Red-Spotted Newt

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gamergirltasha

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I was recommended here after I posted on another forum with my problem.

I recently found a red-spotted newt, possibly wild, possibly a lost pet. I'm in the Northern New York area, and the newt was found in the middle of a school parking lot, no grass or trees in sight for a fair bit, especially for a newt on such a cold night.

Currently he seems to be in the terrestial stage, not sure how long he's been in that state obviously, but when I got him he was cold, obviously, and sluggish.

I was concerned about him because he didn't seem to want to move or eat. His current housing is in a tank with a damp left covered ground, a shallow water dish with rocks in it in case he gets in and can't get out, several rock piles with pebbles so if he decides to hide or lay on them he can and several broken up twigs.

I placed him in the water recently though because he wasn't moving at all and he was rubbing on the rocks and I found out that he's shedding. I helped him a little bit, just to get his arms free since it was rolling down like a stocking, and he seems a lot more lively now.

I have aquatic turtles so I am fairly prepared for the aquatic form of the newt, but I am at a loss if I am doing right by him for now. His food source is some pinhead crickets. They have their back legs though, and he seems slow, should I attempt to remove their back legs for him, or will he be able to catch them?

I don't have any worms at the moment, just because wild ones are hard to come by at this chill, and my local pet store doesn't have live ones available. Will he eat frozen/thawed ones? Or even ones that come in the can?

Will he eat anything other than live crickets or bugs?
 
If you can get live black worms thoes are good .I keep mine aquatic and thay eat live or frozen but I never had aney luck with frozen foods when thay were terrestial .
good luck
 
Cold is not really a problem for newts. Eastern newts have been observed actively foraging under the ice in ice-covered ponds. I'm wondering if your perception of "sluggish" is really quite normal. They are slow-moving on land, regardless of temperature. I'm betting that this guy was wild, not a lost pet. They can travel quite far.

I had some eastern newts that lived for over 20 years from the time I got them - are you willing to make that kind of commitment? Because if you take him in, you cannot later decide to release him. They become tame, and can pick up germs in captivity, thus should not be released after being kept.

It's not clear from your description whether this guy needs to be kept aquatically, or terrestrially. I would have said that, being found on land, he needs a terrarium. But if he seems at home in water, that may be OK. Ideally, give him a tank where he has a choice of being on land or in water and see how he behaves. And by all means, keep him as cold as possible. Living outdoors and then coming inside is quite a shock.

Check your local phone books for bait shops. Or try Walmart. They usually have worms for fishing. Canadian nightcrawlers are great, but need to be cut into bite-sized pieces. If you can train the newt to feed from a tweezers or toothpick, it will learn to eat non-live food.

Be sure to read the FAQ and articles here:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/faq.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml
 
I didn't figure that cold was a problems for newts seeing as how he was obviously still alive despite the temperature of the night. I'm not a complete stranger to animals, reptiles and amphibians alike.

When I say sluggish, he wasn't really moving at all unless I took him out to hold him then he would lazily crawl around. In the cage he would just curl up and stay in the same place for multiple hours, he wouldn't always react to any stimulation. I know how snakes and turtles and iguanas react to the cold so I wasn't too overly concerned at first. He's been moving and a lot more life like since the skin shed though.

I understand the need to be prepared to take on a pet that needs special care and can live for a long time. I own red eared sliders and sugar gliders, both that have more exotic needs than a common hamster, so that won't be a problem.

From all the information I've read he seems to be in his terrestial state. His skin in a nice bright orange/red color, no signs of green, he was found on the pavement at least five if not more miles from a water source that isn't heavily chlorinated and that won't dry up with a day of sun.

He has a fairly deep water dish though, half populated with rocks in case he does get in and can't get out. As to that though, I was wondering, if he were to get into the water and submerge himself, in this current state, can he still breath underwater? Or am I mistaken that any of his forms will breath in water? Are newts semi aquatic like turtles? I haven't been able to find a diffinitive answer for that.

Thank you for the tip with the tweezers, though I suppose if I can find a yearly supplier of a food he'll eat that is alive and small enough I will stick with that. Since they are slow moving lizards I take it that for now, until I can get something better at the store, that I should remove the back legs of the pinhead crickets?
 
In my experience with red efts, I had the best success by keeping them in springtail cultures. Springtails are tiny wingless insects that live in the soil and are commonly used by dart frog keepers. They can eat large quantities of springtails, so I'd buy two cultures; one to put in his cage in the soil (not in a container, dump them out) and the other to keep for when he exhausts the springtails in the cage. He may also eat small fruit flies, which will need to be dusted for calcium. If you can get him to eat worms, these would be a better food item than the flies, but I'd definately recommend springtails in addition to or in place of what you settle on as a food.

N. viridescens can stay as efts for many years before going to an aquatic phase, where they then live entirely in the water. In this stage, they won't breathe the water, but will rely on their lungs and oxygen obtained through the skin. There are subspecies that are known to be neotenes, where they skip the eft stage and retain their gills, but they don't really breathe water in the literal sense, and obviously this isn't the case with your terrestrial animal. If it is accepting the water, then it may be transitioning to an aquatic adult, though odds are this isn't the case. In my experience, red efts are prone to drowning.

More information can be obtained on this caresheet:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Notophthalmus/N_viridescens.shtml
 
Since his skin is orange/red, this is a terrestrial juvenile (eft). S/he definitely needs a terrarium, not a semi-aquatic setup. As an adult, s/he will be semi-aquatic, but not at this point.

From your experience with reptiles I'm sure you know this, but crickets and fruit flies are calcium-poor. If you rely on them as a regular food, they need to be dusted with a good calcium/vitamin powder. If they are small enough, it should not be necessary to remove the back legs. Springtails are an excellent suggestion, particularly if this eft is on the small side for the crickets you have available.
 
Yes, I actually do have calcium powder, I haven't dusted the ones he has been currently just because I don't know if he'd take anything with the powder on it. I'm just trying to get the little guy to eat. Tomorrow I will be making a trip to the pet shop and I will see if I can find springtails or if they know where I can get some locally. If I can't find them I will try and get some worms.
 
worms are a very good food sorce if you can get the right sized ones for the animals :talker: i have that trouble lol when i need big i find small and when i need big i find small worms :D
 
I don't think you'll find springtails locally. It's really a specialty item. There are lots of places online where you can order a starter culture, or if you post a wanted on this forum someone may be willing to mail you some to get started.

You may have better luck finding fruit flies locally. Some pet shops sell them. They are smaller than crickets, and probably about the right size for the eft.
 
Now I don't know anything about either Springtails or flightless fruitflies honestly. I've never used them as feeders before. Do they need a calcium dusting as well or no?

I know the local Petco has the fruitflies.
 
If your newt is becoming aquatic, maybe I can help. I have 2 eastern newts. They wouldn't eat pin-head crickets or newt pellets, so I finally left some de-frosted bloodworms in the tank. They love them and wont eat anything else.
 
Hello there, glad to see so far the forum has been of help!

On springtails, it may be possible to collect some. You can't really dust springtails. But fruitflies need to be dusted with calcium/vitamins.
 
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