New Tiger Salamander Owner-Advice needed

[ZekeSalamander]

We have what was once called a baby dinosaur since we have gotten him I have done my research and tried to find out as much as I possibly can on him. My son who I absolute love with him, has named him Zeke. The question I have is how often should he make a bowel movement? Zeke was bought approx 3 months ago and has went through his changes but we still have not seen any feces in his tank. I have followed all the "rules" and advice given to me as to what he should eat. Other than never making a bowel movement he seems very healthy and very happy. Any advice? He is the sweetest little thing even comes to the side of his tank and raises his head when we enter the room I'd really like him to stay healthy so please any advice will be great!! Thank you!!

 

[daedae]

Did you purchase this animal from the mall in Houma lol?

Concerning Zeke, does he look swollen or a little too fat? And what substrate is he housed on?

 

[daedae]

You might get more helpful advice if you were to repost, or have this question moved to Species, Genus & Family Discussions - Tiger Salamander & Axolotl (<i>Ambystoma tigrinum</i>, <i>A. mavortium</i> spp, etc.) at Caudata.org Newt and Salamander Portal

Also a great number of threads there if you have any residual questions about housing or care.

 

[ZekeSalamander]

Yes I did haha
He seems perfect. I was just wondering because I know their feces is supposed to be really noticable and I haven't had anything.
Right now we still have him in the cage he was bought in. Someone got him 3 months ago and hid him at a family members house for my sons birthday. I wanted him to get used to being in our house before I changed his scenery too. Hes only been with us for a little over a week. He has plenty of room for now because it's a bigger cage, he even has a log to hide under and he hasn't been losing skin. I just have been looking at what to get him.
And thank you I will change it.

 

[newtkidontheblock]

They shed then eat there skin

 

[ZekeSalamander]

I had read about that in some of the other threads, thats kind of nasty haha. I'll just say when we first got him he was losing his skin but it seems to have stopped now. But Thank you.

 

[emily74]

Hi there! Zeke is super cute! I'm not sure how often they are supposed to have bowl movements, since it's been several years since I had mine. However, you may want to change from the gravel to dirt or some other loose substrate. How I had had mine set up was I got a dish that was the width of Marly's enclosure so that he could have a water section and a land section. I used coconut fiber and peat moss which worked excellent. I make that suggestion for two reasons - if you are feeding worms or other food like that, they don't really discriminate they will snap it up and potentially eat the gravel (unless it is strictly hand fed.) The other reason is they like to bury themselves in the substrate and kind of have their little eyes poking out or their face like a crocodile lol. If you do loose substrate, do not use potting soil with the little white foam pellets, they can eat those and get impacted just like with gravel. The only downside with it is that the salamander may not always be visable. However, even though mine liked to spend time time buried he also would come out to eat, if he knew I was there, or hang out in the water. If the substrate is damp though they really love that. Speaking of water, make sure he always has water access or damp substrate because they will dry out and die from it.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

I agree with Emily. Change substrate! I use a mix of Eco-earth jungle mix with coconut fiber. Loose dirt is their natural element. Ambystoma is considered the genus of "mole" salamanders, they have to borrow. Even tamed Tiger Salamanders borrow like there isn't a tomorrow. Its not just something they like to do, they borrow if it gets too dry or hot and to feel secure. Damp dirt is the best moisturizer.

Get it out of the water and keep in on land. As far as food items go with earthworms.

Good luck!

 

[Jan]

I agree with the others that the substrate must be changed. As you are new to tiger salamanders, please have a look at these two articles from Caudata Culture:

Caudata Culture Articles - Tiger Salamander 101

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander

As for feces, the first article above describes this. You may or may not see feces depending on what is being fed, how quickly you are to observe it before it becomes part of the substrate, etc.

 

[ZekeSalamander]

Ok THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!! I greatly appreciate the advice!!

 

[ZekeSalamander]

Seriously thank you guys for the advice about the pebbles I didn't know that when he was bought he had them and the man told us he could stay in that forever. I was planning on getting him a bigger aquarium but I did not know about the rocks. THANK YOU! My son will be very happy!

 

[Jan]

Seriously thank you guys for the advice about the pebbles I didn't know that when he was bought he had them and the man told us he could stay in that forever. I was planning on getting him a bigger aquarium but I did not know about the rocks. THANK YOU! My son will be very happy!

It is so very unfortunate but so very true that 'pet shop' salespeople know so very little if anything about caudates. Glad you found this forum!

 

[emily74]

Yea petstore people are usually the last ones I'll ask advice from lol. They're supposed to know but they usually don't unless they keep that type of animal themselves. Tigers LOVE to burrow, I only kept a water source incase the substrate got too dry and then he would go in it for a soak. This was due to a huge fear of him drying up - when I was in school our teacher had a tiger in the classroom and we had a 3 day weekend and he insisted the tiger would be fine being kept in a ten gallon with just enough water to cover his arms (that's what he lived in, no substrate or anything ). Of course we got back and the water was all dried up and he was mummified I swear it scarred me for life!!
BUT ANYWAAAYS Tigers are so great, mine was like a little puppy he would come up to the side of the tank and beg for food ect lol if he knew I was in the room. So cute!

 

[ZekeSalamander]

I'm glad I found this too! I was starting to figure out they didn't know much about it since he also told us that he would stay in the larvae form for a while and like a month after we got him he started changing. I love it though he's so beautiful! And I love his personality. He already knows my son and myself.

Now do you give them large crickets or small? And he will NOT eat an earthworm. Any hints on how to get him to? I know they need them for calcium.

 

[emily74]

I'm not sure about the crickets as I had tried those and mine would never bother with them. He would take earthworms and waxworms, but waxworms are pretty fatty so if you give those they should be treats not an every day thing. Otherwise you end up with a sallie that looks like this

At first I would put the worms just in the enclosure with my tiger, but he wouldn't touch them. Then I started dangling them in front of his face and then he got real interested! It got to be where if he saw that I was grabbing the worm container he would get all excited and come begging for worms I don't know if that would work to entice him to try them, but I think they really like the movement and if the worm is just laying there, there isn't much going on to get them excited and really notice it I think. I don't know how good their vision is supposed to be, but mine really seemed to need the movement to grab his attention.

 

[Jan]

I'm glad I found this too! I was starting to figure out they didn't know much about it since he also told us that he would stay in the larvae form for a while and like a month after we got him he started changing. I love it though he's so beautiful! And I love his personality. He already knows my son and myself.

Now do you give them large crickets or small? And he will NOT eat an earthworm. Any hints on how to get him to? I know they need them for calcium.

Adult tigers easily feed on large crickets. A general rule is that it can consume something that is just about as large as its head. When feeding crickets, they should be gutloaded or dusted.

For worms, nightcrawlers depending on size or pieces thereof are a good choice. As emily74 said, try dangling the worm/pieces in front of the sal - it is attracted by movement of the prey.

 

[ZekeSalamander]

Thank you. I will try dangling them. Can one of y'all explain the gut loaded thing? The crickets seem normal size and I was given Fluckers cricket quencher "calcium fortified" I've been placing it in the crickets cage but I have no idea how to gut load. I am not really understanding how it goes about it.

 

[Linus]

"They told me I could be anything when I grew up, So I became a cloud:"

 

[emily74]

Gutloading any insect is feeding it for (usually 24 hours) before it is fed to another animal. This ensures that the insect will be able to offer the most nutrition possible. The Cricket Quencher is basically just a water source in a gel form for the crickets so they can't drown in. Trying to keep water in with them is just a huge mess otherwise! To gutload, you can buy a premade cricket food. Flukers makes a couple cricket foods. One is dry and looks like saw dust. If you use this, you need to use the cricket quencher also. But they also make one called Orange Cube which literally are small orange cubes They are moist, and because of this you don't have to use the quencher also (but you can!) For my reptiles I like using the orange cube best, it's the cleanest and easiest I've come across for crickets. Also you can put moist fruits or dry dog food that has been softened a bit in water as food too if you don't want to buy it.

 

[grius]

To have as basefood I do like this. I fine tear sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peppers, apples and mix it all together into a mass. Then I boil chicken which I then mash and mix with the vegetables. This is great as you can freeze it in bags, just flatten into a cake and easily break off pieces and thaw. Every other feeding I also blend in soaked mashed dog food for extra protein, altough there is already protein from chicken, but still.

In addition to the mix I feed with fresh vegetables and fruit, and fish flake food. It works great on both crickets and B.dubia. Got this tip from a large insect food breeders several years ago.