Eastern Newt Eft second metamorphosis?

I have an Eastern Newt that wandered into my house a couple of months ago (we live in New Hampshire and there's about 20/mile on any given country road after a storm) in a 10 gallon tank that's mostly terrestrial with a small stepped water dish in the middle. When we first got Mikey, as we've taken to calling him, he was a bit skinny and a very bright red. After two months of about 5-10 wingless fruit flies a day, he's a much more pleasantly plump newt, but he's also starting to get more brownish-green and less red. I've seen on the Caudata Culture page for the eastern newts that the second metamorphosis can be hastened by plentiful food, and since he was originally wild, I would assume that he's now getting considerably more and consistent meals than before. Note: the spots on Mikey are water droplets, not some horrible insect infestation.


In addition to the increasingly greenish-brown color (this photo is 10 days old, and my camera's USB cable just got chewed up by my cats), Mikey's tail has gotten a little more vertical over the last two weeks, in comparison to the mostly rounded one he had when we he arrived. I would automatically assume he's entering an aquatic phase, but he has had a change in diet, so I thought perhaps it was simply that whatever allows him to create the red color wasn't present in the fruit flies, or that the red color is more prominent in stressful times. Assuming though that he does seem to be becoming aquatic, should I move to a 1/2 water tank now, or wait a little while for more obvious signs?

NB: If there's another forum topic that addresses this, please point me in the right direction. I have done a few searches for this topic, but I have to wait 45 seconds between searches, and haven't found anything that convinced me one way or another, so I've decided to post a new thread. Please keep that in mind before rudely telling me to go do a search in the forum. Thanks.

Eastern newts, contrary to popular belief, are not completely aquatic when the reach the adult phase of their lives. They will leave the water for periods of time to get rid of parasites, evade warm temperatures (air loses heat faster than water), and perhaps seasonally after breeding depending on the region.

They will also leave the water areas in captive situations if the water is flowing rapidly; they like still water.

Essentially just follow advice given in the species section of this site for housing and it should be fine.

Or, you could return it to the wild? They do make great pets when kept properly (easy to do).

Good luck.

Thanks so much for the info! I think we're going to hold onto him--I've grown quite attached over the last few weeks, and it took quite an effort to get him to eat initially in captivity, but now he's chowing down regularly and frequently wanders the enclosure rather than hiding. I think I'll switch the tank over to a river's edge type setup, with some 4-5" deep water at one end and the leaf litter environment on the other side. No risk of him drowning because he's still an eft, right? Seems that would be a terribly ironic way for an amphibian to go...

I've had Eastern newts that I cared for through these phases. I was so nervous at first, how will I know when they're ready...but you've got the right idea, give it a choice and then let it tell you by its actions where it wants to be, and you can change the tank accordingly. I did this for a while, and then I got less worried about it until finally I had an eft that was at least 1 1/2 years old, it was getting SO FAT from eating (I fed them blackworms in shallow dishes and it would just wallow in there and pig out) that I decided he needed more exercise, so one day I picked him up by his tail, told him, "You pig, you need to become aquatic and get some exercise!" I dropped him in the 90% water tank and he did fine, and indeed is still with me (and aquatic) two years later.

Thanks for the advice! What you're saying reminds me of how we were with Squirrel, our bearded dragon, when we first adopted him. He'd run around the tank for a few days, then retreat into his shelter for two or more days at a time, and eat far less. Each of the first few times he did this, I would panic and start looking up 'lack of appetite' in beardies, etc. After a while, I realized that he must've naturally preferred shade some days and sun others. Now, he acts weird from time to time, and I've stopped panicking about it. Ditto for the first time our snake shed.

I think the fat newt syndrome might be affecting Mikey just like your little guy. He does have to chase down the flightless fruit flies (Nature's cruelest joke ever???) a bit, but they definitely seem to be going straight to his hips

If you're looking for something to freak out about, wait until the first time your aquatic newt sheds and you catch him eating his skin. If you handle it like me, you'll think their cannibals and freak out, call your boyfriend and tell him he never told you they ate each other, you're going to be sick, and you don't think you want newts after all. Then you'll get set straight, draw the hugest sigh of relief, and hit the chocolate.:frog:
I never knew we had all these smilies!!

I think I might want to get some blackworms to vary Mikey's diet too. Do you get them locally at a pet store or online? I'm in podunk, so I'm fairly certain it'll have to be online for me...:blob: And yes, I hadn't noticed all those extra smilies under the 'More' button til just now.

Eastern newt eft second metamorphosis?

I don't know their availability in the States, but you may like to try springtails for your eft. I use the white seira species as the staple diet for my three red efts, along with fruit flies twice a week and live bloodworms once a week. If there's a choice, they'll go for the springtails first.

My efts were rather dull coloured to start, but are now a much more vivid red/orange.

Barry

vhauri said:

I think I might want to get some blackworms to vary Mikey's diet too. Do you get them locally at a pet store or online? I'm in podunk, so I'm fairly certain it'll have to be online for me...

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Mail order of blackworms for one newt wouldn't really make sense; the minimum order is a half pound, which is quite a lot. Check you local tropical fish shops though, sometimes even Podunksville has a place with blackworms.

I would recommend training the eft to handfeed from a toothpick or tweezers. Then you can feed it all sorts of food, the best being pieces of earthworm.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing them a disservice by hand feeding them with tweezers...for example, I have a Taricha that I hand feed. If there is a worm thrashing by its head, it'll ignore it, it'll only take it if I have it in tweezers poking it against its mouth. It's like it can't find food on its own, only if I help it.

I actually tried feeding Mikey with tweezers using pieces of earthworm, etc. He didn't seem to show any interest in anything until I dropped in half a dozen fruit flies one day, which he chased down and gobbled up inside a minute. I think I'd prefer that he have to chase his food down, but is there a good reason to feed by hand if they'll chase their prey? I've always avoided it with my other critters, but they're big reptiles and would hurt a lot more (or at all) if they bit me.

Offhand, the advantages of hand-feeding are (1) you can feed non-live food, such as frozen bloodworms, and (2) earthworms are a very good food for them, but it's tough to find whole ones small enough. If you are happy with using fruit flies though, those are fine, just be sure to dust them with a calcium powder.

Yup, the fruit flies have been the only thing Mikey'll eat--including little bits of still-moving earthworm. I didn't realize I should be dusting with the calcium, though, so I'll start doing that. I might get some bloodworms either way, since I just got a 70 gallon tank from some relatives, and whatever will be going in there (and something will, soon) could probably eat a good quantity of worms. Whatever I don't feed fresh can make a good frozen treat for my fish too...