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Posted by Larval_Matt on April 13, 2003 at 05:03:38:
Hi all,
As you can see on the thread list, I lost a tiger this morning. I'd like to impart one observation... I don't think it directly lead to his death, but it's definitely something that should be mentioned.
Crickets will feed on salamanders (a Tiger Sallie, in this case), if you're not careful. I had just picked up a number of them from a store, and tossed 5 or 6 into my terrarium. Normally I leave them in there with some leafy greens, until my tigers eat them all. I had never seen a case of crickets hurting a salamander (sometimes they'd crawl onto one, but the tiger would shaken it off, often accompanied by eating it ;) ). My one tiger (now deceased) had recently been very sick, and listless. That night, I noticed he was lying there (pretty normal for him in his sick state), but a cricket was on the end of his tail, and wasn't moving away. I was a little nervous, so opened up the terrarium top and shoo'ed it away. It looked at first like it was just eating skin the sallie was still shedding at the time. Later, when I decided to move him to a very low-water aquarium instead of the terrarium, I noticed to my horror that that cricket had actually being eating part of his tail, and taken off the last 1 cm or so.
My guess is the crickets had been starving from the store, and had detected my tiger's sickened state. Normally I leave them in a bag for a day or two with a bunch of greens, but I wanted them in there early so my sick tiger might be able to get a snack soon. I did have some leafy greens in the cage with them, but I guess this one knew a good thing when it saw it and chose to munch on my tiger instead of the leaves. My other tiger, who was healthy, was being bothered not at all, even though he was on the surface too (I later removed all the crickets, and now plan never to leave them in the cage after my tigers have had a chance to dine...even if they only attack sick animals that can't escape or burrow, why take the chance?).
Anyway, just wanted to pass that on so that something good comes from this sad day :< ,
Regards,
Matt
