Salamander Food

Salamanders are very commonly kept pet amphibians. As pets they are very easy to take care of and are an interesting lot to watch. Many people who bring in one as a pet, want to know more about the kind of food they eat. They needs proper food to keep it healthy and more importantly alive. Its eating habits depends upon the type of salamander you have as pet and its age.

Habitat

The habitat is the area where you need to house your pet. You should provide it with both water and land as it is an amphibian. You should keep the pet in an aquarium tank that will have enough space for it to move. A water dish or tray should be provided to help the amphibian soak in it. You should cover the tank with a lid with air holes to prevent the animal from escaping.

The temperature of the tank should be about 69º to 75º F. The floor should be filled with a suitable substrate that is about 3 inches deep. You should place some non-toxic plants in the aquarium as it will help in maintaining the humidity of the tank. The humidity should be maintained to about 80%. The tank should be cleaned once a week to remove all the waste material. The tank should be cleaned totally by removing the gravel and other decorative objects in it.

Food

Wild salamanders are carnivores and eat invertebrates and insects. They consume small fish in water and on land eat insects. Thus, before you bring home food for your pet, make sure of the type and the age of the salamander. When it is in its early stages, you can feed it daphids and cyclospen. As it grows, you can feed him red mosquito larva. After your pet has crossed the 6th week stage, you can begin with an adult diet by increasing the portion of the food offered.

If you own a water salamander, you can feed him rain worms and maggots. The food consists of fruit flies and spiders. The kind of food you can give your pet includes crickets, worms, slugs and cockroaches. The land salamanders can also feed on beetles and pill bugs. You can catch these bugs in your garden or around your house to feed them to your pet. You can even bring some bloodworms, white worms, ling worms and meal worms for your pet. It is advisable to feed meal worms to a minimum, as their shells are hard to digest.

They can also be fed food sold at pet stores. There is no harm in feeding them frozen insects or fish, but they love to catch their prey. It would be better to feed them live food to keep their instinct of tracking and catching live prey alive. Also, you will enjoy seeing your pet walking behind their prey before a meal. Water salamanders will enjoy eating live shrimp and fish in water. You can introduce some fish in the tank environment. This way you do not need to add food everyday and they can feed on the fish, as it would in its natural habitat.

You can give your pet this type of food three or four times a week. A growing salamander may need frequent feeding and one that has lost a limb may feed more often during the regeneration phase. You should feed your pet with different meals of insects, worms and fish. A change in taste will ensure your salamander stimulation of their taste buds.

Facts

• The word salamander means 'fire lover'.
• The number of salamanders in the southern eastern US is more than any other region in the world.
• Its skin is very sensitive and is easily affected by air pollution. If the population is healthy, it means the level of air pollution is minimum.
• They have the ability to regenerate a lost limb or tail.
• They come in a variety of colors that are really bright with many different patterns. This serves as a warning to predators that they contain lethal poison.
• In some species, when they are caught by the predator, they detach their tail that continues to twitch. This distracts the predator helping the pet escape.

They are an interesting pet to keep that needs minimum pet care. I hope this article has helped answer your questions about their food habits.