How I tricked my tiger salamander

[leanne]

Ok, Fatboy the tiger salamander does not like to eat earthworms---he will only eat them if I refuse to give him crickets for a week (sigh). Sooo, today as I got one of his favorite treats (a cricket), I put an earthworm in my fingers so that the cricket and worm were side by side. Then I held the cricket/worm in front of Fatboy and he snatched the cricket and the worm both! After he had gulped down the cricket, he had already (accidentally!) ate half the worm, so he kept gulping until the worm went into his belly as well. I dust my crickets, but I want him to eat the worms since I know they're good for him. If anyone's tiger doesn't like worms, try this trick and let me know if it works!

 

[kaysie]

Exploiting their greedy eating habits, tsk. Lol, I'm just kidding. That's pretty smooth. I've never had any sals that refused earthworms, except for some A. macrodactylum on occasion. I do feed dusted crickets once in a while, for variety. They chase them and get the exercise.

 

[leanne]

Yep, Fatboy is something else---he evidently doesn't like the way the earthworms smell, because he can tell it's a worm before I even hold it up to him so he ignores me, and if it's a cricket, he's lunged at it before I realize he's seen it!