Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I rescued a newt on 3/12 from a pet store. They kept him in a dirty cage with no filter and no way to get on land. I have him in a 10 gallon tank with a filter and a heater set to 68 (they had a heater for him). I bought the food they said they were feeding him, a newt pellet food. Since he has been here he has not eaten, just watches the food drop into the gravel. Now the ammonia level is slightly high because he is not eating the food. He is friendly and comes up into my hand, but he isn't very active. I'm not sure what I should do. Any advice would be great. Thanks.

Try something live and wiggling, like a chopped earthworm.

In the wild, newts don't eat pellets. They can sometimes be trained to eat them in captivity, but I'll almost guarantee you're trying the 'newt bites', which aren't that nutritious anyway.
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1.1.2 Ball Python (normal/rescue)
0.0.1 Yellow Anaconda
0.0.1 Kingsnake spp.
1.3.0 Southern/Turkish Crested Newt
1.3.0 Roughskinned Newt
5.0.0 Axolotl
0.3.0 Jefferson's Salamander
0.0.2 Blue Spotted Salamander
0.0.2 Tiger Salamander
0.0.2 Fire Salamander
0.0.1 Himalayan Crocodile Newt
0.0.2 Common Musk Turtle
0.1.0 Calico Cat

It's probably too late to answer now, but try feeding him some cut up worms: bloodworms, earthworms, just about any worms will do. Most of the time sals and newts won't eat newt bites (I learned that the hard way).