Salamanders on ice~

[allegoriest]

(First of all, I have no idea what snow is. It's this mysterious white stuff that people claim falls from the sky when it gets cold, and I call shenanigans because I have never seen snow, THEREFORE it doesn't exist. End my faulty not-wintery logic.)

Uhh... Okay. This might possibly have an obvious answer, but I really have no idea what winter is. I've also never SEEN a salamander until my larvae turned into one, so bear with me here.

Do salamanders hibernate?

What do they do during the winter? Where do they go? What do they eat? I really don't think they've been kitting little sweaters to wear for when it gets cold.

Do they put little blades on their feet and go ice skating because they love winter? Rolling in the snow making little salamander angels...

I have absolutely no idea.

Also, does this mean I need to do anything different to my little tiger salamander in my home?

 

[Azhael]

Terrestrial caudates find holes or other subterranean places to hide in during the worst of the winter. They choose a place that is free from frost so that they don´t freeze but that´s it...as long as temps don´t get below 2ºC or so they will be perfectly ok, even if surface temps are -25ºC. Aquatic ones just choose water masses that don´t freeze all over.

They are extremely tolerant to low temps, and in fact will remain active and feeding until temps drop to 4ºC or so in some cases. During the snow season they will just live of their reserves. Some species become active in the surface even before the snow melts just as long as air temps are above freezing.

 

[Kaysie]

As for your personal salamander, no, you don't need to do anything different. You may notice it eats less in the winter. This is because even though temperatures haven't changed, the photoperiod (how long it's daylight) has. Just keep offering food as you have been.

 

[allegoriest]

Yay, thanks~

I was reading stuff on some other forum about how their plants need to hibernate, and some people simulate winter for their pets. Then I was like... wait... what if I have to do that!? But I've been feeding him like normal. Right now he's adventuring and watching me type like he usually does.


Actually... now I have another question that I just thought of.

My salamander lives in my bedroom. Which, has no sunlight at all. (I'm sort of allergic to it. Long story.) But I have mostly broad spectrum lights for my lamps and fish. He doesn't get any directly, and I generally keep them on the same times everyday. I'm pretty sure that at least in my case, he has the same amount of light as he did several months ago. Does he need sunshine?

 

[mytimemic]

Last winter my tiger salamander hibernated. She slept for about 2 weeks at a time. Truth be told, I dug her up every 2 weeks because I was paranoid. She would eat 3-4 crickets, lounge in her pool for a few minutes & go back to bed. This year she isn't sleeping nearly as much - yet. The rest of the year she is very active & responsive.

In the winter we move her from the kitchen cabinet to the bedroom. The location in the kitchen where her habitat sits has a window over it. Although her substrate is deep enough for her to burrow, I didn't think is was a good idea to have the cold air from the window rolling down on her. Don't know if it matters but better safe than sorry.

This year one of her burrows is underneath her pool & she has chose it at her favorite. I check her every day. If the opening to her burrow is open then I know she is active. When she is going to sleep for a few days she actually blocks the hole. Today I noticed that her "door" is closed. I make sure her substrate is moist & refill her pool but other wise don't disturb her.

 

[mytimemic]

oops typo up there. Rex's habitat sits on the counter not cabinet. What a bummer if she had to live in a cabinet. LOL

 

[Kaysie]

Salamanders don't technically hibernate. They become inactive when the weather's colder, but it's not a true hibernation.

 

[mytimemic]

That explains it then. Actually that is reassuring. Last winter I was paranoid that she was going to die in her "sleep". I had heard stories about frogs, turtles, etc.

 

[allegoriest]

So they're like me, they just get out blankets and chill and watch TV because outside is unpleasant, instead of going to sleep for months at a time.

Mine is acting... the same as always really since light and temperature in my room haven't changed all that much.

I was curious since I was reading about some plants that NEEDED to hibernate, or it would shorten their lives, if they didn't do so during the winter. Was just curious of salamanders had to do anything of the sort. thanks guys~

 

[Kaysie]

My ratsnakes have gone off food for the winter, despite my best effort at tempting them with plump juicy mice. Just one of those things.

 

[eljorgo]

Yes. Salamanders, mostly from Ambystomidae usually grow little blades made of pure Titanium in their feet reaching 1-3cm length. These are used to sky down the mountain to more pleasant and less cold climate. :wacko: Some like Pseudotriton ruber even grow 2 pairs of wings that they use to climb to cold mountain stream when temps rise too much

-Azhael said more than enough. I´ll just add that aquatic sals and newts with stay in it with no problem since, no matter the size of water column, water chemical properties make it to reach maximum volume density at 4ºC. So even if surface is 0ºC or bellow, in the floor of the pond water maintains its 4ºC. If maximum volume density was at 0ºC There would be no life in this planet.