Tofu!

[shannon]

I tired a little experiment the other day ... I offered my newt a small slice of cold tofu - and he loved it! He snapped at it much faster than with any other new food I've tried with him. (He also eats frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, frozen squid, occasional feeder guppies, crickets, and "newt bites" if there's nothing else around)

 

[nate]

Probably not a good idea, Shannon, as newt digestive systems did not evolve to digest soybean curd. I'd stick with animal-based foods now that the experiment is over.

 

[mark]

shannon are you a vegetarian by any chance
mark

 

[shannon]

nope, not a vegetarian at all ... I eat more meat than anything else Well it's been over a week and the tofu doesn't seem to have done any harm, but if you think it's dangerous I won't offer it again. (doesn't tofu mainly consist of protein though? I'd think an occasional slice would be ok, as long as his diet is primarily animal protein...)

 

[edward]

The idea to keep in mind is that amphibians are pretty much obligate carnivores and plant derived diets are not nutritionally complete. Depending on the extent of the use of the plant derived diet this can/will eventually lead to long term issues with the health of the amphibian. (I'm not necessarily worried that you would put your newt on that type of diet but it could come up on a google search by someone else with eventual bad outcome.

Ed

 

[shannon]

of course I know better than to feed him tofu every day! don't worry

 

[jennifer]

I just noticed today on a container of Jurassi-Diet newt pellets, it says "Does not contain soy products, which may interfere with the adsorption of calcium".

 

[shannon]

YIPES!!!!! thanks for the info!