C.Orientalis Help

One of my C.O. has been land bound this week. It has been in hiding on land mostly. When it comes out, I've misted it with water because the skin looks really dry. Once water touches him/her, they go back into hiding. The one time it did go for a swim, its skin looked as if it repelled water. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is pretty normal. The important thing is that it keeps eating. Sometimes with C. orientalis and other semi-aquatic species, a newt will decide to go on land for a while. Much of the time there isn't a know reason for this, but be assured that your newt most likely fine. As with a lot of caudates, when they decide to hang out on land they will choose a cool, damp place usually in hiding to keep their moisture and rest. Your newt should be fine as long as there is a decent amount of water in the tank it can choose to go to when it needs it.

When it's not in the water it's skin will look pretty dry, some newts get a roughness to their skin at this point. When it tries to enter the water again, it's skin will repel it until it can become saturated with water from its new aquatic environment. This makes a newt look shiny because there is still air attached to its skin. I guess that's a bit of an explanation, but needless to say, your newt is acting like a typical one of this species

Ok thanks. I've never seen the skin repel water like that, so I thought I'd seek some advice. It's activity level has definitely slowed down, I'm guess it's stressed because prior to being land bound, it was flipping out in the water, as if trying to jump right out (last weeks behaviour) He's not eating as much either, but I won't worry too much about that until he starts getting skinnier.

Is it a newly acquired newt??? they tend to do that when put in a new environment. Mine did...they eventually choose to go back into the water. When terrestrial they definitely are a lot less active, that´s normal. Just feed it well, it´ll go back to water. Good luck n_n

Yes they're new. I've had them for just over a month. I got two at the same time. His tank mate is fine. This guy was fine until the last 7-10 days. Thanks for the quick feedback. I won't let myself get worried just yet then =)