Guess wut i found!!!!

[chameleoman]

well...........i was out looking for cool insects to culture in my backyard and all of a sudden i see a worm but......it wasnt a worm it turns out i put it in the cup and looked in my BIG BOOK of the reptiles and amphibians and i see the same thing it was a CALIFORNIA SLENDER SALAMANDER i had my hopes up on keeping it, setting up a vivarium for him/her and feeding it, misting it and ect... but im having second doubts on the little wonder of nature..... should i release him and let him bee or take care of him? they live 3-5 years and eat small earth worms, pillbugs, small snails slugs they are nocturnal they come out at night to hunt they are slow move very slow they are nice and they dont have teeth however if someone in the los Angeles area would like to TAKE CARE of him no noobs an exerpt on these things i would give it to them to take care of it id rather have someone take care of him/her that see him get eatin by a bird so shoot my a pm about it by the looks of it he looks like a baby id say 3-5 months idk

-Joseph

 

[ataraxia]

thats pretty neat. id take pics of it and set it lose.

 

[chameleoman]

i was thinkin that but again would like it to have a SAFE home so pm.... if interested

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

You know where you got it was pretty safe since it was there...if it wasn't safe they wouldn't be propagating and thriving.

 

[BeBoSON]

That's cool. I would let it go, since it was wild. After taking some pics of course.

 

[chameleoman]

ya i found it near our pool pump its pretty filthy right there, theres cement dust ALL OVER some grass lots of dry dirt a few HUGE rocks and some pieces of wood that my dad stacked right there
i threw a few small mealworms in there so if he gets hungry he gots something to eat

 

[BeBoSON]

worD. He's feasting tonight, lol.

 

[chameleoman]

ya im going to looks around where i found him see of i see anything else?
he was slowly waling around right now i wish i had an extra 10 gallon tanks he would LOVE it i cut some pieces of wild moss and placed it in the tank and i wet it alot

 

[chameleoman]

I just found 2 babies 2getther!!!!!!!

 

[Chris Anderson]

We keep a number of different Plethodontid salamander species in my lab as in addition to studying tongue projection in chameleons, we work with salamander feeding as well. Included in the species we have are a number of Batrachoseps species, such as the one you've found. They are definitely not easy animals to care for and will likely not eat mealworms. We feed ours termites which we culture and keep all our salamanders in a cold room because they are very susceptible to temperature. You should release this salamander back close to where you found it as it was obviously doing fine where it was before you disturbed it. Also, you technically need a permit to collect animals in California, which you obviously do not have, so you should not keep them or try to give them away.

Chris

 

[susieqff]

Very cool find. I'd let him go.

 

[chameleoman]

wow you made that sound pretty harsh.......... i guess ill put them back all together

 

[chameleoman]

i problaly ruined it now when i said i was going back to look i found the 2 babies in a little small ditch where i found the im guessing mom and i put her back with them the poor babies would have problaly never survived if i was dum enough to give the mom away and never put her back

 

[okiroo]

i problaly ruined it now when i said i was going back to look i found the 2 babies in a little small ditch where i found the im guessing mom and i put her back with them the poor babies would have problaly never survived if i was dum enough to give the mom away and never put her back

do they need mom? they are lizzards and probally dont care for eachother. Chris was jsut being blunt and truthful. we've all kept something one time or another so dont feel bad or anything. its hard not too keep those cute little things, i remember cetching anoles, skinks ect. i bet he did aswell

 

[chameleoman]

ya i think so because i found the mom in the little ditch and didnt bother to look close enough to see the babies huddled up together

i already asked our administrater to PLEASE close the add on me trying to give away something that does not belong to me

 

[okiroo]

ya i think so because i found the mom in the little ditch and didnt bother to look close enough to see the babies huddled up together

i already asked our administrater to PLEASE close the add on me trying to give away something that does not belong to me

it was a mistake. dont feel so bad about it. not a big deal at all you just wanted to give it a good home and didnt think it over the way other people might have. you put it back and didnt give her/him away so its not like you did any damage. no biggie

 

[Chris Anderson]

I wasn't trying to be rude, just getting straight to the point and trying to help you realize what you needed to do, which you did. We keep this same species and a number of other closely related ones in the lab so I can tell you they are not easy animals to keep.

For the record though, salamanders are not lizards. They are amphibians and lizards are reptiles. Also, while a number of Plethodontid salamanders do have perental care, Batrachoseps are not known to be one of them. They simply are so small that they don't tend to move very far over their lifetime so finding babies near an adult, likely a related adult, is not uncommon.

Chris

 

[chameleoman]

i know there anphimbians i do ALOT of research mosty from your site chameleons e-zonline GREAT help right now im learning parasites and how to identify them i want to do my own fecals as soon as i learn EVERYTHING

im 13 year old boy who KNOWS ALOT im kinda odd compared to my no-life video game friends who dont know at ALL about my secret passion for animal mostly reptiles

i want to be either a herpetologist or an exotic vetenarian (one that does reptiles ect...)

 

[Chris Anderson]

I'm glad to hear you're looking toward a good goal like that. Definitely keep learning as much as you can and hopefully you'll be successful. I definitely would encourage you to observe these little salamanders more now that you know how to find them. Just try to do it carefully so you don't hurt them or disturb their micro habitat too much. They are interesting animals and surprisingly enough, they shoot their tongues out in a very similar way to chameleons.

Chris

 

[chameleoman]

WOW they do i would like to see that how would i study them in a curiosity?