Reptomin: My Experiences (zoo/home) – What’s Your Opinion?

I was just reading a few of your blogs this week, coincidentally. I've tried feeding a few floating Reptomin pellets to my young Chinese fire-bellied newts, to no avail. I've even left the pellets until they were very soggy, but decided to remove them because no newts would touch them. Do you have any tips?
 
Most of my collection will eat softened reptomin offered by tweezer. A few individuals will turn their nose up at it but generally it's accepted. I really only keep it for occasional use and it probably forms less than 10% of my newts diet. My main concern is that reptomin is formulated for omnivorous turtles and contains a good percentage of plant material. Nutritionally they seem ok though.
 
I use Reptomin a lot- I've used it as a major part of the diet of:
Triturus carnifex, T. karelinii, T. dobrogicus and T. pygmaeus
Ichthyosaura alpestris
Lissotriton helveticus
Cynops pyrrhogaster, C. orientalis
Pachytriton brevipes

I don't wait till it's soggy to use it, just offer it with tweezers a couple of seconds after it goes in the water.

I don't use it for anuran tadpoles, mainly because of the cost.

If it was available as half-size sticks, I'd use it even more...
 
I didn;t use reptomin, but instead used a different brand (cannot for the life of me remember it, but it had a green label) when I was first keeping newts.

My axolotl I fed on axolotl pellets given to me by the lab I adopted him from, and I continued to buy and use these. I bought the green label pellets when I bought my first chinese fire bellied newts and they ate them well and I founf the brand was highly nutritious. I did not remove the pellets after they had gone soggy as I found that within 12 hours the newts ate them all anyway and there was rarely any mess left over.

However, since expanding my collection so dramatically I have come to rely upon frozen bloodworm and worms as they are easier for me to source in bulk than the newt pellets. I also find it easier to transition to frozen bloodworm rather than pellets from the bbs and daphnia I feed my larvae. I have not tried most of my current species on the pellets, but am considering making another search of the internet for a bulk supplier after reading your post. In addition, the variety of sizes of newt pellets seem to be less than I require for the variety of newts I keep (with the exception of axolotl pellets, which appear to be available in a variety of sizes).

Edit: the brand I used was JurassiDiet, just found it online!
 
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Hi all,

Thanks very much for the insightful feedback. I had second thoughts, early on, re the plant content as mentioned by Mark but no problems have materialized after many years of use as described. Those few stomach content studies that are published in Herpetologica, etc. usually show that many newts and salamanders take in a good amount of plant material incidentally to feeding upon their usual prey. Best, Frank
 
Rubes said:
I was just reading a few of your blogs this week, coincidentally. I've tried feeding a few floating Reptomin pellets to my young Chinese fire-bellied newts, to no avail. I've even left the pellets until they were very soggy, but decided to remove them because no newts would touch them. Do you have any tips?
Click to expand...


Hi,

I've never known fire-bellies to refuse them long-term, but it can take time to adjust. Try keeping them hungry for a time, and introduce slowly, perhaps in conjunction with a favorite food, best, Frank
 
I've used Reptomin pellets for many years and have always found them to be well received. I usually just leave them to float on the surface and the axolotls soon learn to swim up and actively seek them out. If anyone finds the sticks too large you can also buy Reptomin for baby turtles which is the same but in half size sticks.

One complaint I do have however is that it seems the sticks do not seem to hold together any more. A while ago once the stick were soft I used to be able to carefully push a bamboo skewer into it and move it to the bottom of the tank without it braking up. I'm not sure whether the formulation has changed recently but now I find the stick just seem to start falling apart and sinking to the bottom after a minute or two in the water. Really unhelpful if an Axolotl is a little slow to find it's meal. Anyone else noticed this?

Regards Neil
 
Glad you mentioned this, Neil, thanks. I have noticed this also, after having used Reptomin since it came out 25-30 yrs ago. It happened a year or so ago, but a batch I bought subsequently held together as usual. Unfortunately, I did not check manufacture dates; I had some contacts at Tetra, I'll try to look into it soon, Best, Frank
 
Neil C said:
you can also buy Reptomin for baby turtles which is the same but in half size sticks.
Click to expand...

I'd love to try this, but have never seen it in the UK- does anyone know of a supplier?
 
I've just had a look at the pot and it's called "Reptomin baby" if that's any help. Alternatively you could always snap the sticks in half.


Regards Neil
 
I have kept and breed turtles for 20+ years now. I used Reptomin as the main food for my turtles for years and supplemented with fish and other meats. A few years back I ordered zoo meds food because the online retailer I buy from was out of Reptomin. To my surprise my egg production doubled with in a few months. Now I rarely use Reptomin. I understand that turtles and amphibians needs would be far different. I am fairly new to working with amphibians but I will have to try a few feeding experiments and see if I get similar results.
 
Does anyone know if taking a few pellets and making a paste out of them and water can be fed with fair results to adult newts?
 
My newts accept these now! It took a couple introductions but they accept them now.
 
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  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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  • Clareclare:
    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
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