still wont eat

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aimee
getting a bit worried about my smooth newt now. hes been in his tank 2 days now and still wont eat. he just sits on the gravel out of the water.
 
What foods are you offering? What temperature is the tank?
 
Try the small worms you can get from a Gardening or Bait shop (glances at empty worm container) since we had some success with Panfish/Trout worms and small baby crickets on recalcitrant newts. For the smaller ones, my fiance actually cuts them up with scissors (I refuse!) and they will happily eat the ... still wiggling ... legs and worm chunks.

I also used frozen bloodworms for a while and none of the aquatic newts refused them ... but the terrestrial ones weren't too interested.

My family would kill me if I kept live bloodworms or waxworms or blackworms somewhere in the house.
 
well hes a smooth newt, and i fed him live bloodworm a few days ago, most are dead now, but theres still a couple wrigling in his food bowl in the water. tank feels quite cold, not sure the exact temperatue, but hes in my room which is always freezing cold. he hasnt gone into the wter in a couple of days so i dont think he knows theyre there. anything i can feed him on land that wont sink into the gravek? and that doesnt involve me chopping up live worms.. feeding him whole ones are bad enough! also, is my tank set up right for a smooth newt? i have half land half water with a hollow rock to hide under on the land part. is 2 inches of water enough?
 
Hello Aimee, it may just take some time for the newt to get used to its new home. Sounds like you just got it 2 days ago. 2 inches of water seems a bit low to me. Did you dechorinate the water first? What are your readings for the water (ammonia, ph, ect)? Try reading the care sheets to find out more. Good luck!
 
i had a lok at the care sheets, but couldnt find anything on smooth newts which i assume it is. im gonna clean the tank out tomorow and dechlorinate the water and make it deeper, im hoping this wont stress him out even more.
 
If he stays out of the water, try feeding him very small crickets.

The water should be deep enough (and full of plants) so that he feels sheltered there. As I recall, you originally found the newt out of water, so it may be that he's not interested in water at this time of his life.
 
yeh i found him in my garage, could of been heading from my garden as ive found a few before because theres a sort of pond in it. i only kept this one as he was really ill. anyway, i came home tonight to find him in the water, he noticed me straight away and came up to the glass to look at me im assuming this means hes getting used to me at last. also, i think some of the worms id put in that had died yesterday have disappeared, im guessing hes finally eaten them. hopefully tomorrows tank cleaning wont stress him out too much. really happy hes eaten something. thanks for everyones advice :)
 
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