Is anyone else's newts/salamanders hiding from view ?

My Sally-An & Sully-Al have been in their winter hibernation since the second week of November 2023, yes, that means they haven't eaten since mid-November, however for the two weeks leading up to their winter hibernation, they ate every single day I offered them a diet of mainly fatty wax worms and a few spiders, which they devoured in anticipation of the winter months that cover the climate north of the great lakes.


I'm beginning to miss them more and more each day. I only add moisture to their enclosure every 3 or 4 days, without distrubing them, as I currently don't have a filter system set up, however I do have a heatlamp that is only on during sunrise till sunset, which i manually turn on/off everyday as the times for sun-up/sun-down change by a minute or two with each passing day.

(come spring when the emerge from their separate corners of their borrows within the dampened substrate in my ten gallon tank. I will revamp their enclosures as I will have to for the safety of any offspring created during their natural breeding/mating process(which will take place early spring[end of March/beginning of April]) three to four weeks later the eggs should hatch, and by mid-summer the next generation should be land dwellers but before than as soon as they mate, and once I find an egg mass my male and female will be separated into their own separate enclosures, but remain on the same feeding schedule.

For the next two-three months I'm going to be on this site a lot, as I feel a lot of aquatic reptile lovers and their swimming pets can benefit from the knowledge I have regarding aquatic reptiles.


I've owned a lot of different types of amphibians & animals including fish, frogs, iguanas, spiders, snakes, turtles, as well as some furry pets, including birds, bunnies, cats, dogs, guineas, sugar gliders (flying squirrels), farrets, but by far my salamanders are my favorite pets out of all of them, and I find them to be the easiest to maintain.

Photo taken last summer

Those look like blue spotted salamanders. It’s normal for them to hide most of the time.
This species prefers cooler temperatures. A heat lamp is not only unnecessary, but can be detrimental.

Herpin Man said:

Those look like blue spotted salamanders. It’s normal for them to hide most of the time.
This species prefers cooler temperatures. A heat lamp is not only unnecessary, but can be detrimental.

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Thanks so much for the update, I don't usually use a heat lamp for them but my current set up has no natural light, or windows so I have been using a red night light on only during sun up times ...

Should I not be using it at all ?

Usually I have had them in an area with natural light but that isn't the situation right now.

Even with the red light my tank temperature stays 15C and below..

When I don't use it the red light the tank dips down to 10C, the light is not directly over where they are hiding it's at the opposite corner of my tank..

They don't need any lighting at all, as long as there is enough ambient lighting for a day/night cycle. If you need lighting for plants, an LED is sufficient, and generates very little heat.
Your temps are not too cold for this time of year, although they may not eat as much. Their appetites will return when the weather warms up again.

Herpin Man said:

They don't need any lighting at all, as long as there is enough ambient lighting for a day/night cycle. If you need lighting for plants, an LED is sufficient, and generates very little heat.
Your temps are not too cold for this time of year, although they may not eat as much. Their appetites will return when the weather warms up again.

Click to expand...

They haven't eaten since the second week of November 2023, 9 weeks ago.. I haven't seen them since, they are burrowed under the damp substrate... I figured they'd emerge during sometime in spring looking to mate or for a meal ... I have fish bait on standby as I can't dig through the private garden for their favourite worms due to the frost.. I also have bloodworms for any offspring they create... This is my first time breeding them, my male is seven years old and my female is six.