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Although they may look more like it lizards, salamanders are aquatic, semi-aquatic or terrestrial amphibians that have more in common with frogs then reptiles. Unlike lizards, they have no scales and no claws and their skin is usually very moist. More than 600 species of salamander are known and they can range in size from ⅝ inch to several meters in length, so their diets are naturally very diverse as well. Salamanders are sometimes kept as pets, so food availability is different when kept as pets than in the wild. Read on to learn more about what salamanders eat.
What do salamanders eat?
Salamanders eat a different diet depending on their habitat and whether they are kept as pets or in the wild, but the terrestrial varieties are primarily carnivores eating almost any living thing they can fit in their mouths. A few aquatic animals will occasionally eat algae and the like, but this is rare. A salamander’s diet also changes as it grows mainly because of the size of food it can consume based on its relative size and also because, like amphibians, many salamander species start in the water and evolve to land as they grow up .
What do salamanders eat in captivity versus in the wild?
As a baby in the wild, a young salamander nymph eats things like microorganisms such as daphnia, and as it grows it eats larger organisms, such as mosquito larvae or worms, before moving on to adult food. At two months of age, a wild boy will eat the same food as an adult.
As a pet, a larval salamander should be fed brine shrimp or finely chopped black worms. As they get older, they can be gradually introduced to very black worms and larger worms, as well as larger worms. shrimp kind, crayfish, small fish species, and other small insects and animals. They can eat pellets and freeze dried insects, but it is generally considered best to give them live food whenever possible, for better nutrition and also to allow them to “hunt” insects in their enclosure, just as they would in the wild. Pellets and frozen insects can be used as a supplement to the fresh food. They should also take calcium supplements to avoid health problems later on.
What are salamanders not allowed to eat?
they should never eat fruits or vegetables. Almost all salamanders are carnivores and therefore are not equipped to chew or digest plant material. Even the omnivores only eat selected plant material, such as small algae that do not chew or require much digestion. Newts in captivity probably won’t even try to eat the vegetables or fruits, which would lead to rotten food and a contaminated housing, but some of them may be curious enough to try, which can lead to serious stomach problems and possibly even the dead.
What salamanders eat: a list
So what exactly do salamanders eat? Below is a list that covers almost everything that all the different types of salamanders eat.
- Insects including: crickets, grasshoppers, flies and aquatic insects.
- Spiders of different kinds.
- Worms including black worms, tubifex or sludge worms, blood worms and nightcrawlers.
- Crayfish.
- Shrimp including brine shrimp and other small species.
- Nymphs, larvae and eggs of their own kind and of other animals.
- Small fish such as minnows.
- amphibians including other salamanders and frogs.
- Microorganisms such as daphnia and cyclops.
- slugs, isopods, leeches, snails.
- Small mice.
- algae*
*Only a few select aquatic species will eat algae. All others are carnivorous.
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