Sick T. gran

[kate]

One of my Taricha granulosa is sick, I think. I've had him for six months and he's been lively, healthy, and "plump"...then I've noticed over the last week he is hanging out in the corner of the habitat, up on land, all the time, barely entering the water (never in front of me, but I do see him wet, so I assume he must be), not moving around much. Today I took him out and saw that he is much skinnier than usual, and the tip of his tail is blunt--it looks as though the very tip has fallen off! Any suggestions?

 

[ali]

Kate, has the newt been eating? How often do you feed it and what type of food?

If the tail looks like an open wound, then you should probably put the newt in a quarantine paper towel setup so that it doesn't get infected. I'm not terribly well versed on treating wounds, so I'll just direct you to the article that's on this site.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/sores.shtml

How many t. grans do you have? (Just curious.)

My t. grans have gone through periods of not eating once in a while. I think this is okay, but be cautions none the less.

 

[kate]

I don't think he's been eating, just because of the weight loss. I feed them HBH Newt & Salamander Bites (I know that live foods or bloodworms are better, but I have a roommate who won't tolerate bugs in the fridge, and they usually eat these with no complaints). They get it once a day, just a couple of pellets each. I feed them in the water, though, so if he isn't going in the water, I'm not sure he's eating. I tried putting some in a little dish of water on the land portion, but neither of the newts would go near that.

I've got two t. grans, Merry and Sam

Though it's a little backwards, because Merry is my tubby one, and Sam (the sick one) is the thinner of the two.

Thanks so much for the quick reply--I'll keep an eye on him, it just worries me. I don't think it can be anything to do with the environment they're in, because Merry is still acting perfectly normal.

 

[ian]

I heard that some t. grans may spend a long time on land (couple months) from time to time. Maybe it is normal for that individual newt. If that is so, I will suggest you to feed it some land-based food. Such as cricket.

 

[ali]

Kate, I don't want to come across as being stern with you at all, so don't take it that way. I think you've got to find a way to provide worms to your newts. If your roommate refused to allow live food, you should have considered other options. Now that you've got the newts, you have to find a way to give them what they need. If they stop eating pellets, you need to try live food. I am guessing that you got your newts from a pet store. This means that they were wild caught, and once had live food. Now, all of a sudden, they don't. If you got them captive bred, they were surely fed live food. Either way, they were not always raised on pellets. Granted, there have been a few on here that have successfully fed newt pellets and it has been "okay". (Define, "okay".)

The best thing I've learned from this forum is that if I want to raise newts either for enjoyment or for breeding purposes so that I too can benefit the hobby (or both, of course) the best thing I can do is provide as much of a natural environment for my newts as possible. Pellets are not natural.

Maybe you could setup a small mini-fridge elsewhere for the worms so that your roommate's food would not be near them? I think that you would find many benefits to live food. They may be more active, they may gain weight better,... I have found that my newts gained and maintained their weight better while on live food.

If you need to feed, but they won't enter the water, try to feed in a small plastic container with a very shallow amount of water.

 

[jeff]

How warm is the water temperature? If the water is too warm they will take to land, and if they take to land their tails will become less paddle-like. They will not eat pellets on land. You must give them living, moving food because they use their eye-sight to hunt when on land.

 

[ian]

Weeks ago, I have seen this t. grans in the petstore. Unfortunately, the temperature of the store got real high and this newt has been the only one left in the tank. It started to stay on the land (floating plateform).

Then I have visted that store for many times later on. And that newt is stll there, no one want to take it home since by now it is extremely skinny. You actually describe it as skin covering the bones. And the store keeper said that ever since that newt started staying on land, it has no eaten anything. And I thought, since I know how to trigger that newt back to water and I know have earthworm readily available for it, I might as well take care of it. So that store keeper agreed to give me the newt in much cheaper value.

So I prepared the tank with gravels and moss from my established newt tank (C.O). And the water level is high enough that the newt would not have a dry ground. I picked up the newt from the store and once put into the tank, it already accepted the worm I gave. And within one night, it started taking into water. I have awared that the temperature in my basement is much cooler than the store. Around 67F.

After a week of worm feeding, the newt gained weight. And by now, after a month, it is strong and healthy.

I hope this personal experience can help you. I think it is very similar to what you are witnessing.

(Message edited by achiinto on July 19, 2006)

 

[joan]

These 'newt bite' pellets are NOT adequate food. If you cannot feed live food, then get appropriate carnivore pellets, not corn-based 'newt bites'.

 

[ester]

Hiya Kate,

a taricha on land moves a lot less than a taricha in the water. I have taricha both in the water and on land too. I know exactly where my land lovers are, one in the coconut hut, the other underneath the rim of a shallow pool. They've been there for over a week and I check on all of them regularly to make sure everything is ok.

On land I feed mine wax worms and earth worms.
Neither are kept in the fridge. I keep my earth worms in a big flower pot filled with soil (coconut fiber). The wax worms are sold in a plastic container. I use a tweezer to hold these in front of them or place em an inch in front of their nose. Especially wax worms are great at tempting a newt to eat. If the wax worms are sold in wood shavings, I replace that with some bran (bran with minerals & vitamins). If the wax worms are sold in a more sticky box filling substance I only add a bit of 100% beeswax candle but put it in a larger plastic container (sealed).

In the water I feed them frozen blood worm cubes.
Frozen blood worms are sealed in plastic. Usually 20 cubes per sheet. I just cut off the number of blocks I need, leaving the package looking neatly in a plastic bag in the freezer. When I had just 2 taricha, I fed them 1 cube twice a week.

 

[tyler]

A lil bit ago I noticed signs of sickness in my taricha. I came back from a little two day vacation to see her on the land portion very unactive. She didn't even run away when I nudged her with my finger. I though she was dead. I looked at the water and saw how suprisingly dirty it got. I've been doing daily water changes and she seems to be coming around. She still stays on land mostly because of a heat factor. My tank's temp on average stays around 69*F-70*F. I'm making ice cubes out of my conditioned tap water today. Back to the whole live food subject... I fed her a clipping of a nightcrawler today and she was the most active I've seen her in 3 days. I've got a few questions of my own but I'll just open up another topic so I don't steal Kate's attention.

 

[ian]

Sure. let's talk more on another thread. But just to mention that I dont think 69 - 70*F is real hot.