Slightly addictive?

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Wyrd

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Ive had Newts for a few years now, started with one, now have 5 and I am wanting more.

Just got myself a nice new big tank, with that finished, I want another one!

At this rate my whole house will be over run with them,lol.
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I know what you mean!!!

I've always loved all animals, and usually the "unloved" ones (i.e., slimy, scaly, scary) the best!

But the real difference in my life is my boyfriend! I've never met anyone else who was so into animals, and after one year of living together, we have created quite a zoo in our little rental house. We have 5 aquariums, 8 vivariums, and bins upon bins of crickets!!!

Caudates are very hard to come by in this small Canadian town. I have 2 rough skins, 2 emperors, and 3 fire sallies... and OF COURSE I WANT MORE! You know the hardest species to find around here (including driving 4 hours any direction!)? Axolotls. I'd love a family of those guys...
 
My favourite saying lately: Small is beautiful. There's no need to own everything...
 
otterwoman said:
Not that it should be a contest, but I think Axolotl Jake is the unofficial most addicted addict!

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?p=135754#post135754
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I admit I have a minor problem, that's the first step to recovery. My problem is that the newt room is only 9 feet by 17, so I began moving tanks into the room next to it as well. I don't want everything though! There are many species that I wouldn't dream of keeping, or advise others to keep. I do have the collection that I always dreamed of as a little tot.

I won't mention any names, but I heard there is a certain gentleman south of me who has just about 50 species. If that's true, then he blows my collection out of the water. I'm sure there are a handful of others around that have more than me, but they keep them hidden in their basements.
 
I have to say that I am addicted too, a few years back my addiction was with rodents but when we moved I had such an issue placing them that when I got settled again I stopped at 2 chinchillas. Right now I am trying to make sweet eyes at my hubby to get me a bigger tank so that I can keep all the axies when they are adults and I am also trying to convince him to get me a red-eared slider. He wants a snake so things are in negociations... I have this strange feeling we will soon be overun.
 
I would love more axolotl and some newts and may be some gecko ( I blame feeekygeeky for that ...she has some amazingly beautiful photo's of hers!!) .My husband has made it very clear that I can have no more pets until we get a larger home. I decided on a way to get newts I would make my pond newt friendly, then I would gets some eggs from my parents pond and grow them up in a tank in doors. That was scuppered by firstly reading a very good book written by Crested and then dicovered I may already have newts in the pond already!. Then both my sons celebrated birthdays close to Christmas and received money so that they can get something they want, I re- organised their bedroom and discovered that they now actually have space to swing a cat and a super spot for just may be a gecko or two. Common sense kicked in at some point when I realised that this would fail as I would then want to move them downstairs so I could keep an eye on their well being..and there is just no space. Now I have to either move to a larger house or wait for the children to leave home.... I must resist !!
 
bellabelloo said:
I would love more axolotl and some newts and may be some gecko ( I blame feeekygeeky for that ...she has some amazingly beautiful photo's of hers!!) .My husband has made it very clear that I can have no more pets until we get a larger home. I decided on a way to get newts I would make my pond newt friendly, then I would gets some eggs from my parents pond and grow them up in a tank in doors. That was scuppered by firstly reading a very good book written by Crested and then dicovered I may already have newts in the pond already!. Then both my sons celebrated birthdays close to Christmas and received money so that they can get something they want, I re- organised their bedroom and discovered that they now actually have space to swing a cat and a super spot for just may be a gecko or two. Common sense kicked in at some point when I realised that this would fail as I would then want to move them downstairs so I could keep an eye on their well being..and there is just no space. Now I have to either move to a larger house or wait for the children to leave home.... I must resist !!
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It's easy to let it get out of hand but in the end I think most of us find that we have less time to observe each specimen in our care. And sometimes things might even get neglected. Self-restraint is a definite virtue. If I sound preachy that's because I'm preaching (to everyone).
 
I like the personal aspect of having a smaller group. One can really get to know the animals different personalities and traits more clearly. Plus, spending 5 hours just to do water related chores does not seem like a very good allocation of time.

... although I would like to be able to say that I have kept each species of newts in the world throughout my lifetime.
 
My challenge is that with five kids from 19 to 5 in ages they all like different types of critters. We are just discovering the world of newts and salamanders in a more in depth way. We currently are happy with our axolotls as the new addition to the home. But my wife would really like to happen upon some blue spotted salamanders she thinks they are the bomb
 
Definetly addictive. I just got my 4 Fire Belly Toads yesterday and I'm already planning future expansions.

*By July I would like to have a nice Red-eyed tree frog set-up
*By August a bigger tank, half water/half land so I can both expand my FB toad collection but also make them happier than my current 10 gallon terrarium w/ large water bowl
*By this time next year I wan't to have started a poison arrow frog collection too :D

I'm basing all of these on the successfullness (sp?) of whatever the previous set-up is. (IE, if my current Fire Bellies goes well then the tree frog, if that goes well than the FB expansion, if that goes well then the Darts etc....)
 
John said:
It's easy to let it get out of hand but in the end I think most of us find that we have less time to observe each specimen in our care. And sometimes things might even get neglected. Self-restraint is a definite virtue. If I sound preachy that's because I'm preaching (to everyone).
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Yea I agree with that a lot. I only have one axolotl and one goldfish (each in their own tank) and spend a lot of time looking after each. I'd love more but yea, would be worried about being neglectful. Even despite best intentions it can happen. Also my partner doesn't like fish or axolotls so doubt I would be able to get another tank in the house - especially after I just snuck in a goldfish a week ago :p
 
Saspotato said:
Also my partner doesn't like fish or axolotls so doubt I would be able to get another tank in the house - especially after I just snuck in a goldfish a week ago :p
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I don't understand why this happens so much. If the person is not involved in looking after the animal in question, it doesn't get in the person's way, it doesn't shed, the person is not allergic to it and the person never has to have contact with it, why the prohibition? It's not like an axolotl is a German Shepard. Perhaps I'm missing something.
 
For me personally, I think it is more about how because he works from home, he has agreed to monitor temperatures and do check ups now and again when I am at work, but doesn't want too many tanks to watch especially as he has no interest in them himself. I think that is fair enough as I have asked him to help me out in looking after them.

I agree though, if one person is taking full care and it doesn't impact on the other person, there should be no prohibition.
 
John said:
I don't understand why this happens so much. If the person is not involved in looking after the animal in question, it doesn't get in the person's way, it doesn't shed, the person is not allergic to it and the person never has to have contact with it, why the prohibition? It's not like an axolotl is a German Shepard. Perhaps I'm missing something.
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I understand you completely! When I bring axolotls to reptile/amphibian shows, some of the people that seem most interested in them always have a spouse that wants to crush their dreams.

I hear people tell their partners over and over again, "It's either me or your stupid slimy critters" and other things to that affect. I'd choose my animals over almost anyone's opinion. I don't "want it all" and just buy up every newt I see for sale, sure I have a lot of them (other people blow my newts out of the water though), but for good reason. Look at the bright side...

They don't complain when you come home at all hours of the night.

They don't care if you go out with your friends without them (it's probably best not to bring them).

They don't nag you to get a hair cut and a shave.

Most of them are permanently smiling at you.

I can guarantee that none of them clog your shower drain with their hair and blame it on you.

What more could you ask for?

It sickens me to know that there could be some awesome salamander keepers out there, if it weren't for their other half...now, everyone needs to just start a revolution!
 
OMG if I had a penny for every time I've had to clear the shower drain... The upside is that the source of the hair in the drain does not object to salamanders.
 
I have the opposite problem. My wife very much enjoys all of the animals. She "talks" to them and briefly handles some of them on occassion. She always encourages me to get more if I want however she does not help with any of the feeding and maintenence. I have to remind her that each enclosure takes a varying amount of time to clean, feed, partial water change, and so on. She sometimes does not seem to understand that I would rather keep the collection relatively small, specialized, and thus more enjoyable instead of having lots of animals to feed and otherwise never see. This is not even factoring in the fact that we have a kid on the way.
Chip
 
I think I will sell some of my newts in a few years maybe and get different ones, but i'm sure that's easier said than done, you do get attached to them. None of them are going till they breed!!! Im gona breed them all!!!! aaaa hahahaha haaaaaaaa
 
You're pretty much in the safe zone when you can get your partner to pose like this in front of a newt tank like I managed to do;

1955843420_c65d065bf6.jpg


1955020107_db140839d3.jpg


;)
 
You're lucky if you can get her to look at you the way she's looking at the tank in the bottom picture!:wacko:
 
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  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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  • Clareclare:
    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
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