Tiger Feeding Habits

[Jackulwulf]

Ok, so my tiger's feeding habits stress me out to no end. He does not feed like a normal tiger does according to most people's experiences with these salamanders. Through most of the year he shows a less then eager attitude towards food. He'll usually eat, but he takes his time, not always seeming interested in eating and definitely not snapping at everything that moves like these little guys usually do. He won't eat earthworms or any other type of worm I've tried except for superworms. He'll eat crickets sometimes but not really very much, I think he doesn't like the scratchy legs. I wish he would eat earthworms or nightcrawlers, I really do. It would make things so much better if he would. So while he eats with a lack-luster attitude during most of the year, when spring rolls around and the humidity starts to raise, he becomes more like a tiger, he'll start begging for food all the time and snap wildly at anything that moves near him when I open his cage and he does this for about a month to a month and a half...which really makes me happy to see. But it doesn't last and once summer comes it wears off and he seems to go on a hunger strike. He suddenly just stops eating and he goes weeks in between meals and when he does eat its very little. In this past month he has eaten only one superworm and two crickets...the superworm being about a month ago and the two crickets a week ago. So does anyone else know why he would have such behavior and why he just doesn't eat normally through the entire year like other normal tigers? I come to believe that his sudden spike in eating starts in spring to possibly gear up for the breeding season even though he'll never be in contact with a female, and then once he slows down perhaps it marks the end of breeding season and he starts to use up the fat stores he has built up and just doesn't eat for a couple months afterwords? Does that make sense to anyone? In any case, I'd like to know what everyone's thoughts are on my tigers feeding behavior. I've had him for three years now and he has never been an easy feeder and most of the time its a huge chore just to get him to eat one single bug. Yet he isn't skinny, he has a decent weight on him from what I can see, and his cheeks behind his head just before he neck are big and chubby so he seems to have some fat reserves on him. He's a full grown tiger, being around 11 or 12 inches long.

Also a note on his cage setup and tank conditions. He is in the basement of my place and the temps sit pretty consistantly at around 66F to 68F and never goes above 70F so I don't believe its because he is too cold which would explain a low feeding behavior. His humidity isn't really monitored but the room humidity sits at about 50% so with his moist cocofiber, it probably sits around 60 to 70% inside his tank. He has a large hide which he spends most of his time in and a large water bowl that he spends time soaking in periodically. He does dig around in his soil sometimes but not that often, he prefers to just hunker down in his hide instead. Also he's in a 20g long tank. The light in the room is rigged on a timer to simulate a 12 hour cycle of light and 12 hour cycle of dark. So from what I can tell there isn't anything wrong with his tank setup as I followed the care sheets that I read here on Caudata.

So input would be appreciated on the matter. And before anyone asks, I have tried feeding him waxworms, silkworms, hornworms, butterworms, phoenix worms, sowbugs, roaches, earthworms, and nightcrawlers. All of them he wasn't all that keen on eating. He ate one waxworm once, he didn't eat any others after that, and he ate a roach a couple times but then stopped eating them...plus my parents didn't like the idea of roaches in the house so I got rid of them. The rest he never even tried with exception of the earthworms(not red wrigglers) and nightcrawlers, which he did eat once in a while but most of the time just nudged around with his nose before he turned and walked away. All I've ever gotten him to eat with any regularity are crickets and superworms, the superworms being the only thing he tends to eat on a regular basis. I know those aren't that good for him, but he's always been able to digest them fine and I always make sure that they are dusted with vitamin/calcium powder before feeding to him. I also monitor his weight and if he looks like he's getting too heavy I'll feed him a little less so that he doesn't become a chunky butt.

I'm wondering if perhaps I should just start trying to feed him nightcrawlers exclusively..to the point that I just don't offer him anything else at all no matter what and no matter how long he holds out for something else? He surely wouldn't starve himself if absolutely no other prey item is made available to him, would he? Perhaps a little tough love that way may benefit both him and me? What do you guys think?

Well I've typed enough >.>;; didn't mean to write down a whole life story there lol.

 

[Kaysie]

Try increasing your light cycle. Maybe 14/10? Just hypothesizing here, but perhaps with such a short daylight, he is confused as to the seasons. Maybe by increasing it, you can trick him into thinking it's spring, and encourage eating.

How big is he? Is he of healthy weight? If he's not skinny, you can try the starvation method. It's worked for me on a variety of species.

Another consideration is your substrate. Since you're using solely coco fiber, does it coat the food item? This could be causing a lot of non-digestable material to be in his belly. I strongly recommend a mix of topsoil and coco fiber for all ambystomatids. It's wonderful, much better than either by itself.

 

[Jackulwulf]

Hm, I guess I can try increasing the light cycle and see how that goes. Though when I first got him he didn't really have much of a light cycle at all as I really only added the light cycle for the crested geckos that are in the same room and his feeding was pretty much the same then. But I'll give it a try and see if it helps.

Also he looks to be a healthy weight, he's not skinny or anything and his jowls are a decent size where as I've seen some people's tigers on the net who don't have noticeably large jowls. His body is nice and thick as well but not overly so. He's definitely a bit chunky it seems though compared to some tigers I've seen so I think he could probably handle the starvation method for a little while, he seems to be doing it himself anyhow >.> I'll pick up some nightcrawlers and give it a try. I could also pick up some leeches from the bait shop but I wanted to know how good they are for them and how to feed them to a tiger. Do you have to remove the sucker so that they don't latch onto the tiger? and are they a healthy food to give them? That is one thing I've never tried to feed him before which he may like.

As for the substrate, I always tong feed him to keep the cocofiber from sticking to his food so that he doesn't ingest it needlessly but I could give it a try adding some topsoil as well. What brand of topsoil do you use? Though now that it is the middle of August, it may be a bit hard to find stuff like that here in Canada, winter is coming so most gardening supplies are dwindling right about now.

 

[Kaysie]

I use Earth-Gro brand. I don't know if it's available in Canada, but any organic topsoil free of fertilizer and pesticide should be fine. If you have a yard or woods available, you could go dig your own.

I can't give any advice on leeches, as I've never used them.

 

[Jackulwulf]

Ok, I'll have to look around for the soil. Last time I got organic soil, I got it from a greenhouse and it had vermiculite in it which I've read isn't good to have tigers on since they lunge at their food. And though I do tong feed him, sometimes there's still times when he lunges at the wrong time and ends up with a bit of cocofiber in his mouth which he has to spit out. I wouldn't want him eating one of those pieces of vermiculite.
As for finding my own top soil, what could be an answer but I'm not really sure on what the neighbours might be spraying on their crops since our place is surrounded by crop fields. I've never seen them spray anything but, you never know so I'd rather not take a chance.
As for the leeches, well I think I'll just stay away from them, I'd rather not deal with them anyhow. I'll stick with trying to get him to eat the worms. My tiger is a big guy though, and he can down a good foot long nightcrawler when he wants too, so how long would one nightcrawler last him until I'd have to feed him again? Again his temps never reach higher then 70F but I have seen them dip down a little to 64F. So I imagine one large nightcrawler like that would probably keep him going for a while wouldn't it?
Perhaps that is part of the problem. I have gotten him to eat nightcrawlers in the past, its just that he will only eat them sometimes, other times he doesn't seem interested and just walks away. Perhaps he just isn't ready for another worm yet since his temps are a little lower?

 

[Kaysie]

It could be. A big worm like that can hold him over for a while. Have you tried chopping them? Sometimes the smell of blood is enticing.

 

[Jackulwulf]

No I haven't tried chopping them up. I bought some worms tonight so I'll try feeding one to him whole first and if he doesn't take it then I'll try chopping it.

 

[Jackulwulf]

Well I tried to feed him last night and well, it didn't go so well. While he was interested and actively hunted the worm, he failed to grab a hold of it and after a while lost interest. That's how it usually goes with him. I tried to chop a piece off and feed that to him and he still couldn't grab it. He's also not the type to snap at everything that moves, he makes a few attempts to bite at it but mostly he just nudges the worm around with his nose but doesn't really attempt to eat it. I guess I'll try again tonight and hopefully he'll be hungry enough to snap at it more actively.
Anyone have any ideas on making it easier for him to grab it? I try to hold onto the worm with tweezers but the worm just slips off and I get tired of sitting there for over two hours trying to hold the worm for him to grab onto. Its why I resorted to feeding him supers and crickets in the past. He manages to grab them much more easily. I've tried putting the worm on something to make it a bit easier for him to eat it and the worms just crawls off before he even tries to bite at it. If he would snap at it eagerly like a normal tiger it wouldn't be such a problem >.>;; Will he ever learn how to eat a worm with time and experience? Its going on two weeks since he's eaten anything and while he acts hungry, he doesn't have that gusto to eat like tigers should. I'm wondering..maybe he has a problem with his sense of smell. Could that lead to this type of behavior? Cause wouldn't the smell of the worm incite him to eat? It he is going just by movement and not smell then perhaps he is unsure of what he is biting at and it makes him more cautious? If that's the case then I don't know what to do with him. In any case I'm gonna increase his light cycle and see if I can provoke his springtime feeding reaction. I really hope that works because I just don't know what else to do.