another newt not eating

hello everybody,
I'm pretty much brand new to the newt thing. I've had my newt since a little bit before easter. It is an eastern spotted newt. This is the link to the care sheet page... http://caudata.org/cc/species/Notophthalmus/N_viridescens.shtml

Anyways he's the first type at the top within his species on that page. He is an adult, not an eft. Anyways my first newt which i bought 3 days before him died on the second day for no apparent reason. I brought it back to the shop and they gave me this new one for free, and although he is more active than the other one ever was, he has not eaten. He was in the same cage at the pet shop as the original one. I've tried frozen brine shrimp, newt pellets, frozen blood worms, live meal worms that were too big, and now I'm trying to get him to eat really tiny meal worms, but he just doesnt show interest in anything. My local pet sop doesnt have any other type of live worms. He has gone into the water maybe once a week and only manages to float on the surface, and his face and legs look like they have gas bubbles hanging off of them. I don't know if its gas bubble disease, because I don't see the bubbles when he's on land. He is getting terribly thin, too, although it does not seem to be too late yet. He also seems to have little lumps sticking out on his body near his back legs. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Try very small worms, like white or black worms (you can order these online). You can even dig worms up in your garden (as long as you do not use any chemicals like fertilizers or pesticides) and cut them up very small and offer them on the end of a toothpick.Your newt is most likely to eat small live prey, and though the mealworms are live they have a tough exoskeleton and may not be very palatable to an anorexic newt. And the bubbles you see on your newt when it enters the water are simply trapped air clinging to the newts body. My newts get this, too, if they have been out of the water for a time and then re-enter the water.
You probably already know this, but also keep temperatures low - below 70F if you can and no higher than 72F. Heat will stress you animal making it less likely to eat, and will also increase its metabolism so it burns what little body fat it has left even faster.

ok i guess that I will go digging sometime tomorrow. The heat was a little bit high, about 74 for the past weeks because I had a HOB filter running while the tank cycled, but I jsut took it out and have a DIY screen top and an airstone so the temp is about 70 now. Thanks for the reply. This has just really been freaking me out since its been four or five weeks now.

well now im getting really worried. I tried the earth worms. wouldnt not eat them. I caught little ones right outside my house and he wouldnt eat them, and just runs away from me when I put the food in front of him. I dont know what to do now.

This is very typical of wild caught newts bought from pet shops. Some don’t adjust to captivity and are kept in inappropriate conditions before they’re sold. Can you imagine the stress the animal is experiencing? Failure to feed is a common sign of stress and as the animal gets weaker it becomes more prone to sickness and sick animals refuse food; it’s a vicious circle.

You best options are:

• Keep the animal cool. Normally room temperatures are at the top end of their range. See the cooling page for ideas.
• Place the animal in a clinical set-up. This should be small (plastic tub with ventilated lid), lined with damp, unbleached paper towels or topsoil and provide plenty of hiding spots i.e. cork hides or leaves. The small size is important because it provides easy access to prey items.
• Keep the animal in a quiet area of the house to minimise disturbance.
• Feed appropriate food. What would this newt eat in the wild? Certainly not frozen food, pellets or mealworms. Get out in the garden and collect tiny slugs, small woodlice, beetles, earthworms, spring-tails, grubs, spiders. They need to be no larger than the distance between the newts eyes. Chop small earthworms and place them in the tub in the evening & removed uneaten pieces in the morning. There are a number of small foods available commercially - fruit flies, small crickets, lesser waxmoth larvae. If a local pet store doesn’t stock them buy them online.

This sounds like a lot of work but once your newt is healthy you can start offering it easier alternatives such as bloodworms. Sick or stressed newts have a tendency to become hydrophobic and their skin becomes drier; this is probably the reason for the floating and air bubbles. When the newt is healthier it will return to the water and life will become much easier.

Good luck.

Yes! Your instructions worked. I kept him in a small container in the cabinet under one of my fish tanks with wet paper towels moist from his tank water, and then I jsut went out and caught a small earthworm and he ate a piece of its head that I cut off.

ok so now that he ate when should I feed him next?

As long as he's thin, feed every day.

That’s good news. Just keep offering small food items each day. If its taking small earthworms I’d be inclined to continue with these as they’re very nutritious – just make sure the pieces still wriggle to get it’s attention.

The paper towels should be damp but not dripping wet. Don’t forget to change them regularly.

Lets hope the success continues!

Ok I fed him a second time earlier. I haven't the heart to kill a new worm every day so I'll refrigerate the one whose head I cut off today and use him to see if the newt still takes him. Obviously if he doesnt I'll catch another one. I moved him back into his regular tank yesterday and he ate again today so I think the situation is under control, so long as no further complications arise. I'm jsut relieved that the worse is over. thanks so much for your help mark!

well he jsut died today. I don't knwo what happenned. I'd been feeding him small pieces of worm every other day and today I found him on his back and thoguht he was dead but he was still responding to prodding. It seemed liked his arms were broken almost because they were at a weird angle to his back but thats the only weird thing about it. thanks for your help.
Dan