# What Do Tiger Salamanders Eat?

> What tiger salamanders eat: Carnivore (worms, insects, small animals), foraging style, and seasonal shifts in Grassland, woodland, and farmland with ponds.

- **Species:** Tiger Salamander (*Ambystoma tigrinum*)
- **Conservation status:** Least Concern
- **Diet:** Carnivore (worms, insects, small animals)
- **Habitat:** Grassland, woodland, and farmland with ponds
- **Lifespan:** 10–16 years
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/tiger-salamander/what-do-tiger-salamander-eat/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/tiger-salamander/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

The tiger salamander is one of the largest land-dwelling salamanders in North America, named for the yellow blotches that stripe its dark body. It spends much of its life underground in burrows and returns to ponds to breed. Tiger salamanders can live 10 to 16 years.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian. This page is wild diet, not a pet-care sheet.

## Behavior and life underground

Tiger salamanders are powerful diggers that spend most of the year in burrows, sometimes more than half a meter deep, which protects them from heat, cold, and drought. They are largely nocturnal and emerge on rainy nights. Adults migrate to breeding ponds in early spring, often during the first warm rains.

## Help protect the Tiger Salamander

Even familiar animals lose ground as wild habitat keeps shrinking worldwide.

[Donate to wildlife protection](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/donate/)

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Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/tiger-salamander/what-do-tiger-salamander-eat/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.