Tiger salamander won't come out :(

[melgado22]

I've had my two tiger salamanders for about 8 months now, one of them is almost always at the surface checking for food while the other one i usually have to dig out. for the last 4 months, he has started staying close to the surface too and waiting for food. this past 2-3 weeks he has been hiding and now i have mature plants with root systems in their tank that i really don't want to disrupt.... will he eventually come up if he's hungry enough or will he starve to death down there if i don't dig him up? my other thought was to make it moist, maybe too moist so he would have to come up for dryer ground but wasn't sure if i could just leave him be and wait...

 

[auntiejude]

Sounds about normal. Some tigers just like to stay buried where it is cool and damp. They will come out for food eventually, but we dig ours out if we haven't seen him for about 10 days.

 

[melgado22]

so he won't starve himself right? lol thats the only thing id regret is waiting until he came out when instead he just starved and died under ground

 

[Teeglor]

He will come out when he's hungry. Tigers love to burrow, some more than others. Don't worry, unless they are quite ill they won't let themselves starve. Amphibians can go longer without food than a lot of other animals. You can try making him associate spritzing with food so he will come out when you spray. Some say it has worked for them.