Gravid?

[lauren]

My fire salamander (who I was told was a male) appears to have gained a lot of weight in the last week or two. Is she gravid? Is she a she? If so, what do I do?

I have only had my salamander for 10 months, and it was wild caught, so I have no idea what its condition was this time last year.

(Message edited by lollia on September 14, 2005)

 

[lauren]

Please help. Thank you.

 

[ingo]

Hello Lauren,

from this picture I can not tell, if it´s a male or a female. Please take a photo of the cloacae region from the side, as done in THIS THREAD and THIS THREAD . You can tell the sex by a more prominent, sometimes swollen cloacae (male).

A gravid Fire Salamander can grow much more on size and weight though. What and how much did you feed him last week?

Regards,
Ingo

 

[lauren]

Ingo -

Here are some more pictures. He ate 2 waxworms around 5 days ago (I only feed him once or twice a week), although he may have been eating gnats that are in the moss. As you can see, his abdomen is very distended and his posterior costal grooves are gone. He didn't look this unbalanced 2 weeks ago.

 

[ingo]

Hi Lauren,

it looks like a female to me, and it´s possibly gravid.

 

[lauren]

Thanks, Ingo. What do I do for her so that she passes the eggs successfully? She has a water dish in her terrarium, and I know she uses it in the night.

 

[benjamin]

Fire salamanders usually give live birth, so there won't be any eggs.

 

[joan]

You'll get some little tiny fire sals. They're called neonates.

 

[william]

she'll deposit them into water unless she's from a population that are juviviporus meaning they pass minature adults instead of larvae

 

[lauren]

She hasn't been with a male in 10 months. Can the eggs she's carrying still be fertile?

 

[joan]

I've heard reports of females having babies up to 3 years after being with a male. Not sure how accurate they are, but it's thought they can store sperm for a long time.

 

[ingo]

Yes, she can be fertile, for female Fire Salamanders are able to storage sperm for a while. I know of people, whose Fire Sals deposited larvae more than 2 years after the last contact to a male!

For your Salamander looks like the nominate form (Salamandra salamandra salamandra), it wont´t give birth to miniature full-developped Sals, but to larvae (this is also called "larvipar"), which have already four legs and the characteristic yellow spots on the shoulders.

They will develop best, if you feed them with life food, like daphnia, midge larvae, white worms,...

 

[ingo]

Ooops... - Joan, you were a bit faster than me...