Aestivation or hibernation?

I need some
advice from someone with hands on experience.
Temps here in Athens are around 35 now and rising
alarmingly fast,so I am looking for a solution as soon as possible.I am
keeping 4 Vulgaris,or karelini,or alpines,I dont think i can tell.They
now spend all their time on land and refuse contact with water.
Does that mean that they aestivate,as i read newts in southern climats do?They do accept food though and they seem really happy when i feed them worms and they are very active at the time of feeding.given that i will
leave the city for two months and nobody will be able to take care of them,
i consider holidays in the refrigerator could be the only option for
unless they aestivate naturally(?)Otherwise i will have to release them
in a pond,and that surely means i wont be able to find them again.Your
advice would be valuable!

I dont have much experience with putting newts in fridge. But I like to point out that release animals back to nature is a harmful act to the wilderness and the newts. And also possibly illegal in your region.

Ian that is not the case here,because the newts are local anyway.
going back to my question,I am reading that"If the heat is bad enough to be causing them genuine stress, a stressed newt will usually not eat." the heat is unbearable here but my newts are very active only when they have to eat.and they are spending all their time on land

Vladimir, even the newt is local, rereleasing it to nature will possibly distroy the local environment as well. And possibly illegal in your region. Since during the process of captivity, there can be many causes that brought in pathogen to the animals, such as the rock, the plant, the food you used.

If someone else on here read your post, they will probably better explain to you more clearly that releasing captive local animal is not a good idea and also will be more likely to help you on your heat issue.

In the time being, you may try to see if any friends of yours may help take care of it. Or do a search on the forum on fridging to induce hibernation.

(Message edited by achiinto on June 25, 2006)

Vladimir, I don't have much advice for you, but I would like to point out that Ian is right concerning putting the newts back in the wild. It may or may not be a law where you live.

thanks for the advice, thats something i did not know.I have looked up the fridging procces, the only thing that I dont fully grasp is if it is essential that newts have to go gradually towards colder temperatures.it sounds easy but on the practical side how do you do that?

Every suddenly change in temperature can stress the animal, if not kill it. I have never fridged my newt, but I think most fridge comes with a controller that adjust the temperature. You may try that.