Cynops Orientalis garden feeding?

[rew111]

Hi guys. I'm looking for a bit of advice on feeding my cynops orientalis fresh beasties from the garden. At the moment i'm feeding frozen bloodworms, but i'm looking to start using fresher foods - mainly from my garden. Is there anyone who feeds their fire bellieds stuff from the garden regularly? My garden is pesticide and herbicide etc. free. Do they have particular favourites, and how would i prepare it? My newt's a small young adult and spends about 50/50 time on land and in water. I'm abundant in slugs in my garden, so that would be ideal, but they're pretty big. Is there a way to quickly humanely kill slugs so i could cut them up a bit?
Any advice is appreciated. I know there's probably already a thread on this, i did have a look and couldn't see any as specific as i'm hoping for but if you can find one please link me to it. Thanks.

 

[Azhael]

Earthworms! They are the best staple and if you can collect them from your safe garden, you are a very lucky newt keeper.
You could also feed it small slugs (if you look under rocks or logs you might find baby slugs), woodlice, springtails, gnats, aphids...
Also, if you have the space and the will, you could make an outdoor container filled with water which would atract other interesting potential morcels (midges and mosquitoes, mayflies..) or you could culture some (gammarids, Asellus, Daphnia...).
Bloodworms are a bad staple so start using earthworms right away. You can still occasionally offer bloodworms if you like, but you have access to better alternatives.

Have you read the caresheet and the CC articles (if you haven´t, check my signature)? Your newt could be somewhat terrestrial because of the terrible ordeal it has gone through at the shop and during the importation process, but it could also be that your current housing is not ideal. Make sure that it is and that you are offering optimal conditions for it to recover and adapt and go fully aquatic.

 

[rew111]

Thanks for the reply Azhael.
I have read the care sheet, along with many others and did a lot of research before purchasing. My tank conditions are all good, so i'm trying to encourage her to become more aquatic by making her land areas semi-submerged in water, (bark floating islands and other land areas very close to water level.) The shop conditions seemed surprisingly good and they had had them in the shop for several months. I've read that you can get the occasional newt which is just a lot more terrestrial for no specific reason, but i am doing my best to discourage this as i'm aware of the issues surrounding this.
I don't know if i'll get many earthworms due to competition from the birds that are forever congregating in my garden, but i'll be sure to have a good dig around. :grin:

 

[JoshBA]

If you are to feed slugs, be aware that when they are chopped they often do smell pretty nasty (just in my experience anyway). So I'm assuming a chopped slug probably wouldn't taste too good for the newt either. But then again, newts can be trained to accept red wigglers (which smell when chopped) chopped up despite the smell.
A good way to provide a bug/worm harvesting area is to lay out some boards/logs/rocks where the bugs will seek refuge. Just don't use treated wood when doing so.

 

[stanleyc]

My C. orientalis despise slugs, my C. cyanurus take interest once in a while but rarely go through with eating them. They both love earthworms though. I try to collect some for them at least once a week.

 

[bichogrilo]

My firebellies love aphids (they are probably like lollies), and small green caterpillars. They haven't been interested in repelled critters like beetles and slaters. Small worms are prized.

 

[AeonMapa]

EARTHWORMS! Not only are they a terrific staple food for your newts, the benefits of keeping a colony of earthworms are countless.

To start your own small colony of earthworms, find a plastic or wooden container, fill it about 3/4 with garden soil. Add about 10-20 earthworms. Keep this container in a cool, humid place, covered at all times.

This is a great place to put your food scraps, though you should limit it to bread and wheat products, grains and rice, non-citrus fruits, any vegetables and and seafoods. I don't suggest adding meats to your compost bin. The worms will eat through these and break them down into a soil like substance rich in nutrients.

In a few months your earthworms will begin to multiply like crazy, giving you a renewable source of live food. Also, the soil in the bin (now known as earthworm castings) is a powerful natural fertilizer which you can use on your garden plants. Spare worms can be introduced to the garden as well to improve soil quality.

Also you can cut them in half (make sure to leave at least an inch after the bulging part) and they'll turn into two worms!

Earthworms are awesome

 

[Niels D]

I'm having an earthworm farm myself here, but I still need to catch some in the "wild". Too much newts to feed, and I like to feed often. Since I'm fond of gardening as well I like the fact that I can get rid of slugs and snails (give those to my bluetongued skinks) by feeding them to my animals.

Next to the plants that are pestered by those slimy beasties I place a bowl with a little bit of beer inside. This attracts them, but they drown in it as well. I believe they get overwhelmed by the alcohol, but I've never asked how this snail trap actually works.

When I check the bowl most of them are still crawling towards it though and I can gather them quite easily. The ones that drowned can be washed and fed as well.

I also love feeding my animals isopods. If you put in some carrot shavings and some rotting wood now and then you can have a isopod culture in the salamander it's tank itself. This works especially well in larger setups.

 

[AngieD]

I often dig for worms to feed to my newts, I've found the best method (for me at least) is to slot the spade into the soil, and then tap the handle for a short while, before digging a little bit - the vibrations draw them up to the surface and makes your job a lot easier

 

[Squirt88]

I also do that when I dig for earthworms, they make a great staple for my newts.

 

[Andrew S]

My problem is finding worms small enough!

I've given my newts grasshoppers and crickets from the garden. They have also accepted dead crickets (feeders fighting each other), and I'm considering trying leeches - our kajika frog will accept these from tweezers.