How do I get a baby newt to eat

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

I have a baby newt, it is terrestrial and a Japanese Firebelly newt.
It is my favourite one with an orange stripe down its back.
How do I get it to eat. I have tried pinhead crickets, chopped up earthworms, wax worms, bloodworms, whiteworms, baby woodlice and it still refuses to eat. It turns its head away from food. It is out and about and active at times and even climbs the glass of the tank a couple of inches and just sits there. It will go for a swim and sit on the plant leaves. It is looking very thin now. I am getting worried about it as it does not want to eat. Is there any way I can get it to get started in eating again. Thanks in advance. When it comes out again from hiding, I will take a pic of it.

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

Here is the little one

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

I have just been across the road to the fishing tackle shop and bought some squats. I asked what is the smallest maggots they sell. He showed me and I have put the newt in a tub with some tiny maggots and hopefully, it will start to eat. At the moment, it just walks past them.

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

These two were the same size when I received them.

Bellabelloo · Oct 22, 2016

I would make up a small tub with a small layer of soil and add moss or something like slate or broken plant pot for somewhere to hide...or you could have damp kitchen towel and a place for it to hide under. Dampen it so it is just moist and add lots of small food such as whiteworm and small woodlice. Add the small newt and leave alone somewhere quiet for a few days.. this is easier to do with a soil based tub as paper towel will need changing every few days. Small chopped worms can be placed on a section of damp kitchen towel as well. Small newts and juveniles can get very stressed when disturbed too much. Hopefully after a few days when you in on the little newt, you will find it with a little fat tummy.

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

Thanks for the help. I have made up a tub and have put chopped earthworm, whiteworm and some maggots in there. The crickets are a bit big for it now but I have found some cricket larvae and put them in. Moss soil and a hide and placed it in a spot where it won't get disturbed.

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

The larger one ate 3 maggots and spat one back out. I think his eyes are bigger than his belly. lol. The tub has a mesh lid on it so nothing escapes. This isnt in the pic though.

Chinadog · Oct 22, 2016

That looks fine. The thinking behind keeping small juveniles in relatively small, simple enclosures is that they don't have to hunt very far before they find food. Julia's suggestion of very small earthworms chopped up and offered on a piece of damp kitchen roll is my favourite. Tiny earthworms can take some finding, but it I dig long enough I can usually get by.

It's fine to offer maggots as food, but when feeding them to such small animals I always prick them with a pin to aid digestion first. I started doing this because before, their thick skin meant would come out the other end still in one piece.

lotty · Oct 22, 2016

Chinadog said:
That looks fine. The thinking behind keeping small juveniles in relatively small, simple enclosures is that they don't have to hunt very far before they find food. Julia's suggestion of very small earthworms chopped up and offered on a piece of damp kitchen roll is my favourite. Tiny earthworms can take some finding, but it I dig long enough I can usually get by.
It's fine to offer maggots as food, but when feeding them to such small animals I always prick them with a pin to aid digestion first. I started doing this because before, their thick skin meant would come out the other end still in one piece.

Thanks. I read this somewhere about pricking them. I got a needle and pricked them in the sides. Hopefully, they will be eaten. I just hope I dont have the only vegetarian newt. lol. I find earthworms in my garden. I have a carpet on the soil and lift it and there are worms, woodlice and other bugs under there. Easy pickings for me.

lotty · Oct 30, 2016

Update.
The newt has been in the tub for a week and it still has not eaten. I tried again yesterday to offer food, but it refuses to eat still. The tiny crickets are hiding but not going down in numbers. I dont know whether to put it in a bare bottom tub. If I put a damp kitchen towel in a tub, the maggots and crickets crawl under neath it. With soil the maggots and worms burrow to the bottom. But when I put anything in, the newt looks at it and then just walks over it.
I hope i have done right by putting the other newt that eats in with it so it can either help eat the crickets before they get too big for them to eat and also 'teach' the non eater to eat.
Although they were active in the larger tank on the floating dock and going for a swim and climbing the glass now and again, the newts just hide in the tub. Either under the moss or a leaf. The hide together.

Blackbun · Oct 30, 2016

I always have the larger, flightless fruit flies in enclosures with youngsters. I have a jam jar lid with a teaspoon of over ripe banana to keep the flies in one place. For me, I'd load the tub with fruit flies and tiny crickets and to get those in one place I feed them with some crunched up fish flake food. Then I'd leave in a quiet place and not disturb. Remember to mist.
The majority of youngsters are greedy feeders, but sometimes you get one or two which initially do grow well and then stop and slowly fade away. That sounds grim, but it happens. It happened when I used to breed rabbits and when I used to rear ducks too.

lotty · Oct 30, 2016

I spray every day to keep the humidity in there. I have placed them in a bare bottom tub to see if there is any change soon. I will have to see on ebay if there are any fruit flies. There are none local. Not many people local have newts / sals. I have only found one place that sells sals, but not newts. They mostly deal with reptiles. A lot of places wont stock live feed. Pinhead crickets have to be ordered and can take a week for them to arrive at the shop. I have a whiteworm culture. Whilt the newt is not eating, the worms are getting bigger so will eventually start to breed and there should be ample to help it start eating.
Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.

Blackbun · Oct 30, 2016

I've never trusted crickets after I saw one grabbing a waxworm and making off with it which is one of the reasons I always feed crickets in the salamander enclosure and never feed larger than instar 3 even to my biggest salamanders. I always feel even small crickets could, potentially, disturbed and irritate my youngsters. Fruit flies I love! You're a very committed and concerned keeper that's obvious but sometimes I think you have to ease off a bit.

lotty · Oct 30, 2016

I do care about them. I will leave it to its own. I think it will get that hungry it will have no option but to start eating, or it is just one of them ones that gives up. I have seen this with baby birds. I bred canaries and the mother abandoned the nest. Out of 5 babies, I managed to save one as they started to die one after the other and was refusing to eat. I learned a lot about birds and life then. So upsetting to see babies die after trying your best with them.
Oliver, the canary that lived, grew up to be a great bird, but smaller than any others his own age.

jewett · Oct 30, 2016

Hi Ian,

If you are going to order fruit flies, I also strongly recommend ordering a springtail culture, too. These are a great food source when used in addition to crickets and fruit flies and somewhere on this web site (though I can't find the source right now), some field research shows that juvenile Cynops' diet consists of 90% springtails.

Best of luck! I'm rooting for the little guy!

HJ

lotty · Oct 30, 2016

Thanks. I did buy some springtails but there were not many in the tub. I think it was supposed to be a culture starter kit. What few there was, I put in with the newt but they just seemed to be walking around still. I will have to see if I can get a better lot off a different seller.

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