Wild eastern newts wont eat

My daughter came back from the weekend with her father in upstate NY. She returned with 4 ( what seems to me by my research online) eastern newts, red spotted ones. Her father purchased a small glass tank and bedding which is a combination of moss and this weird dirt that was dry and we had to soak it to activate it into mud. They have a container of water to swim in and rocks to crawl into and out of the water. The guy at the pet store originally sold him crickets to feed them. They did not eat them. These guys were caught August 30th and today is Sept 3 and have not eaten since she caught them. I tried putting a worm in there, I believe hes still crawling around in there. I went to the pet store yesterday where they sold me tiny feeding fish, but still, they wont eat. Can any one give me some suggestions on what to feed these little guys, I dont want them to die. They seem to be active, especially when in the sunlight. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Danielle

When I have newts that won't eat (and I've been in your exact situation, same species), I get blackworms at the pet store, which they usually love, and if they really won't eat, I'll put them in a jar of them (like they are part of a blackworm soup) for a few minutes (maybe ten) every day until they start eating. They usually find it irresistable and give in.

Are your eastern newts adults, or juvenile efts? Adults are mostly aquatic, while efts are completely terrestrial. Could you post pictures of your setup?

As above: try differnt foods such as chopped earthworms, bloodworms, blackworms or tubifex


also i could be the stress of capture and captivity. It's not unheard of wild caught newts becoming stressed and not eating then sick then simply dying.

finally check all of the temperatures humidity levels and set-up is correct eastern newts are complicated due to there massive lifestyle/requirement changes throughout there lives

OK. I bought blackworms, which are gross by the way, and have been putting a few in their water source. I cant tell if they are eating them, because they are so small. Any suggestions on a better way of feeding them. I tried taking them all out and putting them in a shallow dish of water with the worms in them but they didnt care just wanted out of the dish. I have one very active guy who is constantly walking around and in and out of the water. The other three stay together on top of each other burried under moss. I live on Long Island so its around 80 during the day lately so I brign them outside and they are very active when outside, they all come out and walk around and go in and out of the water. My apt is air conditioned so at night I put them in my garage. One of the calm guys is either bloated or fat. I dont know how to tell if they are adults or efts. They all seem to be around the same size of about 3 inches. I will take some pics of them and their tank and see if I can post them. Thank you for all your help.

If they are terrestrial you can put the worms in a shallow bowl and they will go in and gorge themselves.

I recommend termites for any wild-caught, small, terrestrial salamander for a number of different reasons: (1) they are food that wild-caught salamanders will already have experience with; (2) they are slow-moving, soft, white (so they stand out on the background), and are easy to catch; (3) they're free and abundant.

You can find them anywhere there are rotting/decaying logs. You might have to look a bit for a log that actually contains a colony, then simply break off a piece and take it home in a plastic bag. If you keep breaking up the wood, you can shake the termites out into a bowl and separate out the wood pieces. Also, as a bonus, you can usually find small earthworms under the same logs.

My Notophthalmus efts love them, and they're very picky eaters.

DJV2005 said:

OK. I bought blackworms, which are gross by the way, and have been putting a few in their water source. I cant tell if they are eating them, because they are so small. Any suggestions on a better way of feeding them. I tried taking them all out and putting them in a shallow dish of water with the worms in them but they didnt care just wanted out of the dish. I have one very active guy who is constantly walking around and in and out of the water. The other three stay together on top of each other burried under moss. I live on Long Island so its around 80 during the day lately so I brign them outside and they are very active when outside, they all come out and walk around and go in and out of the water. My apt is air conditioned so at night I put them in my garage. One of the calm guys is either bloated or fat. I dont know how to tell if they are adults or efts. They all seem to be around the same size of about 3 inches. I will take some pics of them and their tank and see if I can post them. Thank you for all your help.

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I have been involved in Eastern Newt care since I was old enough to actually catch them(5 years approx.). If I were you I'd remove the moss and contain them all in an "empty" set-up. What I mean is you should house them in a bare bottom tank with about 1.5 to 2 inches of good spring water. Offer them dried baby shrimp and flightless fruit flies. I've also had success with Reptomin food sticks, but only after the newts have accepted dried shrimp(which is non-living prey). Most wild-caught animals don't understand non-living prey and see it as non-edible. However when housed in water, as mentioned, the SCENT of the food should interst them. The flightless fruit flies are an absolute "go to" in my opinion...ALL my specimens consume them very eagerly! If you'd like additional info I am a store house for this species in particular.

jbherpin said:

I have been involved in Eastern Newt care since I was old enough to actually catch them(5 years approx.). If I were you I'd remove the moss and contain them all in an "empty" set-up. What I mean is you should house them in a bare bottom tank with about 1.5 to 2 inches of good spring water. Offer them dried baby shrimp and flightless fruit flies. I've also had success with Reptomin food sticks, but only after the newts have accepted dried shrimp(which is non-living prey). Most wild-caught animals don't understand non-living prey and see it as non-edible. However when housed in water, as mentioned, the SCENT of the food should interst them. The flightless fruit flies are an absolute "go to" in my opinion...ALL my specimens consume them very eagerly! If you'd like additional info I am a store house for this species in particular.

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It should be stressed that the newts shouldn't be forced to go aquatic unless they have reached adulthood. Efts will likely drown if forced to live that lifestyle.

If they are in fact adults they should easily be kept semi-aquatic. A small area of land should be provided for them to haul out on when they need to rest. Mine normally can't resist frozen/thawed bloodworms which you can find at most pet stores. They'll also pretty readily feed on blackworms in the tank too, but if you use blackworms it's best not to use any sort of substrate because they'll burrow to the bottom and may be ignored by the newts.

I have two Eastern Newts, both of which were obtained from the wild @ the end of July. I keep them with 2 Two-lined Sals in a ten gal set-up. The first foods my newts took were red wigglers(small earthworms) and Brine Shrimp. The Brine shrimp are either available as dried eggs you hatch in partially salt water, or live from better fish dealers. My newts love them and chase them all over the tank floor. They are the basic equivalent to mosquito larva. Another food choice is flightless fruit flies, which mine pick from the surface for hours! Lastly, my Newts are 1 male/1 female-adult; aquatic. These are an ideal addition to a diet consisting of things like blackworms, bloodworms, whiteworms, tubifex worms, small crickets(for more land-active adults and juvs.), Waxworms, reptomin food sticks-if lucky-and also dried baby shrimp and small dried krill. I hope these choices offer you something you can get locally. Good luck!

You should note that dried food is fairly nutritionally void. Live or frozen food is a MUCH better choice.

jbherpin said:

I have two Eastern Newts, both of which were obtained from the wild @ the end of July. I keep them with 2 Two-lined Sals in a ten gal set-up.

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You have both of these species in the same tank? It's not good to mix species http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml

oregon newt said:

You have both of these species in the same tank? It's not good to mix species http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml

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I absolutley agree, and have no problem in saying so, however, these species share habitat. My Eastern Newts come from a lake in the PA mountains where they remain entirely aquatic(unlike some populations). The Two-lined Sals I keep are adult, and far less aquatic than juvs/recent metamorphs. Also, my Two-lined Sals prefer live flightless fruit flies, and take them on land @ their retreat entrance. The juvs of this species will take food prey in water, but even contained by themselves my adults did not feed on anything in water. I offered bloodworms, red-wiggler "tips", Live Brine Shrimp(which larval-juv take eagerly for me), and I've even tried the reptomin "staples"... What I really want to note is that this "mixing" is a formula that has worked for me on many occassions with 0 bad results. If I saw ANY problems I would have seperated the species immediately. They all feed regularly and show no signs of stress. They all carry on as though ignorant of the others around them. At times both Two-lined Sals will be at waters edge picking from the same group of floating fruit flies as the Eastern Newts are under the water! As a final word I do agree mixing species is not a good idea for almost all species.