Hello from Land-O-Newts!

[FONT="Arial"Hello, everyone!][/FONT]

I have been reading these pages for years, finally getting around to saying hello. I live in Oregon, and have been a fan of our local Rough Skinned Newts since I was a kid. I have had two of my current newts, Fluffy ( a Rough Skin) and Snowball (a Fire Belly), since 1985, and they are still growing strong. I had other newts at the time, but these two survived the longest.

Until reading the articles here I had no idea the two species shouldn't be housed together, and apart from a few misguided mating attempts by Fluffy, they seem to get on so well, and have for so long, that I don't have the heart to separate them.

I also have a fire belly newt who recently lost her pal, who was Eastern Newt, and am trying to find her some fire belly friends, maybe even see if I can get them to breed.

Anyway, so glad for Caudata.org, and always enjoy reading about and seeing everyone else's tanks and creatures.

Heather Perkins

hello neighbor i am southern oregon dweller by way of nj. love it here i am new to axolotls but have been in love with reptiles and lizards all my life welcome here.

Welcome to the forum!

I am from Washington, and there are T. granulosa here too!

Yours is a male, incase you don't already know that. Nice to know there are some fellow T. granulosa keepers out there! I have two males ( Johnny and Peter Van Holp ), and three females ( Mary, Katy, and Katrinka ).

Welcome! -Seth

wow your newts are older than me. Atleast you have taken good care of them to last this long and yeah as you have read, it isnt advised to mix them. They dont attack each other??

All my favorite newts come from NW US. Maybe I'll retire there...

Welcome to the site! That's an unusual looking fire belly, do you know what species it is?

As unusual as it might seem that´s an H.orientalis.

Yes, I should have looked over on CC, There's a picture of H. orientalis on the care sheet that's almost identical!

Only amorously! The rough skin tried to mate with the fire belly a few times. I don't have the heart too separate them now.

Exactly how long is the firebelly? From the photo, I'm guessing that this is an unusually large, old newt. I agree that he is almost certainly orientalis (Chinese firebelly).

Yeah, the older fire belly is about 6" long. She is not friendly, even after 30 years, but she has come out of her shell some. I agree that she is probably a chinese fire belly. (My yonder fire belly may be as well, I will get some pictures of her tonight.)

The rough skin newt, of course, is pretty friendly. I feed him by hand, and he allows me to pick him up once in a while. They are even friendly in the wild here.

They are so adorable! How did you come by them? Were they wildcaught? We don't have too many bright amphibian species up here in the midwest unless you're looking at frogs. Any salamander I've seen tends to be darker. I have a feeling I may have asked a stupid question or two in there somewhere seeing as some of the species you named were Eastern, but, you never know!