My little newt won't eat

Ok guys ain't been on here in a while, anyways I got 2 new newt that I inspected very carefully before buying, the problem is I had them for 3 wks at least and I offer food at least every 3-4 days and my little one will not eat! My big newt will eat but my little one has only ate a little one time. I take tweezers with a little gob of bloodworms and do it like that cause i put them in a dish and they won't take it and I don't want to drop in water cuz it will get nasty. Also my big newt kinda hovers over the little one is she protecting it. Also I read from Kaysie's reply on a post one of hers went 1 month without food and was ok. Any help?

what sort of newts are they, Renee?
i wonder is the big one dominating or harrassing the little one rather than protecting it? with my limited knowledge i'd be tempted to try seperating them so that the smaller has less stress and potential grief off the big one.
I had a female paddletail go for nearly two weeks without eating recently but she just went back to normal and now has a healthy appetite. try an earthworm?

Healthy animals, kept in a cool environment, can go without food.

It's definitely helpful to know what kind of animals you have. What is your setup like? What are your water parameters? What temperature are you keeping them at? What foods have you tried?

You are trying the right things. Until it eats, I would try feeding it every day. Also, if you have a place to dig worms, see if you can find some very small earthworms. These would be the most likely food to get it eating. If you can't find worms small enough, you can cut a worm into pieces. I know this is gross, but it might save your newt's life.

Have you tried live black wormes?

yeh I think that the big one may be dominating it. I just fed her and she ate but was basically on top of the little one. They are chinese fire belly newts and they are still alive and look happy but they stay in between these leaves and never go in the water. I also have a dwarf frog in there. I have a cave for them and a rock to climb on and leaves to hide in and about 4" water. I know you guys said no heater but I have a heater that is 78 degrees, the pet store had one in their tank and I thought they may have adapted to it. I don't run it all the time. I was also thinking do I really need to run the filter nonstop? I always give frozen bloodworms every 2-3 days. the big newt and frog love them big time and eat when I offer but the little one only ate once in almost a month now. I hold the worms from a tweezer in front of its face and it turns away like its saying "get away from me with that" I will try some real worms I guess do I have to chop them up?

Seperate the smaller newt if you feel it is being bullied, and most peoples opinion on this forum is not to mix species so get a seperate tank for the frog as well. Take out the heater - the newts may be "used to" warmer temps but the cooler the better for them, especially for an animal with poor appetite. And by not running the heater all the time, the fluctuation in temps may be causing the animals even more stress than just leaving it on all the time. Offer small live food, you will have to chop up the worms if they are too large to fit in the newts mouth. Nearly a month is a long time for a newt to go without food, especially in warm conditions. I hope your little one makes it, and I wish you the best of luck,
Heather

Absolutely positively turn off the heater immediately.

In addition to trying earthworms (your best bet), you may be able to catch some suitable live food outdoors, such as small woodlice (rolly-pollies).

my little newt ate but...

Hey my little newt finally ate wallago. Not much maybe 3 or 4 blood worms, this time I just kept putting it near his/her face even tho he would turn away and he finally took some. But...the big newt bit him! I seen it, he just bit him on the side and there was something white there. now it is gone so i hope he is not hurt. Also the little one has been standing on the big one now. so maybe they are finding a middle ground and they are staying on seperate sides of the rock now too. the frog is crazy he was getting impatient and jumped up on the rock and stole some worms from the tweezers I was feeding the new with. I think the frog is ok with the newts they don't bother eachother. Also I tried seperating the newts putting them on seperate ends of the tank. They just got back together. Do u guys think they will be ok. I am going to unplug the heater, but I am nervous to. I know this is the newt section but do u think the frog will be ok with no heater?

The frog and the newt should be separated, especially if they have different temperature requirements.

Chances are, in addition to the newts suffering from heat stress, your frog is stressing out the newts and thats why they won't eat. It's too hot for them, and there's a big 'thing' they've never encountered before which is stealing their food.

Also, keep in mind that clawed frogs are known asymptomatic carriers of chytrid fungus, which is 100% fatal to salamanders without treatment.

My newt was like that, you need some changes.

First of all is your filter producing a very strong current? If it's too strong the newts may have went in the water, and if the current is too strong for them to swim to the surface they wont go in the water. Remember they must come to the surface to breathe air. I suggest keeping the filter, if you have gravel you'll need to clean that with a gravel vacuum.
Also you must make sure the water is clean and has no chlorine in it.

Can they get on land easily?

The heater HAS to go, they dont need it and it's bad for them, and it turns out sunlight is bad for them too, keep the tank away from direct sunlight and heaters in your house! You dont need a light either unless you want to see them for a few minutes.

The frog has to have its own tank, newts and the frog require different things, and the newts can be toxic to the frog. Is it a land frog or water frog (clawed frog)? Water frogs will over-eat themselves to death, they will compete with the newts for food as you may have found out. Just setup a tank like you have now minus the land because water frogs dont come out on land.

Now for food.

Your newts wont go in the water for some reason, but they usually love the water. I would feed them every 2 days until they both eat each time, they need to fatten up so offer more food until they have no more problem eating.

My newt will only eat under the water, but newts will eat pinhead crickets on land.

All other food is eaten under water, so you'll need to put food in the water.

You need to put live worms in the water if your newts are in the water. I would try live blackworms, they are cleaner than tubifex worms. Put a toothpick full of them in front of the newts face when they are in the water, but let the worms crawl on their own dont hold the toothpick in front of them it may scare them,they should snap them up quickly once they see the worms crawling.

I feed mine a small earthworm whole, the length of it's body, and the width of the worm about the width of a toothpick. My newt eats a whole worm every 2 days.

Remove any uneaten food after a few minutes.

Hope that helps.

Great reply from Keith. Also, since nobody has given this link yet, I want to throw this in:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml
Another good reason for separation of the newts from the frog is the difference in their level of interest in the food. If the frog is grabbing it away, the newts don't stand a chance of getting enough to eat. I would recommend feeding the newts daily until they are well-established and plump.

Are you sure both newts are Chinese firebellies? CFB rarely intimidate each other.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/firebelly.shtml

Good link you posted about mixing species, those are very real situations that happen in pet stores all the time.

Although I never knew 2 different species would try to mate with each other?

How's the newts and frog doing?