Feeding techniques - please share yours!

Hello everyone, I see several threads about newts not eating, or what to feed them, however I do not see much discussion on methods for feeding. I have been trying direct feeding with tweezers, dropping food in front of their noses, and leaving food in a dish at the bottom of the water. So far the only success I have had is with tweezers with one of my 2 newts. If you guys could kindly share your method for feeding and what you happen to be feeding them with that method that would be great!

Thanks everyone.

Edit: Just want to note i have tried frozen blood worm, live black worm, live wax worms, pellets, canadian earthworms, and small crickets. One newt ate blood worms, 2 cricket, and a few black worms in one sitting. The other hasnot eaten all week.

I have a sectioned off area just for feeding so I just throw chopped up worms or whatever I'm feeding and turn the light off and retrieve any uneaten food within an hour and a half

You could rub it against their snouts and do that until they get angry and bite the food, and it should be waxworms if they are skinny. If they aren't, just feed them earthworms, chop them up if need be

GrumpaDirt said:

Hello everyone, I see several threads about newts not eating, or what to feed them, however I do not see much discussion on methods for feeding. I have been trying direct feeding with tweezers, dropping food in front of their noses, and leaving food in a dish at the bottom of the water. So far the only success I have had is with tweezers with one of my 2 newts. If you guys could kindly share your method for feeding and what you happen to be feeding them with that method that would be great!

Thanks everyone.

Edit: Just want to note i have tried frozen blood worm, live black worm, live wax worms, pellets, canadian earthworms, and small crickets. One newt ate blood worms, 2 cricket, and a few black worms in one sitting. The other hasnot eaten all week.

Click to expand...

Wait, what species is it? Some species fail to thrive in captivity, so what species are yours?

Chinese fire belly newt (Cynops orientalis) is what I have. The first newt ate the 3 items when i put them in its face under water. The other one I tried letting the worms rub its face and it just moved its head aside basically saying no I assumed.

Does turning the lights off help with feeding? My first newt happened to eat when the light was off but I didnt even think twice about whether they eat in the dark or not. I bought a feeding dish for in lizard terrariums and I have it placed on the glass floor, but i havnt tried using it because I felt like they wouldnt find it. I will try cutting up a few different types of worms and leaving them in there an hour or two and see what happens.

I would still like to hear more techniques if anyone else has other ideas as well. I really just want to make sure I am trying everything. Again thanks for everyones involvement who chooses to comment.

I would love to compile my own FAQ that includes as much complete information on the species as possible and even eventually make proper care videos for youtube. I wouldnt want others to find the wrong videos like I did before I ended up here! I ended up watching IHTW reptiles videos and took them rather seriously at first. I was told he is wrong.

Cheers!

I am a care-keeper of 2 Cynops orientalis newts named Drogon and Rhagael. They spend nearly all of their time underwater loafing amongst all of my floating plants (Java, Pennywort, some others), but if they are hungry when they see me enter the room they will come up to the surface and hang out near the floating cork log or one of the floating Java moss balls. Most of their diet consists of chopped Canadian night-crawlers, but they get an occasional treat of a wax-worm or a spike if I some left over from a day out fishing. I use metal reptile feeding tweezers to minimize contamination. I dangle said meal a few centimeters above their nose to get its attention, then drop it in the water nearby. I adopted both newts from a previous owner I met at a local reptile/amphibian specialty shop (twincitiesreptiles.net). It it isn't wiggling they will have nothing to do with it. I've tried frozen bloodworms, blackworms, pellets and no love. Drogon is nearly 13 years old (post pet store) and Rhagael is ten. They are named after two of the dragons on Game of Thrones.

I feed my axie pellets and earthworms, I have been feeding him by hand ever since I got him. You just simply put the food in between your finger tips and put it near his food and eventually he will take it. At first he might scare you when he takes it but they can't harm you so just try to keep your hand still until he takes it

If you don't want to hand feed you can always buy plastic tweezers and do it that way ;p

This method I find to work the best is putting a tube in the tank. I have a 20 gallon Long tank, so it is about 30 inches long and about 12 - 14" high. I have several clear tubes from old water siphons. I put the tube next to or above my girls mouth (Sam-Sam) and will drop a pellet or worm in it and usually it falls right in front of Sam-Sam or right above her and floats down. My boy Mr. Zackbot I do the same, at first he knew right away what the tube was for and would snap at it right away, the issue with that is that it would scare him. The tube method works pretty good, the big problem is that not all of the worms will sink and still if they do not get it when it falls out the usually do not eat it. Hope this helps.

Both of my newts ate a 3/8" long piece of earthworm today and then didnt seem to want anymore after. I held it in their face with my tweezers again. Im really happy. This proves all the knowledge on this site to be true. Every other newt they ordered at the pet store died except the 2 I took home and put into an aquarium with the perfect water conditions and LOTS of plants. After about a week both newts are eating and in the water. I took pretty much everything out that floats and they only have plants that are on the surface to sit in for now.