Advice needed during time of change

ali

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Alison Brown
Hey guys. I've just started chaning the feeding habits of my taricha granulosa. I have one that is quite larger than the other (although both feed with equal agression!).
I formerly fed them in separate feeding dishes so as not to have left over food all over the tanks, and I was worried about their size differences.
I don't feed bloodworms very often now, they normally only eat chopped nightcrawlers, so I've moved to feeding them in their tank using a feeding dish.
They're used to me pointing their food out to them (sometimes waving it over their mouth) with a turkey baster and don't seem to understand that there is a pile of worms beneath them in the feeding dish. Should I continue to point it out to them or let them discover it (hopefully) on their own?
Also, they got SO excited when they realized it was feeding time that they went into amplexus, a rather fierce amplexus which was a two newt mating ball. Shortly after, while quite obviously trying to viciously attack a worm, my larger taricha ended up with the entire leg of my younger taricha in his mouth. I tapped him on his side with the turkey baster and he let go. Do you think I should go back to feeding them how I was? Or let them get used to this new method and just watch closely until things go well?
 
I have the same problem with my p.waltl. The males starts amplexus as soon as he sees food. So I feed the females first in a tubberware with water and then drop him in and takes the females out one by one.
 
Ali, if you want to wean them off of hand feeding, then just put the food in and walk away. Don't linger by the tank, or they'll just beg and expect you to give them food.

If you're worried about them fighting, try putting one at one end of the tank with it's own pile of worm parts, and one at the other with its own pile of worm parts. This should kind of cut down on feeding frenzy.
 
Thanks for your help guys. Jeff, I was feeding them separately which takes more time than it should (although I'll go back to it if it seems best after a few more tries). So I'll give Joan's suggestions a try and let this play out for a few weeks. Thanks for all your advice.
 
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