How to Feed Tiger Salamanders

Video Transcript

"Now, feeding your Tiger Salamander is very easy. I recommend using your trusty forceps right here. It's easier to use it than to try to feed them with your fingers. These guys have teeth but they aren't sharp enough to damage your skin. Their jaw pressure isn't enough to hurt you. It does kind of feel like sandpaper rubbing on your finger. But again, use forceps because it's a lot easier to do. Grab the food item, in this case a small cockroach. Now all I have to pretty much do is put it right in front of the Tiger Salamander. I'm going to feed this big one right over here. And once he sees it coming, they grab it and they just do the rest. Now, these guys don't chew their food, they just swallow it whole. And we'll feed this one over here. And don't feed your Tiger Salamander too much. That's pretty much all they need for one day. Tiger Salamanders, if you feed them too much food, they can get a little obese. Some people feed their salamander’s pinky mice, which is fine every now and then. But pinky mice are filled with their mother's milk and their mother's milk is very fattening. So in thus, pinkies are very fattening especially if you feed them every single day to your salamander which is not an actively moving animal. They don't burn off a lot of calories very quickly. Feeding pinky mice to your salamander all the time, you are going to get a big, fat, obese salamander resulting in an unhealthy salamander. I feed mine mostly cockroaches, crickets, and every now and then some meal worms. And if you need to fatten up your Tiger Salamander, if you purchased a Tiger Salamander that's very thin, then you can plump it up with some small pinky mice. Of course, feed them frozen thawed pinky mice, don't feed them live mice and that will help put some meat on your Tiger Salamander's bones."