Worms for tigers

[simon]

I have 2 A. mavortiums, and one of them eats anything I offer it, but the other one refuses anything but crickets. How can I induce it to eat worms of any sort? It's fine eating just crickets but it would be nice to have different feeding options.
Thanks

 

[reid]

What kind of worms are you feeding it? try wiggling a nightcrawler in the front of its mouth. At first my tigers didnt eat the nightcrawlers but later they got used to it.

 

[simon]

Both nightcrawlers and normal earthworms. Wiggling is what works for the other one , but this one stares at it, interested, lunges, and then when it doesn't catch it the first time stops trying to get it at all and starts pleading for crickets.

 

[joan]

Try skewering a cricket and a worm together, and offering them simultaneously. Have you tried handfeeding it?

 

[simon]

That's all I do mostly for feeding worms to the other one(handfeeding), and sometimes for crickets. They both readily eat handfed crickets, but only one eats handfed worms. I'll try putting a cricket and part of a nightcrwaler together and see what happens.
Thanks Joan

 

[simon]

It sort of worked. The cricket and crawler wouldn't stay together, but in it's attempts to grab the cricket the salamander accidentally bit the nightcrawler, and upon realizing it was food swallowed it. I hope it won't take 10 minutes next time. Thanks for the advice Joan, I had similar ideas but I sort of doubted they would work. This is a start.
Thanks again

 

[jameswei]

Try tearing the nightcrawler apart so that it releases it's juices. I notice that the smell often elitcs an eating response.

 

[joan]

Cutting it is less... gruesome.

If you dust your crickets regularly, and can get it to eat other foods occasionally, I wouldn't worry about malnutrition.

 

[simon]

I think the smell might have been a problem jameswei, although one of them has no problems at all with worms of any sort. I did cut it (in half), but it was still rather gruesome considering tiger salamanders feeding habits. I'm not worried about malnutrition, Joan, as I've been feeding the particular salamander on a diet of almost exclusively gut-loaded crickets for 5 1/2 years, but every so often large crickets become unavailable and it's nice to have different feeding options, and it probably make the salamander happier too to have some variety.
Thanks Joan and Jameswei