Not eating!

grrr, my newts are being so stubborn! they are acting like the water is acid! they wont eat now, and im starting to worry.
If there is nothing wrong with them, how long can they go without food (before i have reason to worry)
is there anything that will make them want to eat?? any "fool-proof" food, (like with axolotls its earthworms)

What kind of newts? Are they staying entirely on land, or sometimes in water? What have you tried feeding them? Were they eating regularly before the current food strike?

http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/faq.shtml

Chinese Fire bellied newts, unless they sneak into the water at night then they woont go in at all. One was eating regularly, one of them only nibbled at food occasionally. I had them on live brine shrimp for a while, but the shrimp tank got smelly so i used up allt he shrimp and bought some freeze dried blood worms. One of the newts really liked that, but then it stopped going in water. I tried earthworms(on land) but they wouldnt touch it.

these guys are becoming such a hassle! im considering taking htem back to where i got them, that is if they wont eat.

hey, they might just be juvies, and they will go aquatic eventually, and if they don't eat, it was there choice you know, and sometimes Cr@p happens, good luck.

Freeze dried bloodworms aren't a very good food source, although I do toss them in from time to time. You may want to try frozen bloodworms or live blackworms in a little dish. My FBN Lenny was having nothing to do with the water until I changed his tank setup and he had no choice but to go aquatic. He's more active than ever now that he's in the water now.

How are you feeding the earthworms? I had success with earthworms by chopping them into pieces smaller than the newts head and then holding them with forceps in front of the newts face until he got annoyed enough to take a snap at it. Don't let it hit them in the face though because they may consider that to be an attack and will leave.

Actually, the first thing I was able to feed my newt was mealworms. I fed them the lightest skinned ones I could find and crushed the head of the mealworm so it couldn't do any damage to the tummy of the newt. After a couple of mealworms he was more than willing to take earthworms and now gets excited whenever he sees the forceps come into the tank.

Good luck Heather!

i was trying to feed them by getting <u>tiny tiny</u> earth worms and putting it in front of their face with tweezers.
when i put them in the water they speed around super fast on the surface trying to find a way out. }

any ideas

Ken, do you recommend removing the terrestrial areas with a newt who won't move? Mushu has a VERY tiny area of driftwood that he WILL NOT LEAVE. He's also not eating, either, but I'm hoping to overcome that. One day, he's going to be hungry enough. Fingers crossed. Occasionally, he turns around. He had one day of being very much a swimmer, and suddenly... nada. >.<

Well, I'm certainly not the expert around here, but I would leave the terrestrial area for sure. Many newts go through a terrestrial phase in their life, so it's always a good idea to have land. You may want to provide him with some sort of place to hide from view like a plant with leaves low to the ground or a little cave or something.

If you just got him, it's possible he's still stressed out from the move to a new environment and needs to get somewhere he feels safe for a while.

If you've had him for a while, you might want to check the water conditions for ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and such and make sure all is well. Bad water will stress the little fellas out terribly too.

Like I said, I'm certainly not the expert, but my newts seem pretty content in their habitat. I'd ask people like Jennewt, Jesper, John, Paris or Leah. They're all invaluable sources of information as are the other members of this site. I'm just learning myself and I drive everybody crazy with the way I do things I'm sure