Help with Tiger sal!!!

[felipe]

Hello, I was searching for a substrate for my tiger sal. and I find a substrate made of a brasilian plant called xaxim (Cyathea sp). This plant is a kind of fern and the people cuts the stem of the tree to make flowerpot. The substrate looks like coconut fiber, but I am worried... the skin of the salamander is so fragile! I am afraid that he cuts his belly on the substrate! This can happen??? And if appear fungus here? How it affect the salamander???

 

[joan]

Yes you can cut the belly of the sal. If there is fungus, then you would do salt baths (shallow, as to not cover the sals head). I would go with just plain dirt. I've used dirt, coco fiber, and a mix of the two, and found dirt by far the least messy.

 

[felipe]

Salt baths? What kind of salt??? Dirt? Sorry...but... what is dirt?? Its commom earth? My english is not perfect yet... The salt wont hurt the newt? Because I know that if you trow salt on a anphibian, he will feel a terrible pain! ( I am shamed to say, but I have already done this with a frog when I was a child... but it never happend again!!!) The fungus attack the skin of the the sal??? How it look like? But... the xaxim is the only thing I find... I am afraid that I might have to try it... if it hurt my sal I will remove it!! Sorry for so much questions!!!

 

[jeff]

Just go buy some unfertilized topsoil. The salt is intended to be put on the skin directly, but in a solution that helps the skin heal.
Use aquarium salt, no iodized salt.

(Message edited by newtsrfun on December 29, 2005)

 

[jeff]

Jeff, you forgot to put the word 'not' in your sentence.

The salt is not intended to be put on the skin directly...

 

[joan]

Common earth, yes. You can dig some from your yard and bake it to kill off microorganisms, or you can buy plain topsoil, as Jeff said, from any garden shop. Make sure it's untreated with fertilizers or pesticides. That's very important.

The fungus will show up as fuzzy growths, usually white or grey.

For more information on salt baths, read http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml

 

[jeff]

opps, hehe, i hope no one put salt on there salamander beacuse of me. That did indeed sound bad

 

[felipe]

I think I will use the fern substrate (xaxim)... because its humid and will not turn into mud when get contact with water... There are little fibers that i've thought that could hurt the sal, but i think its not going to happend...