Hi from Nottingham

Hi all, I've been reading the website for a few months now and it's a fantastic resource and community! I'd never known anything about newts, but I moved into a new house in late April that had a wee little garden pond inhabited by a mess of frog spawn and 3 newts (Palmate, 1 male, 2 females)

I successfully raised about 100 baby frogs to the point where they hopped off into the great outdoors.

Now I have about 30 baby newts (efts?) who are all about 2.5cm long.


The newts (Palmate) started laying eggs in June and I managed to harvest most of the eggs and put them into a 'nursery' pond, which was just a plastic storage container left to float on one end of the pond. This was to keep the eggs and larvae out of the reach of the hungry baby frogs. It all worked out pretty well, and last month I returned the newt hatchlings to the main pond. They are all now about 2.5 cm long and have their feet. They are now 'efts' if I have my terminology right. Their diet so far has been baby brine shrimp and (frozen) bloodworms.

I need some advice on what to do with them over the winter, as I'm pretty sure my pond will freeze solid. I'd like to keep them safe (in an aquarium/terrarium inside?) and actually contribute to an increase in the population by returning them to the wild as young adults, in the spring.

Does anyone have some thoughts on this strategy?

Take your nursery container inside where it won't freeze. Give the juveniles some land area as well and keep them as you normally would a newt.

I would leave them alone in the pond now. When they are ready, they will climb out of the pond and find some nice dark areas of the garden to over winter