New little guy, possibly shedding?

I recently purchased two new newts for my setup. One is considerably smaller than the others and wasn't getting any food so was getting listless. He was spending most of his time on a floating log in the tank motionless, to the point where I had to poke him a few times to get him to move.

This morning I took him out and placed him in his own small critter keeper for a while to try and get him fattened back up. He seems much more content in there, actively cruising the water and climbing about leisurely on the rocks. He also seems to have eaten some blood worms.

Here's a photo:



As you can see in the picture, he has a grayish film on his head and body. Would he be shedding his skin or is this possibly him releasing his toxins as I had just finished handling him ten minutes before the picture was taken?

He's just a little fellow, no bigger around than a pencil, and head to tail about the same length as my pinky. (I have little hands)

Any suggestions on fattening him up? He seems to take bloodworms as I've said, any other suggestions for food stuff for such a little guy?

I'm sure that the "film" is just skin, because thats what it looked like when my bullfrog would shed and I know that they (bullfrogs) aren't toxic.

And you could try feeding him cut up earthworms or even brine shrimp if hes so small. When I had mine they ate ghost shrimp some times.

Put a rough rock in there for him to rub his skin off if it is indeed a shed skin.

ever thought of putting some gravel or something in there?

Mark, aren't bare bottomed tanks a good idea? I prefer to keep my tank bottom bare because I think it makes for easier clean ups, and when I had fishtank gravel in my setup, my fire belly ended up with severely scratched "cheeks." She still has the scars, and this was about 7 years ago. Why do you prefer gravel, just asthetics?

That's a shedding alright, but not a good shedding - shows that something is wrong with him.
Might just be really stressed out.