Ahhh...the Red Eft....

[SludgeMunkey]

My first real experience with amphibians was with the "Red Eft". After reading so many great threads here about these little buggers, I felt I had to share...

Anyway, I grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania and spent a good many of my summer days patrolling the creek bottoms catching all sorts of interesting critters. I did see a good many salamanders under those rocks, but they were small and brown for the most part, and therefor not too interesting to me. My family was also avid campers and we spent a good amount of time camping in the Allegheny National Forest and all along The Allegheny River from Kinzua Dam south to Tidioute and Tionesta. I can remember catching numerous "Red Efts" as my dad referred to them, amazed at the variations of flamin' red-orange to brick brown. At the time I had no idea these interesting little critters were actually just the land form of what we called "Spotted Newts" ( that were often available as fishing bait in those parts). I particularly remember one night camping at the Heart's Content recreation area, that there were so many efts about, the ground near our campfire glittered with hundreds of tiny eyes. One summer, I caught nearly a half dozen efts at our hunting cabin in Warren County and took them home to keep as pets for a while, under the strict guidance of my father that it was "..only till the next camping trip.."

In the meantime things happened as they always do, and we were unable to go camping again that summer. Worried about my efts (mainly because feeding salamanders self-caught food is near impossible in a Pennsylvania winter) I did the unthinkable and took them to the swampy woods of my grandfather's farm and released them. I was very upset about that. I feared I had doomed them all to a slow death as we lived much closer to Lake Erie than we did the Alleghenies and the winters are infamously harsh and long. I moped right into the early school year about it. My dad noticing I was worried about the entire situation, took me back to the farm on a Saturday. He made me hike far back into the 450 acres to the far corner of the wooded portion. I rarely if ever went there by myself as this was quite a hike through swampy Hemlock forest. He explained he knew I was upset about the efts, but the explained we were here to "check on something" he remembered from being a kid.

This part of the property was drier, heavily wooded with maple and birch, and had numerous vernal ponds. Dad picked out a log near the old fence post line, flipped it over, and made an exclamation unsuitable for public forums. There, nearly 20 years later, he found a single red eft very near where he caught many of them as a kid. I was shocked. In all those years of hanging around in the woods, I had never found an eft so close to home. Here I was afraid I had killed off a half dozen of the same critters, and yet the species did in fact life around these parts. Even funnier, my dad, the burly foul-mouthed biker-type, actually still new exactly where to find 'em at, even after all that time.

I know, silly, sappy and pointless, but years later those little guys inspired me to purchase some axolotls ten years back and try my hand at salamander rearing all over again.

So, tell me your stories about these neat little critters... I wonder if anyone else was in to them as much as I was as a kid.

 

[jbherpin]

I've always enjoyed red efts! My father used to go to a more southern PA region, and catch them as a youth. Where he left off, I've picked up. The mountains and lake are literally spiritual to me. I've spent sooo many days and nights there, I couldn't begin to count. Basically, my whole childhood was spent at this site. If you're interested, I have a series of pics up at this location within this site:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=58390

I look into this specific sub-forum regularly, so pleases let me know what you think!

-jbherpin-

 

[sean n dad]

WOW those are great shots!!! What part of PA is that?
I live in Bucks County, Pa and moved here from another area and wasen't to thrilled with Pa till I moved to the country!!
I live behind 200 achers of conservancy land and I have found some newts in pools & shallow creeks. But I have yet to find any thing else. Lots of deer, foxes, rabbits, skunks, and all sorts of birds. My bird feeders get all sorts of visitors.
Ed

 

[jbherpin]

this is in fort louden. in the southern side between chambersburg and gettysburg. roughly!

 

[newtamander]

I recall my first red eft encounter from when I was very young. It had been a rainy day in the peak of summer as I walked across the lawn in the rain. I was looking at the ground and was amazed to see a neon orange salamander with bright red spots. I pick it up put in a bucket and showed my parents they hadn't ever seen one. The closest thing I ever saw were red backs witch I caught regularly. We moved him to a 10g. tank and google image searched him to find the "salamander" was a red spotted newt. We kept him a few months but then I thought he was lonely and released him.

 

[SnakeDancer]

That's a great story, thanks for sharing it!

I had a single green/Eastern/red-spotted newt when I was 12 or so, whom I got at a pet store at the time they were still commonly available for sale. He lived happily in a mostly aquatic set-up with the California newt whom I got at the same time, but eventually stopped eating, and no matter what I tried to tempt him with, he just wouldn't take it. With the sad but predictable end result.

I've only once seen breeding green newts in a pond in the wild, and have never encountered a red eft. Kingsnake.com has them for sale on occasion, and they're definitely on my "someday" list!

 

[JWERNER]

No story to share but I have been looking to acquire some for some time.

I live in the Lehigh Valley region of PA and all I can find as far as newts are some very large type in the pools at Hawk MT. I have found a few Salamanders like Long Tails, and the common Dusky and Red Backs.

I would love to come across some to just even view in the wilds!

 

[Ralf]

AW: Ahhh...the Red Eft....

Thanks for sharing! I "met" my first red efts in the late summer of 1980 when staying as a foreign exchange student in the Adirondacks. A kid from the neighborhood had found some while piling wood and since everybody knew that this German kid was interested in "critters" he brought them over. Been fascinated by these animals ever since.

 

[picocat]

Hello there,
I was out weeding yesterday when my son and I found one of these beautiful creatures. We brought it inside to find out if it was poisonous and thanks to this site we found our answer. He was so thrilled that we could keep it and thus began our quest to find it a home and food. Our new little friend does not move around much. Through my investigation in the threads I found that our yard dirt would work, so we used that. Then I told my son that he needed to catch earthworms to put in the space with him. I am wondering if the worms have to be cut up for this little guy. I really do not want him to expire, and my son was so saddened by the idea of having to let it go. Any assitance to a newbie amphibian keeper would be fabulous. I was going to go to the local pet store but spending a lot of money on our new friend is not something we can do. Any home ideas would be great.

Thanks,
Bria

 

[Sean Brady]

Hello there,
I was out weeding yesterday when my son and I found one of these beautiful creatures. We brought it inside to find out if it was poisonous and thanks to this site we found our answer. He was so thrilled that we could keep it and thus began our quest to find it a home and food. Our new little friend does not move around much. Through my investigation in the threads I found that our yard dirt would work, so we used that. Then I told my son that he needed to catch earthworms to put in the space with him. I am wondering if the worms have to be cut up for this little guy. I really do not want him to expire, and my son was so saddened by the idea of having to let it go. Any assitance to a newbie amphibian keeper would be fabulous. I was going to go to the local pet store but spending a lot of money on our new friend is not something we can do. Any home ideas would be great.

Thanks,
Bria

I have had probably over 100 of these newts in captivity during my 15 years of life so far (two-thirds of that being larvae found when a lake was drained). They are very easy to keep in captivity, probably the best ones to keep.
For a housing unit, you could simply use an old tupperware container or a large glass jar. The efts can climb up the sides and out, so a lid would have to be on and small holes poked in it with a screwdriver. When I used household products to create a home for my newts on one occasion, I put an inch of dirt in the container and used a water bottle cap as a water dish and mounted it in the dirt. Make sure the dirt you use is from outside and away from where any pesticides or chemicals were used. Don't use potting soil or dirt from a store because it can harm them.
For food, it depends on the size of your eft. The easy thing to do would to just replace the dirt every week or so because the newt will eat soil mites in the dirt. You could also put some moss in the container because there are mites on moss too. replace the moss every week as well. You may also want to find earthworms about one-third the size of your eft and place them in the container. One earthworm a day would suffice, but placing a few every few days would be better because one might burrow into the dirt as worms do and the eft wouldn't be able to get it. I would not recommend cutting up large night crawlers or earthworms because newts rely on movement to catch their prey. They will only eat something if it is moving and a cut-up worm will only move for a few minutes.
When you are able to buy a housing unit for it, I suggest getting a 5-gallon aquarium if you still only have one newt or a 10-gallon aquarium if you have found or plan on finding and keeping more newts Fill the aquarium halfway with dechlorinated plain water. This is because, eventually the eft will morph into its adult aquatic stage. Its orange color will become more and more brownish and it will eventually become a dark green to olive smooth-skinned newt with a yellow underbelly dotted with black dots. The signature red dots on its side will remain and its tail will become more like a tadpole's to make swimming easier. The aquarium does not need gravel or something on the bottom. They will still need some dry land to go to sometimes and will especially need dry land if they are still in the eft stage when you transfer them to an aquarium. So I suggest a piece of driftwood or maybe a ceramic pot. You could also buy something for this at a pet store. Petsmart has "aquarium mountains" to provide land in an aquarium. Here is what these mountains look like:

Anything to this effect would work. I suggest filling the tank with water until the "aquarium mountain" is one-third to half underwater. This depends on the mountain's size and shape and what stage the newt is in. If the newt is still a eft and orange then leave more mountain above water then below. If the newt is in its aquatic stage, then have more of the mountain underwater than above.
For food for the aquatic stage newts, you can put beetle larvae or small snails or even earth worms in the water for them to eat. The earth worms would have to be placed near the aquatic newts because after a few minutes the worms will drown. You could also scoop up some pond or marsh water and it will most likely have some daphnia or some small larvae in it.
If you are changing to an aquarium and the newt is still and eft, still put in the water as stated above because the newt will eventually go aquatic. As for food if the newt is still an eft in the aquarium, you should put some moss on a dry part of the aquarium mountain where the newt is most or just cover the whole part of the mountain above water with moss. This is for the same reason as before, because the moss contains mites. Also, you could still put the same stuff in the water as if it were an aquatic because if it no longer wants to eat mites or it sees food moving in the water it will go into the water and this might encourage it to morph to the aquatic stage. Also, it would be kind of hard to keep live food like earth worms on the dry part of the aquarium mountain because it would probably fall into the water eventually.
Also, when the newts are in a tank like this, you can start feeding them pellets or food sticks instead of earthworms and live moving food. Although, if they are still in the eft stage and in the aquarium I wouldn't recommend trying non-moving food yet. Wait until it starts to be in the water more than it is on land. you can still put live food in the water and the eft will still go in the water for it. Even though they rely on and prefer moving food, you can "train" the aquatic stage newt to eat the non-moving sticks and pellets. Don't switch over immediately. Do half and half. Some live moving food and some pellets or sticks. Then slowly do more and more pellets or sticks, but only continue with the switch if the newt shows some interest in the non-moving food. Eventually, stop using live food and only use the pellets and/or sticks. You can buy these pellets/sticks at many pet stores. Certain brands of this food are Reptomin Baby Sticks or any other Reptomin sticks. Make sure the container lists that the sticks are also for salamanders or newts. If it says one or the other, that is fine. Even though the Reptomin sticks show a turtle on the container, if it lists that they are also for salamanders or newts, than these will work.
Another great brand and the one that I used most is the HBH Newt & Salamander Bites. Here is what they look like:

Here are some pictures of the different Reptomin foods that work:

Just drop in a few pellets/sticks twice a day. If the newt finishes them all, then put in a couple more, but don't replenish its supply more than 3 times in one day, because the newt will eat until no more food can even fit down its throat.
Just place a few pellets/sticks in the water in the morning and if they are eaten by the afternoon, put in a couple more. Repeat this step each day.

Hope your newt lives for a long time! They usually live 12-15 years!

 

[ghostsaw]

I grew up in central Pennsylvania. I remember going out after it rained in the spring and summer and finding re eft newts all over the place. I always like there bright orange colors...I have seen them time from time while hiking in the area