Question: Help -my eft hunts diligently but never eats!

I have kept two Eastern red-spotted efts for 3+ months now, and one of them, Slip, gets very excited whenever I feed fruit flies, diligently stalking and getting close to them but never strikes or takes a bite. Eventually after 30 min he'll give up and go back to his hide. The other one, Noodle, gets right to work eating as many of the flies as possible, so I know it's not something wrong with the food.

It breaks my heart to see Slip constantly stalking flies and looking very hungry but not eating. There are plenty of flies and he doesn't hesitate to eat blackworms when Noodle is around, so I don't think it's a competition or intimidation issue.

Does anyone know why this is? Is he having a hard time recognizing the flies as food? His reaction is different than to foods he doesn't like, such as black soldier fly larvae - he notices the movement but then turns away in disinterest. Noodle will eat those as well.

Is it ok that the only thing Slip eats is blackworms? I only have these two efts so can't stock multiple kinds of food at once. Trying to provide variety in the diet basically means Noodle gets good nutrition while Slip goes hungry and only eats once every week or so. I imagine this is too infrequent for efts? I usually feed one type of item every 2 days.

Any suggestions would be appreciated! I live in a concrete jungle of a city so cannot go dig up earthworms or catch bugs, and nightcrawlers are way too big for the efts.

How big are these guys? If nightcrawlers are too big, even cut up, you can try something called 'baby crawlers'. I get them at Walmart. If your efts are big enough, you can cut these up to make pretty small pieces. You can also try isopods.

noodlenoo said:

Is it ok that the only thing Slip eats is blackworms?.

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According to the Caudata Culture article "Food Items for Captive Caudates" (Caudata Culture Articles - Food Items for Captive Caudates), black worms are an "excellent" food source while fruit flies are only "good." So at least Slip is eating the best stuff you are offering!

And I do appreciate that you only want to stock a few food items, but I strongly recommend getting a culture of white worms. While these are also only a "good" nutrition source, they are usually eagerly accepted and are an easy way to add variety. Of course, like Erin/ Slowfoot said, cut up night crawlers are the best food you can offer. Efts that can be trained to take cut up bits of night crawler from the end of a toothpick grow very well.

Best of luck! I hope your little ones thrive!

HJ

Thanks for the replies! I've been looking all over for smaller earthworms but could only come up with the (supposedly) distasteful red wigglers. These baby crawlers are sold out online right now but I'll keep an eye out for them and if I get near a WalMart.

Will definitely look into the white worm culture. I had actually not heard of these before.

The efts are only about 2 inches long including tail. Here is a photo of them getting ready to chow down on their favorite blackworms. Slip is the one that's greener - wonder if he's getting closer to the adult stage?

They both appear to have good body condition, so that's good.

Dawn/ Otterwoman sells white worms cultures. She has a sticky in the ads section: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f49-ad...amanders/f50-sale-give-away-trade/f65-fs-usa/

I have gotten cultures from her a few times (I tend to over harvest and my cultures crash...) and they are very generous in numbers. She also ships a lot so she knows what she is doing

HJ

Thanks HJ. Still need to decide if I can actually spare the room in my tiny NYC apartment to culture anything needing more space than fruit flies. Thinking about ordering spikes as the next food item to try. But I read the first few posts by Otterwoman in the sticky regarding her cultures - "When I have extra bread-type food, I'll use that too (ex. extra Xmas cookies, Xmas fruitcake, Xtra donuts, graham crackers, etc). But otherwise usually I buy whole-wheat pita bread or whole-wheat tortillas"

Hahaha! I'm tempted to get the white worms just so I can get rid of all my Xtra Xmas cookies and fruitcake!

I would bet that the one who eats mostly blackworms will grow faster. As long as they are both eating, all is well. Do you dust the fruit flies?

Yes, actually I dust the blackworms a bit as well, since I read somewhere that the calcium/phosphate ratio isn't the best. I've noticed that both newts are satisfied after about a dime-sized dollop of blackworms, while Noodle can eat 20+ fruit flies at one sitting. Both seem to be growing well.