Shipping newts with gills?

[Aquaticjade]

I just received my kaiseri newts that cost a pretty penny. They were much smaller than I thought, although weren't listed as adults I wasn't aware that they still had their gills. Now they were shipped in semi-damp sphagnum moss--I would have preferred it to be more moist in the container as their skin was pretty dry. But my main concern is the massive amounts of moss bits stuck to their gills? I'm still relatively new to keeping newts and wasn't sure if it was good practice/safe for newts with gills to be shipped without water, and also to have debris stuck to their gills. 3 look pretty good but one has some pretty faded coloring and didn't look too lively coming out of the container. They were shipped overnight. Thanks everyone!

 

[xxianxx]

Shipping gilled newts in moss is pretty crappy tbh, not a good practice.

 

[Aquaticjade]

Shipping gilled newts in moss is pretty crappy tbh, not a good practice.

3 of them seem to have recovered the shipping but one isn't looking great. It's skin is super pale and doesn't look like it's "slime coat" is healthy. I'm not sure if they are too young to shed their skin, but it's like it's skin has a cloudy fluff all around it like it would look if the skin was going to shed. It's legs and toes are much skinner than the other newts. I'm also can't get them to eat. It's only the 2nd night I have them and they are much more skittish than my danube cresteds, I tried chopped earth worm, newt pellets, and frozen bloodworm. I messaged the breeder to ask what they were getting fed, and also to ask about the sick looking newt since I literally just picked them up from the post office yesterday I know it can't be an issue with my water or setup.

 

[michael]

3 of them seem to have recovered the shipping but one isn't looking great. It's skin is super pale and doesn't look like it's "slime coat" is healthy. I'm not sure if they are too young to shed their skin, but it's like it's skin has a cloudy fluff all around it like it would look if the skin was going to shed. It's legs and toes are much skinner than the other newts. I'm also can't get them to eat. It's only the 2nd night I have them and they are much more skittish than my danube cresteds, I tried chopped earth worm, newt pellets, and frozen bloodworm. I messaged the breeder to ask what they were getting fed, and also to ask about the sick looking newt since I literally just picked them up from the post office yesterday I know it can't be an issue with my water or setup.

At that size they were probably on live blackworms or daphnia. If you can get your hands on some live blackworms they will eat them for sure.

 

[Aquaticjade]

I talked to the seller about some of my concerns and they have been super great with chatting with me back and forth which I appreciate. I'm still relatively new to newt keeping so I'm not sure what's a red flag or not at this point. They were feeding them live blackworms, so if they don't eat frozen bloodworms by monday I will try blackworms. I don't think they were hand fed with tweezers which I am trying to get them on so that may be part of the issue because they are still pretty skittish. Hopefully I can get them to at least take live worms off tweezers at some point but to make sure they get enough food for now I will use a glass dish while they get more comfortable.