Mealworms?

[i_love_necturus]

I have been feeding my mudpuppy only store purchased nightcrawlers since I got her (a little over 3 months ago) and she has been doing fine. Today she wouldn't eat and I'm not sure why. I think I might try feeding her large mealworms/kingworms. Should I cut off the head because a mudpuppy is a lot larger than other caudates that need the head cut off, plus mudpuppies eat live crayfish in the wild.

Edit: Should I try to feed (mealworms or nightcrawlers) her again tomorrow or on her next usual feeding dday, Saturday? After trying to feed her today she came out of her hiding place to move and swim about her tank, this is usually done at night time. Could there be something wrong? She finally went back to her hiding spot after a little while and I managed to catch some half decent videos of her out and about. I'll try to post links to the videos later today.

 

[pete]

It's probably ok, my mudpuppy occasionally doesn't show interest in food. Mine seems to correlate with changes my room temperature. Any changes to the water or enviroment lately or any other forms of new stress? I'd just try again the next day with the worm. Mainly I feed mine nightcrawlers. Occasionally, I give him a crayfish or a few ghost shrimp as a treat, but I never tried meal/kingworms, since they don't like to swim, so I got nothing to add there

 

[mantighoul]

If you feed meals worms cut off the head. I would advice against making meal worms a staple in the diet. In some salamanders too much chitin can cause problems in the system. I also believe too many meal worms is linked to obesety in some guys, I have read that in articles about Tiger Salamanders especially. Anyways, just keep some variation in the diet. Correct me if i am wrong.

 

[i_love_necturus]

Ok

Well i tried to feed her those mealworms (i wasn't going to use them often, just as a little variation) but she didn't go for them, so I just left them in the tank incase she changes her mind, I'll take them out later so they don't rot. Then I tried another nightcrawler and she still didn't eat. Pete, there has been a pretty good change of temperature, this morning the tank was 65 F, the hottest its ever been so that cpuld be the reason. I'll continue to try.

Pete, where did you get your mudpuppy and how long of you had it? What is the temp and tank size? Lastly, is it possible to post pictures of your tank, and/or your mudpuppy?

 

[Kaysie]

Ryan, caudates occasionally refuse food for multitudes of reasons. This is no reason to panic. If s/he refuses to eat, that's normal.

AnnMarie, I think you're referring to waxworms, rather than mealworms, as being fatty.

 

[pete]

Oh, I've had my mudpuppy for about 2 yrs now. I live in a basement apartment, so my tank is usually pretty cool, I don't have a temp control. I got the mudpuppy, because I figured it would do well with my normal room temp. I'll see what I can do about getting a current picture