

So three years ago I got my first tiger from a mall, the baby dinosaurs. I did enough research to figure out when to take him out of the water, type or terrarium for him, etc. Well when he was two and a half a chunk out of the middle of his tail went missing then he stopped eating completely for one month and passed away. There isn't a vet near me to take my tigers to and now that I have two new ones, I am wanting to prevent my poor Henry's fate to them. I also think Henry went blind a couple months before his tail chunk came out. Any ideas? I think it could have been his diet but I am not so sure.

 

[sde]

Sorry for your loss. However I can't really offer any info on what went wrong. My best guess is that his tail ( where the chunk went missing ) got infected. Or maybe he got too stressed and didn't eat, thus resulting in starvation. But those are just guesses.
What were you feeding him?

Since you have new tigers here is two great care sheets, if you haven't seen them already. Also, if you browse around that website it has a ton of strait forward info.
Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander
Caudata Culture Articles - Tiger Salamander 101
-Seth

 

[tigerlover]

I was feeding him pellets. I tried to feed him earthworms but unless you put them in his mouth he could never get a hold of them. I could wave a worm right in front of him and he would just wonder around until he ran into something then snap at it. He forever stayed burrowed and it was after three weeks of him being under ground I noticed the tail.

 

[Asevernnnn]

How does feeding pellets on land work? They're all hardened and dry, and I don't see a salamander readily going after them.
You could try to feed worms by putting the worms in a dish or container in the tank and just placing the worms in that, I used a non-metal dog bowl for my tiger until it got the hang of eating worms.

 

[tigerlover]

He didn't seem to have difficulty eating the pellets but again those were the easiest thing to feed him. He didn't always have trouble seeing the worms but once he was about two years old, if I didn't put the tip of the spoon in his mouth he would not eat. The two I have now have no difficulties eating anything I put in front of them.