Help -- Skinny Fire Salamanders

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kevin

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I have three fires; a male & two females.

I would guess that they are what you would call 'sub adult'...relatively small compared to most full grown ones.

Anyways, one is exceptionally skinny, and the other two still aren't what I'd call a healthy weight. I'm throwing about 6 or so large crickets into their cage two or three times a week and I've noticed some of these are going uneaten.

I'm feeding them large because I hand-fed them large crickets once and they took them without a problem; and I've tried giving them 1/2 inch crickets before and those went mostly uneaten so I switched to the larger ones.

Any help?
 
Kevin,

I would go to a bait shop or to a local fish and tackle supply store and buy some worms. Usually they stock "Jumbo Dew Worms" or "Trout Worms" in little ziplock bags. Hopefully live worms will stimulate their desire to eat!
happy.gif
Just wash the worms first, cut them up in half or in quarters. Get a pair of tweezers to grab the worm pieces up and try dangling them infront of the Fire Sallies nose and see if they snap them up. You could also try and put the worms in whole, but Im not sure at how adept your sallies will be at hunting them down, its all trial and error
happy.gif


(Message edited by bitzer on December 04, 2005)
 
I always handfeed my fire salamanders worms. I also always have woodlice and worms in their terrarium. However, they do seem to prefer being served to digging. I have seen them hunt crickets, but mine get fed up with the hyper dudes pretty quickly. It only takes snapping air so often before losing your appetite. The thing they do like to "hunt" are slugs. Nice bite-sized garden slugs,
 
I've decided to seperate the skinny guy and put him in a smaller (not too small) plastic tub. I'm going to start leaving pieces of earth worm in there daily...does this sound like a good idea? I actually think he ate a piece or two of worm over the last day or so, so I feel better about it.
 
Just an update...

A few nights ago he was really dry & skinny...so on the advice of the pet store (advice that seems to make sense) I've started force-feeding him...not always easy or pleasant but necessary, I guess.

I've given him a piece of earth worm the last two nights & this afternoon gave him two 1/2 inch crickets...I'm going to keep feeding him on a daily basis as I'm going away for a week in two weeks and I want to make sure he's ready for that in case I can't find anyone willing to force feed him if we're still at that point.

Anyone have any ideas on this now? Any similiar experiences etc...all appreciated..thanks again!
 
From my experience, every amphibian I've ever had to force feed has passed away within days. I hope you have better success with it then I've had.
 
Well, he has been in this condition for almost two weeks now and he hasn't seemed deathly yet. If anything he has looked a bit bigger since I gave him the worms; so I am hoping the especially after the crickets today he will really looking better.

He seems dry; that is actually my biggest concern right now. I have a cup of water in there but I think it may be too difficult for him to get into & bathe, so I will look at setting that up differently tonight. Especially after the feeding (since I have to handle him a lot) I make sure I dip him in the cup of water and make sure he gets out, and I've started making sure the substrate is extremely damp. Thanks for the good wishes though; we'll see how it goes.

BTW Jeff that is a very pretty newt in your avatar...what type is it?

(Message edited by sirkevin on December 17, 2005)
 
Marbled newt- Triturus marmoratus

It was the first caudate I was ever completely enamored with, but not the first caudate I ever had. I waited around ten years before I was ever able to obtain them.

Good luck with your Fire Salamander. I hope it makes it.
 
Thanks. I've set up his water now so that the bowl is shallower, lower to the ground & more accessible. He seems to be a lot more moist, which is encouraging. I'm planning on giving him either a full sized cricket tomorrow, or two or three (maybe four even just to get rid of the 1/2 inches that I bought) 1/2 inch crickets. I'll probably go with the half inches just to help get him adjusted and once the half inches are done I will go on to feeding him full sized. Oh well, I'm pretty sure that he has put on a bit of weight in the last few days so I feel alright about his chances.

With the ones that you had to force feed, what do you think was wrong with them? Illness? I think with this guy it's possible he was just in a tank for too long with two larger females & food that may have been a bit too big for him so he eventually got too skinny and wasn't eating ---- I should have monitored a bit closer, but I'll know for next time, heh.

Like I said he has been in this skinny/uoverall unhealthy state for a good two weeks, so I think that if he had a terminal illness he'd be gone by now...oh well, time will tell.
 
Hi Kevin,

I don´t want to discourage you, but in my opinion, it isn´t a good sign, that your FS hasn´t passed away yet. As I heard from friends of mine, sometimes there are Salamanders, which are very skinny and live for months and years, and others die in a few days.

A Salamander, which must be forced to eat, is not healthy!

The thing that´s important to me is, what is the reason the Salamander doesnt´t increase in weight. For this, you should let examine the excrement for worms or other parasites by a vet.

I think this is most likely one of the reasons, and if it can be treated, the Salamander maybe can survive.
 
I'm posting an update.

The salamander did increase substantially in weight. But, he just won't eat by himself so after I stopped force-feeding him for a few days he went back to being skinny (though not as skinny as before).

There's one problem, though, and this is new.

His...jaw appears to be broken? Like, there is a literal break in the bone and a bit of a tear on the skin. I KNOW this wasn't there before, so I am pretty open to the idea that it is a result of the force feeding. I feel pretty bad about it since it was most likely my fault, but it was my first time force feeding, so I don't know.
sad.gif
.

Any ideas at this point in time? I iwll take a look at the feces.
 
Hi Kevin,

I am sorry for your Sal... - in my opinion force feeding should only be done by people, who are experienced with the method.

Amphibians can regenerate hurt body parts very well, so if the Salamander was healthy, I wouldn´t worry. However, in this condition, I do not know, if it will result in a healing.

Maybe you can prevent the wound from infection with a povidon-jod solution.
 
Well, he was dead last night...so I guess that is okay since he didn't seem overly happy. Thanks to everyone that offered help in this thread.
 
Sorry to hear that Kevin. I lost a few this year and it is never easy. I just try to learn and do a better job with the ones I still have.
 
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