Chinese fire belly newt not eating that much?

So we just got two Chinese fire belly newt efts about maybe 2 weeks ago, we are giving them as food frozen bloodworm, freeze dried bloodworm and live mealworms. The bigger one seems to be eating just fine and is moving around a lot, but the smaller one hasn't been eating that much. The tank used to have a floating island and some water and a filter, we put some rocks in as well but when we were cleaning it out they almost drowned. So we switched it to just the island and some paper towel with a little water bowl. We bought some mealworms and at first the tiny one bit a chunk out of it but now its not eating that much. Should we be concerned about this or no?

When I first got my 3 chinese firebellied newts (C. Orientalis) the smallest completely refused to eat for almost 2 weeks. I thought I was going to lose him but he pulled through.

What I did was separate the small difficult newt into his own enclosure with just a paper towel as substrate, i tilted the bin slightly to create a small pool in one end and that also kept the paper towl moist. In there I could keep a close eye on him and i attempted to feed him every day until he started eating a little bit.

Its been almost 5 months now and he is still a bit difficult to feed but Ive gotten his weight up to an acceptable number and he is in the main tank with the 2 adults. The adults are about 50/50 land to water while the smaller junvinille is 100% terrestrial still.

Just keep trying and be patient, my guess is that my newts were wild caught and had trouble adjusting to captivity, hate to support that industry but its too late for that discussion haha

Unless your newts look obviously sick just keep trying and be patient! I found chopped nightcrawlers the best for feeding the junvinille as they still wiggle a bit when I feed him so theu catch his attention.

Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for replying! I'll try to do that with the smaller one. The smaller one also looks really really skinny but I'll try to do that and feed the tiny one everything we have for feeding them.

firebellynewt84 said:

Thank you so much for replying! I'll try to do that with the smaller one. The smaller one also looks really really skinny but I'll try to do that and feed the tiny one everything we have for feeding them.

Click to expand...

Oh also, the only food we have for them is Frozen Blood worms, freeze dried blood worms, live meal worms and sometimes we just go outside and get some live earth worms from outside. Is there anything else we should be getting them or no?

firebellynewt84 said:

Oh also, the only food we have for them is Frozen Blood worms, freeze dried blood worms, live meal worms and sometimes we just go outside and get some live earth worms from outside. Is there anything else we should be getting them or no?

Click to expand...

Honestly I'm only 5 months into this hobby so I'm sure someone else could give you a better answer.

But just keep doing what you're doing, Ive read nightcrawlers (earthworms) are the bet staple diet for them so I'd try to stick with those.

I feed my 3 fb newts earthworms as their staple and the two adults who go into the water get thawed frozen bloodworms once every 1 or 2 weeks to give them some variety. I find feeding the junvinille frozen bloodworms too difficult since i have to tweezer feed him.

Hope this helps!

firebellynewt84 said:

Thank you so much for replying! I'll try to do that with the smaller one. The smaller one also looks really really skinny but I'll try to do that and feed the tiny one everything we have for feeding them.

Click to expand...

And my smaller one was just like that. Super skinny and tiny. I really didnt think he was gonna make it. Id suggest separating him if you can, i think doing that is what saved my smaller one!

And you dont need a new tank for it! I just used a Rubbermaid plastic tote and he was happy in there!

thank you for your help but sadly the small one died just today. we tried to do our best that we could but it just wouldnt eat and its leg was damaged, we are pretty sure it had "the shine" but we will go and get another one. the big one is doing fine and is healthy though, but thank you.

firebellynewt84 said:

thank you for your help but sadly the small one died just today. we tried to do our best that we could but it just wouldnt eat and its leg was damaged, we are pretty sure it had "the shine" but we will go and get another one. the big one is doing fine and is healthy though, but thank you.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. Did you buy from a pet store? They are known to bring in wildcaught newts (which there is a ban on right now i think in Canada) which are often sick or staved by the time you get them. Pretty sad actually. If you go back to get more carefully inspect the newt before you take it home, look for any infections or injuries along with its overall health.

Best of luck!

Thanks! We did get them from a pet store, we didn't really get to look at them that much though. The guy just grabbed two randomly out of the tank. We're gonna go back on Friday and try look at a healthy one and see they'll let us pick one out.

Just out of curiosity how did you dipose of his body? If he was infected with a disease or fungi you could introduce the disease to local populations if disposed of improperly...