Question for anyone with red-backed salamanders: do you dust your feeders? If so, what do you use?

Hi, so I am looking for tips to help him feed.

He is a white spanish ribbed newt and his terrarium setup is a bioactive with sand and plants. Water stats are good when I test. I feed him live earthworms, blood worms and pallets. Have had him and another one together for about 2 years. His coloring looks normal: pink, no weird spots. Feeding schedule is twice a week.

I see him searching for food, sniffing around in the sand, getting closer to the food. Sometimes he is so close but then he missed the bite. Other times it looks like he "loses the scent" and starts searching in the wrong direction. He looks kind off blind?

His counterpart: a dark grey female has no issues at all. She picks the food up easily. You can see a big difference in their size by now because the boy is just not eating that much.

I have been trying putting him in a seperate container for feeding, but it got so bad that in the 5 hours he has been last in there; he caught only 1 small earthworm. I am starting to get worried, because before his weight stayed the same, but now he seems to be getting skinnier and skinnier.

Unfortunately there is no specialized vet here that handles salamanders. Any help is very welcome.

I always told myself I’d only have black and white pets. In a perfect world, I’d have a California King snake and Dalmatian Mollies (fish)). This friend was this close to joining the dream life. However, I let them on their merry way instead, of course. How cute!

Found in backyard, Hudson NY

When I first saw it, I thought it was just a tail, to my surprise, the whole kit n kaboodle.

1. red salamander
   
2. Atlantic coast slimy salamander
   
3. three-lined salamander
   
4. eastern newt
   
5. marbled salamander

went road cruising twice in the last couple weeks on rainy nights and found twelve sally species :) I moved over 120 individuals (not counting all the frogs, too) across the road so they wouldn’t get hit, although a handful had already met their fate unfortunately. it really felt great to be able to help so many though, especially because a lot of the marbleds were gravid!

like the title says, I highly recommend going out to rural roads on rainy nights (wearing bright, reflective colors, using a flashlight, and watching for cars) to move these friends across the road in the direction they’re going. there’s so many little lives that need saving during this migration season! it’s not only extremely fun, but also incredibly helpful and rewarding :)

I found it under a log right next to a pond in Beaver, WV. Thanks!

Found him in the skimmer right after we had done a shock, so I pulled him out, let him rinse off in some fresh water, and my daughter got some pictures.

Today is warm and rained whole day, I had earthworms under the bin before, so instead of rolling it, I lifted it, and found two salamanders under!!!! I thought I’d see tree frogs, not those guys 🥹 pleasantly surprised. I used a stick to guide them into grass so they don’t get squished when my husband comes back

https://www.reddit.com/r/salamanders/s/wJPJ0SqJck

Loved seeing huge swaths of these guys slither onto every forested trail come dark. Included last is the ginormous spring salamander, the 'trex' of its biota which is more than happy to scarf down any unfortunate jordani that stumbles onto its path

Not a great picture but the few individuals that I found slipped back into their hidey holes quickly and I didn’t want to harass them. If you’re unfamiliar with this species, they occur only on a single side of one mountain in GA.