elleseajay
New member
Hiya,
I've had alpine newts for a little over a year. There's 4 newts in the tank. 1 definite female, 1 supposed female & supposed male, and a guy. They are fed a mix of frozen (thawed) bloodworm & brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, and a newt pellet food. They are all healthy looking, happy newts. But unfortunately one of my newts has been losing weight. Too much weight even, that I feel like he is reaching dangerously skinny territories. He is however, still very active. Not lethargic at all, perhaps my most active newt out of the 4. He looks good besides his weight; no skin issues, injuries or anything.
I've tried giving different foods to see if that would get him to eat more. But as the rest of my newts are more likely overweight than underweight; I'm trying to juggle a balance! In doing so I tried feeding him with tongs, but he doesn't like that. Then I tried putting him in a separate container with food (so he doesn't have to compete with the others). So far no luck. I think its because being in the separate container is too stressful for him. And thus I've resorted to feeding in the tank and just accepting that my other might gain some more weight. But in this was it's harder to keep an eye on his intake.
Now, the little fella is almost 4 years old at this point. I am relatively new to newt-keeping but I am contemplating if its perhaps hormones etc that is causing this decline? The tank is a little warmer than usual (thanks to the heatwaves). The only reason I could think of is heat stress? Its 74-76 F at times at the moment, but I'll cool it down with frozen bottles. I know thats too warm, but with lack of a coolingsystem, frozen bottles is best I can do. This hasn't been an issue last summer, but I fear this is what is causing him to stop eating? It's strange tho, looking at my other newts and tank inhabitants: he is the odd one out.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
I've had alpine newts for a little over a year. There's 4 newts in the tank. 1 definite female, 1 supposed female & supposed male, and a guy. They are fed a mix of frozen (thawed) bloodworm & brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, and a newt pellet food. They are all healthy looking, happy newts. But unfortunately one of my newts has been losing weight. Too much weight even, that I feel like he is reaching dangerously skinny territories. He is however, still very active. Not lethargic at all, perhaps my most active newt out of the 4. He looks good besides his weight; no skin issues, injuries or anything.
I've tried giving different foods to see if that would get him to eat more. But as the rest of my newts are more likely overweight than underweight; I'm trying to juggle a balance! In doing so I tried feeding him with tongs, but he doesn't like that. Then I tried putting him in a separate container with food (so he doesn't have to compete with the others). So far no luck. I think its because being in the separate container is too stressful for him. And thus I've resorted to feeding in the tank and just accepting that my other might gain some more weight. But in this was it's harder to keep an eye on his intake.
Now, the little fella is almost 4 years old at this point. I am relatively new to newt-keeping but I am contemplating if its perhaps hormones etc that is causing this decline? The tank is a little warmer than usual (thanks to the heatwaves). The only reason I could think of is heat stress? Its 74-76 F at times at the moment, but I'll cool it down with frozen bottles. I know thats too warm, but with lack of a coolingsystem, frozen bottles is best I can do. This hasn't been an issue last summer, but I fear this is what is causing him to stop eating? It's strange tho, looking at my other newts and tank inhabitants: he is the odd one out.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
