The short answer for a tiger salamander
No human food belongs in a tiger salamander's bowl. Chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus fruit, avocado, cheese and other dairy, bread, processed meats such as ham and sausage, salty crisps, sugary sweets, spicy dishes, fried food, and anything with caffeine or alcohol should never be shared with this salamander. A tiger salamander eats earthworms, crickets, and other soft invertebrates, and it has no way to process the fats, salts, acids, and seasonings that fill a human plate. Even a pea-sized taste is a risk with an animal this small and this sensitive.
Why human food hits a salamander harder
A tiger salamander absorbs substances through its moist, permeable skin as well as through its gut. Compounds a dog would simply pass can move into a salamander's system from damp skin contact alone, so a greasy or salty scrap dragged across its body is a double exposure. Its digestive tract is also short and specialised for whole invertebrate prey. Rich fat slows that gut down, salt draws moisture out of an amphibian that must stay damp to breathe through its skin, and acids in citrus irritate both skin and mouth. Seasonings, onion, and garlic contain compounds that damage blood cells in many animals, and chocolate and caffeine overstimulate a small heart.
The foods to keep furthest away
Keep chocolate, coffee, tea, and energy drinks completely out of reach of a tiger salamander, because their stimulant compounds are dangerous at tiny amounts for a small amphibian. Treat the onion family — onion, garlic, leeks, chives, and shallots, raw, cooked, or powdered in sauces — as banned rather than diluted. Citrus fruits and juices burn sensitive skin and mouth tissue. Avocado, cheese, butter, and cream overload a gut that never meets concentrated fat in the wild. Bread, cake, biscuits, and pasta swell and ferment without offering anything a salamander can use. Processed meats and crisps concentrate salt, and pickled or spiced foods add acids and heat compounds on top.
What a tiger salamander should eat instead
Feed a tiger salamander the prey its body expects: earthworms as the staple, plus appropriately sized crickets, roaches, and occasional waxworms as a treat rather than a routine. Offer food with tongs in the evening, when this nocturnal hunter is active, and remove uneaten live prey so it cannot nibble at the salamander or foul the substrate. A shallow dish of clean, dechlorinated water should always be available for soaking, and food should never be placed where kitchen scraps, cleaning sprays, or hand lotions can reach it. Wash and dry your hands, then rinse again with plain water, before handling food or the animal itself.
If a tiger salamander does eat human food
Watch a tiger salamander that has eaten human food for loss of appetite, unusual lethargy, skin redness or excess mucus, bloating, and frantic soaking or avoidance of its water dish. Do not try to make it regurgitate and do not offer other foods to dilute the problem. Move it to a clean container lined with damp, unprinted paper towel and plain dechlorinated water while you call a veterinarian who treats amphibians, and contact one the same day if the food involved chocolate, onion, garlic, caffeine, or alcohol, or if any of the signs above appear. Note exactly what was eaten and roughly how much — that detail helps the vet judge urgency.
Keeping the banned list where feeders see it
Tiger salamanders are often fed by more than one person, and most accidents happen when a helpful visitor assumes a scrap of chicken or cheese is a treat. Put the never-share list in writing, keep human snacks out of the room where the enclosure sits, and make the worm tub the only food source anyone reaches for. When the list lives with the salamander's own profile, nobody has to rely on memory or a verbal warning given weeks earlier. KinsLe helps here through Care Teams, where the banned-food list and the worm-based feeding routine sit on this salamander's profile for every helper to check, with each completed feeding marked off so a second well-meant meal never follows the first.