success story

a few days i bought some chinese fire bellied newts from a petstore the guy at the shop who caught them for me had no idea about them and was even sacred to catch them, after getting them home i realised that the poor things were half starved to death one had a severed leg (and looked to be suffering from limb rot probably due to infection) and the other two were very emanicated and appeared to have symptoms of the shine. today all 3 seem to be doing well and are eventually taking live bloodworms (only if hand fed from a spoon). ive bought fire bellies from the store before and they were in good condition however ive noticed now that theyre housing them with dwarf aquatic frogs and they have the heater on full, which is stressing the newts and helping the fugnus to grow caused by the frogs nipping at their limbs, i went in yesterday to have a word with the shop and try to "nicely" offer advice of how they should be kept by the response from the staff and management im sure my words have fallen on deaf ears...a fbn was in the tank with a whole leg missing and a huge white fungus growing on his tail, i told the staff and they did nothing at all. (one of the employees who i spoke to actually thought newts were fish and didnt breathe air!)
im really starting to get frustrated now as i cant bare to see suc unessacary cruelty.

...rant over.

It makes me mad! If it was dogs or cats or rabbits being inappropriately housed like this there would (quite rightly) be outrage. The fact that this seems to be such a common problem just makes it harder to tollerate. Surely there must be a body that regulates the way in which animals are kept in stores?

i have been wondering about this also and now that you bring it up too, i think it's time to find out what can be done.

the pet shop i got my fbn's from wasn't that good, but not too bad either. it's a wee local shop and the woman told me she had originally put the newts in with frogs, but the frogs were biting them. the newts are housed in a small but deep tank, with nowhere to rest out or on the water. subsequently, they climb up the perspex and sit on the adjoining wall - to the frog tank! one of my newts had two toes nipped away at and i'm guessing that's because he was sitting on that wall. i've been in a couple of times since and given them (husband and wife) snippets of info i've gained. they just smile and say "oh really" but that's it. they don't make any changes to their setup.

will let you know if i get any info on how to approach these people and get the newts properly cared for. well - maybe i have high expectations, but there's nothing to lose by trying.

Yes, my experiences of seeing caudates in pet shops is similarly depressing- until I came to this forum i honestly thought axies required really warm water. Also paddletails and frogs together in large numbers, mayhem! Again, the water temps in the high twenties...miserable life for the newts.

thats the exact same response i got from the petstore, replying only yeah or really when i tried to give them advice, the newts they keep are starving to death too, their only juevniles, i asked to buy some live bloodworm from the store and was told they only have frozen, from the look of the eanicated newts i think theyre not interested in the frozen stuff, the ones i bought are looking so much healthier now, gobbling up their food. a turtle island just arrived in the post for them this morning....they dont seem that impressed by it so far preferring to stay on their log. the petstore i bought them from is a very large (nationwide i think) chain of pet stores so i dont even know where to begin in trying to get something done as i think all or most of their branches keep newts, and probably in the same sort of conditions.

For the sake of these animals and future animals in their care I would report them to the RSPCA. Having said this if the RSPCA don't have the necessary imfo on amphibians and the like they may not end up much better of, but it'll make the pet shop owners a lot more accountable for the welfare of their stock. [ i am having one of those days were I will not be putting my head in the sand...tomorrow my opinions may be different]

hi dani,

i've done a fair bit of surfing today and from what i can gather, it's best to report the pet shop to your local council. they are the one's that issue the license to sell animals and can impose fines and revoke the license. there are a couple of cases i came across on the bbc website of pet shop owners getting a custodial sentence for cruelty to animals. i don't think the RSPCA would do too much but keep that idea on hand if the council fail you.

if you get can go to your local council website, either search "pet shops" or go the section on environmental health-animal welfare and you will find the details of who to contact there.

if it's a big nationwide shop, you could also approach their head office - details of which i'm sure you could get through a quick google. send them a very strong letter, with pics if possible, but certainly details and dates - make sure it's recorded delivery and keep a copy. give them a time scale within which to clean up their act. if no reply or action is taken within that time scale, carry out your threat of reporting them to environmental health.

i went into my local pet shop this morning (prompted by this thread) and have to say, things are looking good there, much better infact. they have moved the newts away from the frogs and put a big log for them to sit on. i had a long chat with the owner and whilst he was mostly of the attitude that "everyone has a different opinion" he was definately listening. i tried to gently explain that opinions should not be mistaken for facts etc. of course, my words didn't hold that much credibility after buying a ghost shrimp at the weekend, which he didn't think would work with a newt. only for me to have to admit that newty ate ghosty

but please, do follow this up. and, keep us informed of any progress.

best of luck!