Marbled salamander and red worms

[cgodwin26]

Hi there. I have a marbled salamander and have had for nearly a year. In this year I have fed her live crickets almost exclusively. More recently I have began dusting with calcium/d13.But even more recently I have been trying to diversify her diet. I watched a video on YouTube of a marbled salamander eating an earthworm. It was feeding day so I went to Walmart and got red worms about that size. I had 2 decently sized crickets left. I dusted crickets and put them in. Also added 2 or 3 worms. So I was hoping to see her eat a worm but alas no luck. I went away and came back about 30 min later. I saw 1 cricket...no worms...fat salamander. Great I thought. She loves them. 2 days passed. Feeding time again...As I am adding a worm I notice there is one crawling on a piece of wood in tank already. Never the less I powdered a worm and attempted to feed directly to sal via chopsticks. She turned away but when I dropped it in front of her she smelled it nipped at it but ultimately did not eat it and it went into the dirt in tank. Is she eating worms or housing them. Can worms hurt her in there? And do you guys think she is eating them? Should I stick with crickets?

 

[sde]

No, worms cant hurt her. You got red worms? Those are the species that most sals don't like I think. I would try night crawlers or earthworms. Just make sure they are the appropriate size.

If she got fatter than she ate something, so that's good. I don't think you'll need to dust worms. They are very nutritious.

They probably are digging into the dirt, but that's fine. They might surface later and get eaten

I think you should keep trying to feed worms, but not the red worms, earthworms or night crawlers. Red worms secrete a gross yellow stuff when they are chopped, and the sals don't like that. If he doesn't eat any of the worms over a week or so I would say go back to crickets. Make sure you gut load them first though, or else they aren't very nutritious.

Hope this helps! -Seth

 

[Playaboi]

It may take awhile foe your sal to accept the worms if it is use to crickets, my marbled salamanders won't eat much else other then small crickets.

 

[evut]

A diet consisting of one type of food only is not very healthy. The animal may have a "food addiction" now, meaning that she won't eat anything apart from what she's used to. If the salamander is a good shape (not thin), you could skip a feeding or two and then offer a worm again. Do try to persist, it will be worth it in the long term. They can go without feeding for a long time so don't worry too much.
Worms can be left to live in the tank with salamanders, you don't need to worry unless they start dying in there and foul the environment. You can also add some woodlice into the enclosure. They are a healthy snack and are beneficial for the tank cleanliness.
Regarding the type of worm - my marbled salamanders will eat red worms (Eisenia) despite the secretions but they definitely prefer garden worms. These are smaller, slow moving greyish pink ones, they also have some sort of a secretion but the salamanders love them. They also like little slugs from the garden. You can catch these and worms somewhere out where no chemicals are used. Nightcrawlers can also be bought but you might have to cut those if they're too big.