Now I have two little fire salamanders that aren't eating!!

[Sianita]

So it's been ages now since my first wee fire sal metamorphosed and now I have another one that has just came onto land. I am currently giving them gut loaded crickets ( I've fed them on fish food) and still they haven't touched them. I have them in a little plastic tank with a well ventilated lid, top soil/dirt substrate, moss, water dish, wood bark and leaf litter to hide under. They are in my bedroom which is kept cool and ventilated and I only bug them once in the evening to see if they have eaten. I haven't attempted hand feeding because they seem really nervous and distressed if I mess with them. I must be doing something wrong and the last thing I want is to let these wee guys starve so if anyone has anymore advice on what I can do or change then I'd really appreciate it. thanks

 

[Jennewt]

Nothing seems obviously wrong. Are the crickets small enough? Sometimes new morphs take a week or two to start eating.

 

[Sianita]

Yeh the crickets are small enough so hopefully they will eat. I even tried cut up worms and small wood lice. Thanks for the reply, I'm glad that I'm not doing anything wrong. Fingers crossed the wee guys tuck into their first meal

 

[ChrisRushton]

I have a baby fire salamander which has only been on land for a few months and it still won't take crickets even though thier small enough for him. He doesn't even seem interested. I got told to feed him small earthworms a couple of months ago and he snatches them out of my feeding tweezers every time I feed him so maybe try feeding him small earthworms because it works for me and crickets still won't.

 

[Sianita]

I tried feeding him chopped up earthworms because I couldn't find ones small enough in my garden, but he didn't eat them. Maybe I'm going to have to try harder to find small ones for him. Thanks tho because I'm not the only one so it's put my mind at ease

 

[ChrisRushton]

Oh right okay then, my salamander won't eat them if there not wriggling about loads though so maybe if you can find smaller earthworms, they will wriggle about more which I think they prefer. No worries, hope all goes well with them