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jennifer

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I live in Northern Utah, and I was rescued from a construction site back hoe. My name is Homer and I love to eat Night Crawlers and sleep in my water dish.
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(Message edited by mike_g on February 14, 2005)
 
<font color="ff0000"><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica"></font>It's my first time posting here - forgive the pics, PLEASE!! </font>}
 
I used to live in the Salt Lake area and there are some tigers around. It is a cute little fattie
 
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<font color="aa00aa"><font face="courier new,courier"><font size="+1">Thank you Dln & Tmarmoratus!! I checked out the page on care & feeding of Homer -- I wonder if he's too fat!? I didn't know he needed a place to hide (we have him in an aquarium on a bookshelf, so it's semi-dark in his little corner of the universe most of the time.)</font></font></font>
 
I used to live in UT, pretty typical tiger. And it's probably not too fat, it's probably a female carrying eggs. If you want to see some really nice tiger go to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon and check out Secret Lake. I found a solid forest green one there once, just awesome.

RUSS
 
<font color="aa00aa"><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Russ - I think Homer gets fat when he eats. Because after a few days, he's not so fat anymore. He loves the big night crawlers, too. Once I fed him one, it crawled around inside -- and all the way back out!! So Homer had to eat it twice.
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Are you still in MN? I was born & raised in MI - & we used to catch some awesome looking salamanders in the woods over there!! My favorites were the black ones with the bright blue spots. --Jen</font></font>
 
Those were probably the Blue-Spotted Salamander, Ambystoma laterale, as they are native to Minnesota. There are some nice pictures here on Caudata Culture if you're interested. Just click: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_laterale.shtml
Also, seeing as how Homer is wild-caught, he may have a few parasites. Just something to check for. Hope everything works out well with Homer- Tigers have great personalities!

(Message edited by tmarmoratus on February 15, 2005)
 
Best guess, although it's hard to tell from the picture, is instead of being a boy sal named Homer, you might want to call consider giving her a girls name. Unless Homer has a swollen gland at the base of the tail, she may not me fat, just an egg laden female.
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.It is the normal breeding time for tiger sals in Utah.
 
<font color="aa00aa"><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica"></font>Jeff - I checked out the "blue-spotted" w-page, and those are exactly like I remember!! We also used to catch the ones with orange or white spots (but the blue was my fave). They're probably related! -- Jen</font>}
 
<font color="aa00aa"><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica"></font></font>David L -- So, I should call "her" Homeretta ?
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** Do the females just grow eggs & wait for a male to come along with the right brand of sperm? I don't know that much about their mating behavior.
** Also, if he/she had parasites where would they be? Because we've had him/her for about 2+ years and he/she seems healthy enough.
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<font color="aa00aa"><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica"></font>** Why are there two pics of Homer when I upload the image? **</font>}
 
Jennifer, If you've had your tiger for two years, then it's probably unlikely that he/she's gravid (with eggs). As David has mentioned, sex of most caudates is usually determined by the size and/or shape of the cloaca (the "genitals" of a salamander, if you will). A large/swollen cloaca would indicate that your Homer is probably male, while a smaller, less defined cloaca would probably indicate that Homer is a female (Doh!). Sorry, couldn't help myself. Anyway, it's sometimes hard to differentiate, especially to the untrained eye. If you could take detailed pictures of Homer's cloaca I'm sure a combined effort of us all would help to determine the sex of Homie (as Marge would say). As far as parasites are conserned, a stool sample check by a vet would help to determine if they are present. While parasites aren't "deadly" (their goal is to live off their host, not kill them), they are undesirable. Jennifer, you've come to the right place- the people at caudata.org are some of the nicest people on the net.

P.S. Sorry for the Simpsons references, I'm not sure if you even named your Tiger after Homer J. Simpson or if you've named your Tiger after the poet. I've had a few glasses of wine and absinthe, and I couldn't help myself. Take Care!
 
Yep, I'm still in MN (unfortunately). I haven't seen any wild caudates here so far, though I have found a few over in WI.

RUSS
 
<font color="aa00aa"><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica"></font>Hey, Russ, Minnesota can't be THAT bad! Unless of course you don't like the snow?!?

** Homer was so named because of the transformation of his belly when he eats. He can be quite piggish sometimes -- and the way he looks at you at dinner-time, well visualize Homer going " m-m-m-m-m worms m-m-m-m-m-m " as he goes for your finger through the glass!! BTW - are you drinking 'real' absynthe? or the new (not-so-improved) version? </font>}
 
What snow? It's bone dry outside. I call it the Great Brown North. Give me the inter-mountain west any day!

RUSS
 
Jennifer,
I have a Blotched Tiger Salamander named George back in Phoenix that looks Almost Identical to your Homer. I once bought 24 feeder fish and he ate them all in under 16 hours, so They can be quite ravenous when they want to be.

Brad.
 
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