Hibernation?

[jake]

Hi i live in england and was wondering if salamanders hibernate in captivity? I know they hibernate in the wild but haven't found any information on it yet.

 

[jennifer]

There was recently a lengthy discussion of whether salamanders "hibernate" or not:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/7618/41818.html
It depends on how you define hibernate. Salamanders will eat less the colder they get. But they will never go into a sleep-like state and completely stop activity.

 

[jake]

Thanks

 

[jake]

Sorry also can they be kept on their own?

 

[william]

yes they can, in some cases it's best to keep them on their own if they are aggressive towards each other like pachytriton or for breeding purposes like some ambystoma. if you were worrying about them getting lonely then you don't need to worry because they don't think like that.

of course if you do keep animals together then there is the exciting prospect of breeding them which is arguably the most rewarding part of keeping them.

 

[billie]

Since I'm a newbie too, and an english one for that...

I'm getting a baby newt(s) on sunday, only my boyfriend really wants to get two since we can aford them. But my concern is that once they grow older they might end up making baby newts of their own since the one(s) we'll be getting are too young to be sexed.

Newt keeping is a rare thing in my area so, if they did make lil eggs how much hastle is it to look after them? I mean I don't want to deny the newt(s) their pleasure in life.

 

[jeff]

It's only a "hassle" if you think so, but check out the articals here on breeding. I think this link will help http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/sexing.shtml
Jen knows her stuff.

 

[jennifer]

It is a fair bit of work to raise baby newts if they lay eggs. But you can always throw the eggs away, or let the adults eat the eggs/larvae.