Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone.. I'm Beth. I'm new here. I am a conservation law enforcement student, and I work part time at a veternary hospital. Ever since I was little, I have been obsessed with herps. I always had cute cuddly pets, but I just realized that I should get some newts lol. So I went out to the pet shop and bought two "large oregon newts." after looking around on the net a little bit, I realized that they were actually rough skined newts. alright with me, they are absolutely adorable. They sent me home with some "newt and salamander pellets" and some frozen blood worms, as well as some terrarium moss. they told me to set up the tank with water, with a place where they can get out. So now I have the newts temprarily in a 10 gal tank with about 6 cm of water and the moss, with a rock in the middle where they can crawl out. Well, I know that pet shops aren't to be trusted. How should I really set this up? And what should I feed? They have no interest it seems in the pellets... I went out and found some small worms a slugs, and dangled them in front of them with tweezers... no interest. They seemed interested in the blood worms... but I really don't know if they ate them. I have a 50 gal tank that I would like to use, but I am moving soon and don't want to set that up till I move. any ideas on how I should set it up? can more than one species live in a tank? can you put small fish in with them? (doesn't matter whether they eat them or not, but does the poisen affect them?) also, should I change anything on their tempoaray tank? and anything else I should know or tips?

thank you so much!

I would also like to know what other species of amphibians are compatible with it. I feed my Oregon newt(that's what the pet store told me) worms. I used to feed him/her frozen mosquito larva but he was too skinny and it was annoying to cut. Now I just cut it in half if it's a big worm, use the scent of one half on my mice for the snake, and feed the other to the newt. If he still looks like he could use more, I feed him the other half. I don't know if this is right but I feed him after he gets "unbloated" from his last meal, which is usaully 3-5 days.

check out http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Taricha/T_granulosa.shtml

Ed

thanks ed

Hi Beth. I have a California newt, extremely similair to a rough skinned newt, and what you are doing sounds good for the most part. I tried feeding mine pellets, blood worms, but mine never even looked at them. Now I feed him crix and he loves them. I have one newt in a 10 gallon with about 4 inches of water. There is a big pile of rocks, they are slate and there i areas where he can go completely out of the water and other places where he can be partially submerged. I also have a large java fern, these work extremely in newt tanks, they are hardy, can live in cold water, are a perfect resting spot for them, and arn't tall so wouln't die in a tank with 4 in. water. I used to have a filter, but I didn't really think I needed it. They are extremely clean, if you don't have any substrate in the tank (moss is ok, but will still get into the water), never use dirt, it's a pain in the butt. make sure you dust the crix or whatever you use with a vitiman/calcium supplement. I hand feed mine about once a week a few crix, just to make sure he's eating. I also have snails and guppies in the tank that get along well and act as biological filters. Good luck! and feel free to ask more questions!

I haven't read it yet, but the new February issue of Reptiles has an article on setting up a naturlistic viv for caudates. That may help you as well.
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