Fire Belly Newt Colour Supplements

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sammannell

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Sam Mannell
Hi everyone I was wondering if anyone used any carotene supplements and saw a noticeable difference in their colour?

I was hoping to use one on half of my new baby newts once they are terrestrial and no longer eating daphnia and brine shrimp to see what difference it makes and also on some of my older newts to see if it brightens them up over time
(I feed them by tweezers and they jump up to grab it so will be easy to dust food)
They also love to eat Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets.

Sadly New Zealand doesn't have a lot of choices and no where stocks any of the supplements i've read about in posts on here so i'm trying to pick between the following:
Repashy superpig
Flukers Reptile Vitamin With Beta Carotene
Jurassi Vite

Any info would be super handy, thanks in advance :)
 
Chinadog said:
I got quite good results by using crushed Hilari pellets to dust their worms, there are side by side comparison pictures with newts that received no suppliment in this thread.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...0-new-blood-my-cynops-pyrrhogaster-group.html
Click to expand...



Wow awesome pics! What a noticeable difference! My larger newts love the small hikari pellets and eat them whole, the little ones aren't too keen but I will definitely start dusting food with it after seeing your results!
 
Would you say adding supplements like that will give a better result than just supplementing with daphnia? I've raised orientalis and cyanurus from eggs on just blackworms and daphnia and they've turned out with pretty deep orange bellies. The I. a. apuanus juvies I just got recently have relatively pale bellies, but many pictures I've seen of this species seem to have paler bellies than Cynops and former Cynops, so it might just be that. Anyways, I've been trying to feed at least half a dozen daphnia to each individual every other day starting a week ago to see if that will deepen their belly color. I'd be interested in supplements if the daphnia doesn't work.
 
The problem with Daphnia is that the amount of carotene can vary due to multiple reasons, like the species, the strain and it's environment. I have my own culture in my pond. These seem to do the trick, but adding carotene powder guarantees a deeply red colour. You need a ridicuously small amount and there has never been a reported case of an "overdose".

I use a powder that's been on the market for birds of the brand Beaphar. Maybe you should check if you can find this at your place. Maybe under the category "intensive red" for birds. You should see the results within 2 weeks after the first you gave it to your animals.
 
I cant find it at the moment but Paul B did a similar experiment to Chinadog and got a similar result, an almost red L. Laonesis.
 
Can you induce any change in belly color during adulthood? Or is it just during larval and juvenile stages?
 
They'll colour up at any stage of their life if given the right food/supplement, even on a relatively low carotein diet they'll gradually get darker. My oldest captive bred pyrrhos are nearly four years old now and they've gone from pale yellow when they morphed, to a deep orange on a diet based mostly on earthworms.
 
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