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Weaning a newt off worms

numpty

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Hi there,

I wonder if someone has any ideas here. I have a paddletailed newt which, for the past year or so, has only been eating worms. Prior to last summer he ate pretty much everything I gave him ... dried bloodworms, pellets, chicken heart, mealworms, crickets, etc. Then I had to leave him in the "care" of a pet store while I was on vacation, and on my return he had narrowed his diet drastically. I've no idea why, but now he refuses everything except live worms.

This might not seem like such a problem to those with access to bait shops, Walmarts and the like, but here in metropolitan Taipei no such thing exists, and worms can only be wrestled from the ground of parks and patches of wasteground.

Now, after a bit of a dry spell, I'm having no luck finding any worms at my usual spots. Does anybody know if it's possible to wean newts off worms and onto something more convenient instead? If so, how?

Many thanks in advance!
 

Daimler

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Same problem with mine but conversely mine want to eat only meat!
I solved the problem fasting them for 2-3 days :happy:
 

numpty

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Same problem with mine but conversely mine want to eat only meat!
I solved the problem fasting them for 2-3 days :happy:
On several occasions I've tried withholding food for up to a week. Still no luck. Seems he's rather starve than compromise his taste for worms!
 

Otterwoman

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I think I read something once where someone put a food pellet or food stick in a piece of worm and gradually increased the size of food stick and decreased the size of worm. Do you feed the worms whole or cut up? If you cut them up into three or four pieces, they would still wiggle like a whole worm. Good luck.
 

keithp

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Have you tried live blackworms, or putting frozen food on a toothpick (like bloodworms) and holding in front of the newts mouth, that worked for mine and eventually it ate on its own.
 

numpty

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Have you tried live blackworms, or putting frozen food on a toothpick (like bloodworms) and holding in front of the newts mouth, that worked for mine and eventually it ate on its own.
Hi there, thanks for the suggestions. I haven't seen live blackworms for sale here in Taiwan, just dried bloodworms. I've tried wiggling all manner of non-live-worm stuff in front of his nose, but to no avail; he just turns away in apparent disgust.

Otterwoman, thanks for the suggestion. It's worth a shot, though I'll have to get my hands on an earthworm pretty quick even to be able to start the process/experiment. I'd settle just for finding a worm to feed him straight up at this stage. I guess I have to be that weirdo who goes out digging in the neighbours' lawns and verges in the middle of the night.

Thanks for the advice.
 

keithp

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Hi there, thanks for the suggestions. I haven't seen live blackworms for sale here in Taiwan, just dried bloodworms. I've tried wiggling all manner of non-live-worm stuff in front of his nose, but to no avail; he just turns away in apparent disgust.

Otterwoman, thanks for the suggestion. It's worth a shot, though I'll have to get my hands on an earthworm pretty quick even to be able to start the process/experiment. I'd settle just for finding a worm to feed him straight up at this stage. I guess I have to be that weirdo who goes out digging in the neighbours' lawns and verges in the middle of the night.

Thanks for the advice.

Dried foods are not appealing and can cause impaction, it's good your newt isn't eating that! You don't have frozen foods? Even other countries sell them in pet stores here in the US they sometimes are imported, or if you can find live ones for sale, do you have fishing supply stores that sell live bait for freshwater fish? Live bloodworms may be for sale or ask around. Some people breed mosquitos to feed the live larva to newts.
 

Rupert

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Even in metropolitan Taipei I'm sure you can buy worms online and you can culture them for yourself...? Diet on worms is, to be honest, great in my opinion.

However if you must change the diet, the best way is starvation. Cold-blooded critters won't die from a few days of hunger. Then they'll learn to appreciate alternatives such as frozen bloodworms.
 

numpty

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Dried foods are not appealing and can cause impaction, it's good your newt isn't eating that! You don't have frozen foods? Even other countries sell them in pet stores here in the US they sometimes are imported, or if you can find live ones for sale, do you have fishing supply stores that sell live bait for freshwater fish? Live bloodworms may be for sale or ask around. Some people breed mosquitos to feed the live larva to newts.
As mentioned in the first post, I've never seen or heard of a live bait shop here.

It doesn't matter if the food is frozen or dried, at the moment he's accepting only live earthworms, or fresh sections thereof.

I fed him mainly on rehydrated pellets for over a year with no ill effects.
 

Chinadog

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I've never heard of pellets causing impaction, where did you read that? Axolotls and other laboratory amphibians are often fed only high quality pellets their whole lives without problems. Its true that poor quality dried foods are pretty nasty, but specially formulated amphibian pellets are every bit as good a staple as earthworms, if you can get your newts to eat them...
 

Blackstar65

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I have had great success with Hikari carnivore pellets. They are relatively small and soften when wet. So far I have T. Dobrogicus, H. Cyanurus, and C. Orientalis eating them.
 
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