Feeding CFBNs

[samuel]

Hi all,

Figured this would be a great help to all novice CFBN (chinese fire bellied newts or cynops orientalis http://www.caudata.org/caudatecentral/caresheets/C_orientalis.html) keepers (includes me). (All the info prior to this sentence is for the benefit of novice keepers).

Ok, the question is : How do u feed CFBNs of for that matter, any other newts? Pls list me ur favourite ways.

For me, i am currently using a stick which is used to 'hold' beef strips and also used to give false life to defrosted bloodworms to attract the newts' attention. The draw back here is that the stick has to be pointed to perform it's function and that i fear may injure the newts during their feeding frenzy....savages

....

Thanx for any suggestions.
Sam

 

[mark]

When i kept fire-bellies i simply put the food in the tank with them and i used live/frozen bloodworms.

 

[samuel]

Mark, how much uneaten food do u have after yer newts r done?

 

[mark]

Well i dont have cynops anymore but when i had them (3) they ate most if not all of the worms, so really not much uneaten food.
Hope this helps.

 

[chris]

Following marks steps seems easy enough....if my cynops would go into the water to get the food! And I have an african dwarf frog in this tank so what ever they miss the frog will get! But I cant get mine of the driftwood into the water! Ive had them for three days, and they havent eatin or entered the water. Im getting very worried. DO you guys have any help?

 

[jesper]

Do not keep frogs together with newts sooner or later they will attack, the frogs are usually more aggressive even though they are smaller(hymenochirus spp)

 

[samuel]

If i throw a cube in, they'll get into a frenzy, bite each other and then they start eating. i have ALOT of left over worms if i feed em this way. which means that after each feeding, i have to suck up the worms using a hose and this quite stresses the newts plus i'm changing water at the same time so the water chemistry will not be balanced... any suggestions?

Btw, Chris, dun keep the frogs with the newts, reasons similar to Jesper's.

Sam

 

[ryan]

I used to have 2 CFBNs. I fed them quite like Samuel, using a stick or chopsticks to wriggle frozen worms to make them look alive. After feeding time, I'd leave a couple of worms lying in the tank, and the newts would eat them too coz they're used to the scent. After about 2 to 3 weeks they got used to worms lying around and I never really needed to wriggle the worms anymore.
Hope this helps!

 

[samuel]

My newt dun eat becuz they can't smell the worms, it's just that they've had their fill. I'm thinking of only feeding 1/3 of a cube per feeding. That should help but i'm sure the newts would have quite a few left overs hiding away at corners and hence fouling up the water. That prob can't be resolved unless a suction hose is used but i dun wanna use that everythime.

Sam

 

[paul]

If mine are in the water then I just put some thawed blood worms in and they gobble them up. they scavenge afterwards for any leftovers on the bottom. they bite at each other a lot when feeding and try to steal each others food. I've even had to separate a few fights!

If there are 1 or 2 on the log then i feed them with tweezers and wiggle them a little to encourage them.

 

[samuel]

I'm now using chopsticks to feed my newts. Haha, kinda funny, Chinese firebellies eating with chopsticks

. It's cheaper than tweezers, safer cuz it's not sharp and longer than tweezers i can find here. But it does req a certain level of skill though..

Sam

 

[janice]

I've been adjusting my CFBN to eating frozen bloodworms; he was used to eating live blackworms, so I was worried about whether he would eat something that wasn't moving. But after a couple of weeks, he's adjusted pretty well. I thaw them first, so I can feed him with a pipette. I also put them in a dish, so that I can tell if he's eaten, and to keep the uneaten ones together for easy cleanup. But he's gotten very fond of them; last night he came up and nuzzled the pipette tip, and as i squirted them out he slurped them up!

 

[samuel]

Janice, how do u feed em using a bowl?

 

[janice]

I put a really small glass bowl (washed and rinsed very well) in the tank, and squirt the thawed bloodworms into the bowl. The bowl I have has a capacity of about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) and is pretty shallow. I do have it in the water; when my guy is out of the water, I haven't gotten him to eat without nudging him into the water. It is possible some of the bloodworms get pushed out of the bowl onto the gravel beside the bowl, but I don't think this happens much. Bowl feeding also keeps him from eating too much gravel!

 

[samuel]

Icic, thanx Janice tt's a good idea.

 

[han]

I mounted a "feeding-canal" to the bottom-screen just behind the front-screen: two upright inch-high/tanklength glass-strips making a two inch wide, substrate-free canal. Tankoutlet/filterinlet starts in this canal, so i just close the outlet-valve, drop the live food-items (worms)in the canal, where they can't get out, watch the newts feeding. When finished i open the valve and after a while the leftovers (if any) are washed away by the filtration-current. A marked feeding-spot like this is also fast and easy to clean by hoovering.

 

[samuel]

Whoa... Very clever Han but works only for big tanks i suppose?