Please help me save and choose these Newts

Hi Friends,

Hope all is well and great !

One of my Friends in a big city here has finally located a few Newts in a pet shop and has bought 6 of them for me. They are fire-bellied and he feels that they're japanese. He says that they looked really skinny and weak but he still bought them because it is the only source I can get newts here in my Country. As soon as he took them home, 2 of them died within 2 hours.

The other 4 are alive but are acting weird - he says that they are refusing to enter the water and are refusing to eat anything.

He says that he will keep them for a week or so and as soon as they get a little better, he will ship them to me. He just wanted me to search and find if he can use any medicines ( any anti-bacterials etc) which can help them recover and become healthy again. Kindly guide me if anything can be done friends. Please help me get and keep these newts.

I badly want to keep them - desperately need your help...
Thanks a lot !
Regards and Care
Kush

Unfortunately, i regret to say this i have a small feeling that shipping these newts again will surely kill them..
If you are inexperienced in keeping newts then you are going to struggle.
pet shop newts are wild caught and are prone to diseases and stress .

I wish you luck if indeed these newts are successful in their journey .
But as for the welfare and care of these newts i have a gut instinct that these newts will pass .

good luck friend

Tom

It´s sad but it´s true. If the newts are emaciated and two have died in such a short period, the chances are very very slim. Specially if your friend has little knowledge and resources.
If the importation takes a toll on the newts health, pet-shops are usually even worse. They generally fail to meet the newts requirements, they tend to keep them way too warm and/or with fish and usually they don´t eat much, if at all, during the time they are at the pet-shop which only weakens them even further.
The newts your friend bought must have been severely neglected to be in such a bad shape.
I agree that shipping them will only make things worse, and even if they survived, you are going to have a really hard time trying to get them to recover, and the chances of succeeding are minimal.

Tell your friend to keep them cool(ideally 15-18ºC), in a shady place. If they are aquatic, tell him to provide as much volume of water as possible, since the bigger the volume, the better it maintains it´s quality and temperature. If they are terrestrial, which is likely, a smallish container with moist unbleached paper towels and a very shallow, easily accesible water bowl, and several hides should work. Tell him to disturb them as little as possible, and offer them earthworms or waxworms if available.

That is really so sad, but I understand that you're only trying to help and guide me honestly. Is there any thing that can improve their health / condition ? Any medicines that can help ? Vitamins ?

Actually my friend, who is getting them for me had bought 3 newts for himself from the same batch about 2 months ago and he says that those are doing great, eating well, swimming around playing etc

These guys are from the same batch but as nobody here in India buys them they were just dumped in to a tank in the store's warehouse... He feels that they've become weak and stressed due to improper care and neglect...

Please let me know if anything can be done... I badly want to keep them and this is my only chance...

I really want to keep them and give them a great life - I'm praying that they make it...

Friends, is there a way that I can find if these are aquatic or terrestrial ?

Provide a container with both water and land parts to it. Make sure its easy for the newts to move between both parts. To find out which they prefer just watch i guess. Also make suree water is dechlorinated with stress coat or other similar products. Live food is best.

Healthy adult Cynops are aquatic, but after all the stress of the importation and the horrible conditions in the pet-shop many choose to become aquatic to avoid the bad water conditions, excessive heat, etc.
You can tell by their skins. If the skin is granular, not shiny and hydrophobic, they are terrestrial and may take some time to become aquatic. If the skin is smooth and shiny, it´s made for water. However with ill and weak animals this can be hard to tell, as they tend to develop a shiny smooth skin which is not an indicator of their phase, but of the fact that they are in very bad shape. Giving them the option to be aquatic and terrestrial and letting them choose by themselves is probably the best option.

Medicines won´t help if the problem is malnurrissment. Vitamins might help a little, but what they need is food and excelent housing conditions in order to recover.

I´m sorry you´re going through this but this is just what happens with WC pet-shop caudates. Your friend was lucky to find them when they were probably freshly imported therefore they hadn´t suffer too much. But after 2 months of bad conditions and neglect, the second batch is probably beyond help.
Best of lucks though, i really hope they make it.

Even in the UK Cynops orientalis and other newts are incorrectly housed.
i have filed several complaints to a pet superstore upon their in correct housing of around 20 C.orientalis.

compared to a local pet shop which is smaller , they take great pride and care in their newts which is fantastic but very rare...

my advice to you and i know you may disagree is to please refrain from shipping your newts until you research properly and your friend has indicated a full recovery..

Also if possible please get some pictures of these new newts .

I agree with what is said so far. If you could have your friend send you some pictures that you could post, it would be most helpful. Have him try to take them without touching them.

Remember to have your friend handle them as little as possible too. That really stresses them out, especially when they are already weak. They will probably not do well with crickets crawling all over them. The crickets might even chew on them. It is best to have him feed them with toothpicks, tongs, or tweezers a large variety of foods they may eat, especially when they are probably too weak to catch the food themselves. I have even fed them vitamin and calcium dusted crickets with long tweezers, available at the pet store. I have found my pickiest will eat thawed frozen bloodworms with powdered Rep-Cal Herptivite multivitamin, and Fluker's Calcium (phosphorus free) with D3 added in and some water, thawed in a Gatorade cap and fed on a toothpick, when he will not eat anything else.

I hope this helps, and I will pray that they make a full recovery and safely ship to you for a long and healthy life with you!:happy:

Critter Mom