Eastern Red Spotted newt help

You might try putting him in a smaller container with lots of small, live worms for a little while each time you feed him. I had a newt that was very shy and wouldn't eat with the other newt in the tank for the first few months that I had him. He also wouldn't eat food that wasn't moving. I started taking him out and putting him in a small plastic container with about 1/2 inch of water and lots of bloodworms for about 30 minutes every couple days. That did the trick--he ate every time and fattened up quite nicely. As he grew a little, he became less shy and after about a couple months began eating happily with the other newt.

This is an old post but I noticed there are a lot of red eft or red spotted eastern newt owners talking on here and if any of them have any tips or advice I would appreciate it because I am a new slightly clueless owner of a red eft.

If its a red eft it may just not be ready to move to water. You can force it all you want and it's not going to happen until it's ready. You are just going to stress it out and kill it. I feed mine on a couple layers of wet paper towls. I feed small clumps of black worms, chopped earth worms, 2 week old crickets, fruit flies and isopods. I place the efts and the food in a plastic shoe box. Place the cover on top and forget about it for an hour. So they can eat in peace.

He is new to his tank and to me and I rescued him from the wild so he is very scittish of me and I think I would stress him out too much if I took him out to feed him.
Is it fine to just feed him in his tank? When I get home today I was going to try to put some blackworms in there for him if I can find any in town. Can I just set them on a rock or something?
I've been trying chopped earthworms with tweezers, no luck yet. A few escaped are they fine to be crawling around in his tank soil somewhere?

Rescued him from the wild? Under what circumstances would he have to be rescued? If he doesn't want to go into the water then provide him with a fully terrestrial tank with live plants and leaves. My little guys absolutely love it and are active most times of the day. I feed them a mix of isopods, earthworms, and the occasional dish of bloodworms. They're all doing well and have large tummies, so I think I found the key to keeping mine healthy.

He was just a tiny little guy and he was trapped in my pool unable to get out and sick and weak from the chemicals. Thanks for the advice though, I just found a bunch of small isopods and put them in his tank with him, so hopefully he finds them. I'm trying to find a could place to buy live blood worms right now. He has a large dish in the corner with some water and aquatic plants in it and also lots of soil and moss for him to be in.

From the pictures you posted in your album, it looks like an adult newt and not an eft. I think what the other poster was saying is that the best course of action would have been to take him out of the pool and just release him. He would probably have been fine.

slowfoot said:

From the pictures you posted in your album, it looks like an adult newt and not an eft. I think what the other poster was saying is that the best course of action would have been to take him out of the pool and just release him. He would probably have been fine.

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the only way to know if he's aquatic or terrrestrial is to put him in water and see if he swims wildly and stays on the top (trying yo get out) then you know he's terrestrial, however if he falls to the bottom and stays underwater he's aquatic.

The juvies (efts) hate the water.

reptile said:

the only way to know if he's aquatic or terrrestrial is to put him in water and see if he swims wildly and stays on the top (trying yo get out) then you know he's terrestrial, however if he falls to the bottom and stays underwater he's aquatic.

The juvies (efts) hate the water.

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Adults can be terrestrial too during certain times of the year and depending on conditions. The coloration is that of an adult and not an eft. Also, the body shape is very adult.

slowfoot said:

Adults can be terrestrial too during certain times of the year and depending on conditions. The coloration is that of an adult and not an eft. Also, the body shape is very adult.

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while they can be terrestrial they wont refuse water like the juvies do. juvies go wild when in water,

BTW can you elaborate on the adult body shape, i have read about changes in body shape but dont know much about them. all info i can get is helpful, thanks

It's quite easy to tell the difference between an adult and a juvenile without stressing it out by throwing it in water. Sometimes the efts don't go wild in the water, but just float there so its rather inaccurate way of testing the newts. Colouration is the most important factor. Any red or orange on them besides the tiny spots on an adult mean its an eft and is not ready to morph. Sorry for being rather brash earlier about rescuing him. I dislike when people account for taking animals from the wild as rescuing them. They can do well in the wild without needing to be rescued. However, I don't condone wild collection. The adults won't have as rough of skin, smoother and are olive colored, usually having a large flattened tail rather. Adults also are much larger than efts which are usually tiny things.