Escaping newt

Much like the previous post with the chinese firebelly that liked to climb, my cailfornia newt likes to stand on against the glass sometimes too, and tries to climb out. It's really not that much, but once in a while he'll get the idea that maybe he could get out. So does this mean he hates what i have him in? How much water do you guys think should be in the tank compared to land? He seems to spend time in and on both, so I assumed he was somewhat happy.
Any ideas?

I'd say try different setups and see how he likes 'em. One warning though see to it that you do not put your newt in a risky environment with no chance of escaping, ie don't put a newt used to a terrestrial setup in an all aquatic tank - it will drown if care is not taken. Also the newts might react strongly if you put them in an environment they don't like - they will actively try to escape in every way possible.

So safe environment for the newts + tight net over all possible escape routes! Evaluation after a couple of hours or so - I have never needed more time to see...

Problem is that if you let the newts choose you will end up putting a lot of newts in setups where you will never ever ever see them.

I don't know if all triturus are like this but I know that my pygmaeus are like that. They like to live totally terrestrial totally out of sight and they are also totally nocturnal......sigh