Bartholomew and Thelma are 25 this year!

[Kaia]

Hi Caudata fans!

Long-term, unintentional newt mom here. I just wanted to show off my fellas and to hear your thoughts on any of the below, but in particular the bumps at the base of Thelma's head (first picture). I was gifted these adorable creatures all the way back in 1999 by a partner who knew how much I loved animals but was allergic to the furry kind. Well, as it turns out this gift survived that relationship 4 times over. I can't help but to also share some fun facts about them:

-I accidentally misgendered them thinking small= female. Oopsie. I learned this far too late for name changes so now I just think of them as trans.

-They shared a tank with an Eastern Newt for 24 years! I will post pics of Newt Gingrich as well. He was quite a character. For anyone interested in seeing more, my instagram account is still in his name and pretty easy to find. I was unaware that this is not a good idea (different breeds, same tank) until after his passing. I had to really micro-manage the feeding process to ensure that everyone got enough, but outside of that there were no big issues.

-They hate going in the water! I originally arranged the tank so that it was 50% water and 50% land and no one ever went in the water side. I tried gentle filter, air stone on low, and no filter/air stone and it did not make a difference. They seemed to prefer being on land. Over time I came to realize that they really enjoy having covered hidey-holes over an area of the tank where there is access to just a few millimeters of water so they can be *a bit* wet but not completely. So now I set it up that way for them every time. Bartolomew in particular really seems to enjoy soaking just his tail.

-The only thing they have ever eaten is live bloodworms. They are hand-fed so as to minimize mold growth in the tank. I used to feed them pinhead crickets and that was fun to watch them hunt, but it inevitably it was just an invitation for mold. I have not found any other live food that is the right size for them to easily hunt and consume and would love to hear your suggestions.

-I do full water changes once a month and clean the slime that accumulates off of all of the rocks. This takes about 2 hours, but given they are otherwise a very low-maintenance pet it seems a small price to pay. I also use a very gentle filter mainly just to keep the water moving. The filter I had been using for about 15 years recently died (TOM brand, found on amazon for about $15), and I have not been able to find one that is as small, which is a bit of a bummer as now I have to constantly keep my eye on the water level in the tank.

-They are adorable! They each have such unique personalities and different approaches to eating. And now since they associate me with food they get excited when they hear my voice and come out of hiding to say hi, even if I'm not planning on feeding them. Cruel perhaps, but I find it adorable and am convinced it's because they love me and like the sound of my voice, not just because they want food.

-Finally, the main reason I thought of posting (sorry for the wealth of extraneous information): Does anyone know what those bumps at the base of Thelma's head are? When I was doing a photo shoot with them this morning I thought they appeared more prominent today than I have ever seen them in the past. I doubt this is anything to worry about but I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks so much for reading and sharing your knowledge about these amazingly cool creatures.

-Kaia

 

[AnneR]

Congrats on such a successful run! Just starting up again and can only hope to do as well!

 

[stanleyc]

The bumps look like normal texture to me. Although I do have to say the newt in the 4th pic looks a bit underfed, as you an see his/her hip bones. Newts in captivity tend to be overfed and bigger than they need to be, but this one looks a bit on the skinny side to me. Also have you done any water quality tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph? Perhaps they don't want to be in water because something is going on there?

 

[LlamaLand]

Hi Caudata fans!

Long-term, unintentional newt mom here. I just wanted to show off my fellas and to hear your thoughts on any of the below, but in particular the bumps at the base of Thelma's head (first picture). I was gifted these adorable creatures all the way back in 1999 by a partner who knew how much I loved animals but was allergic to the furry kind. Well, as it turns out this gift survived that relationship 4 times over. I can't help but to also share some fun facts about them:

-I accidentally misgendered them thinking small= female. Oopsie. I learned this far too late for name changes so now I just think of them as trans.

-They shared a tank with an Eastern Newt for 24 years! I will post pics of Newt Gingrich as well. He was quite a character. For anyone interested in seeing more, my instagram account is still in his name and pretty easy to find. I was unaware that this is not a good idea (different breeds, same tank) until after his passing. I had to really micro-manage the feeding process to ensure that everyone got enough, but outside of that there were no big issues.

-They hate going in the water! I originally arranged the tank so that it was 50% water and 50% land and no one ever went in the water side. I tried gentle filter, air stone on low, and no filter/air stone and it did not make a difference. They seemed to prefer being on land. Over time I came to realize that they really enjoy having covered hidey-holes over an area of the tank where there is access to just a few millimeters of water so they can be *a bit* wet but not completely. So now I set it up that way for them every time. Bartolomew in particular really seems to enjoy soaking just his tail.

-The only thing they have ever eaten is live bloodworms. They are hand-fed so as to minimize mold growth in the tank. I used to feed them pinhead crickets and that was fun to watch them hunt, but it inevitably it was just an invitation for mold. I have not found any other live food that is the right size for them to easily hunt and consume and would love to hear your suggestions.

-I do full water changes once a month and clean the slime that accumulates off of all of the rocks. This takes about 2 hours, but given they are otherwise a very low-maintenance pet it seems a small price to pay. I also use a very gentle filter mainly just to keep the water moving. The filter I had been using for about 15 years recently died (TOM brand, found on amazon for about $15), and I have not been able to find one that is as small, which is a bit of a bummer as now I have to constantly keep my eye on the water level in the tank.

-They are adorable! They each have such unique personalities and different approaches to eating. And now since they associate me with food they get excited when they hear my voice and come out of hiding to say hi, even if I'm not planning on feeding them. Cruel perhaps, but I find it adorable and am convinced it's because they love me and like the sound of my voice, not just because they want food.

-Finally, the main reason I thought of posting (sorry for the wealth of extraneous information): Does anyone know what those bumps at the base of Thelma's head are? When I was doing a photo shoot with them this morning I thought they appeared more prominent today than I have ever seen them in the past. I doubt this is anything to worry about but I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks so much for reading and sharing your knowledge about these amazingly cool creatures.

-Kaia

I always here that cohabbing different species is bad. How did this come about? They seem to be getting on the same as if they were the same species.

 

[Kaia]

The bumps look like normal texture to me. Although I do have to say the newt in the 4th pic looks a bit underfed, as you an see his/her hip bones. Newts in captivity tend to be overfed and bigger than they need to be, but this one looks a bit on the skinny side to me. Also have you done any water quality tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph? Perhaps they don't want to be in water because something is going on there?

Thanks for your response. I have done water quality tests, and everything is within the acceptable range. The skinny newt is the one with bumps on her head. They are not normally that size. I just checked and they are back down to normal size, so who knows what it was! The skinny-ness is not for lack of trying to feed her, lol. It's always a test of my patience to make sure she gets as much as she wants. It's always been a bit curious to me that when Bartholomew (the larger firebelly) eats, his tongue comes out a bit like a frog's and he has zero problem snatching the worms off my finger. Thelma does not seem to have this ability, she just has to put her face right up on the worms and hope for the best while she opens and closes her mouth! It appears to be a real struggle for her. Thelma came from a tank at the pet store that was horrifically over-crowded, and I believe the trauma of living in that environment impacted her little nervous system in such away that she did not develop a healthy relationship with food. Some of the newts in the tank that she came from were missing limbs, and it looked like the larger ones were preying on the smaller ones. Bartholomew came from a different tank that was nowhere near as bad. I wish I would have thought to complain to someone at that pet store about the conditions but I was too young and timid.

 

[Kaia]

I always here that cohabbing different species is bad. How did this come about? They seem to be getting on the same as if they were the same species.

Hi Llamaland! (my second favorite animal!). I would say it probably is a bad idea. The cuddle party that you see in the photo was not a very common occurrence. It did happen on occasion though. Most often the two firebellies would be together under a rock somewhere and Newt G would be on his own in a different corner of the tank. (He originally had a "sibling" who died because I couldn't get him interested in food- I tried starting them out on frozen bloodworms). But after he got the hang of eating, Newt G became a food monster! I had to really micromanage him, literally picking him up and moving him to the other end of the tank sometimes multiple times just so the others would get a chance to eat.

The way this interspecies tank came about is because I was a stressed-out 20 year old when I was gifted them, and I was so busy dealing with trying to figure out how to adult and keep a roof over my own head that I did not have the resources to do a lot of research on what the ideal tank set up would be.

A handful of times I saw what I think were dominance displays from Newt G., where he would try to sit on top of the others. Of course they would always wriggle free with no problem and he was not too persistent with it. I have heard that in more aquatic set-ups, Easterns will do this underwater and drown the other species. Like I said in my original post, I would never have an Eastern again. It was extremely challenging to get him to accept food at first- leading me to believe he may have been captured in the wild. It took a lot of patience and persistence to train him to eat, and sometimes I think it was only the guilt of watching his sibling die that made me keep at it.

Not to get too far into la-la land, but if there is some kind of a consciousness or awareness that is encoded in the genes, I am of the frame of mind that it is only ethical to keep creatures in captivity if doing so has been done for generations and the "memory" of wildness is like WAY back there. With G, it seemed like that memory was always about 5 minutes ago, if that makes sense. Which it probably doesn't. Haha. I maybe read too much into things. Next up for me will be a dog, but I'm waiting until I have the resources to afford doggy daycare. <3. How we treat our creatures matters! Would love to see some llama pics, hit me up on insta if you use that!

 

[stanleyc]

Thanks for your response. I have done water quality tests, and everything is within the acceptable range. The skinny newt is the one with bumps on her head. They are not normally that size. I just checked and they are back down to normal size, so who knows what it was! The skinny-ness is not for lack of trying to feed her, lol. It's always a test of my patience to make sure she gets as much as she wants. It's always been a bit curious to me that when Bartholomew (the larger firebelly) eats, his tongue comes out a bit like a frog's and he has zero problem snatching the worms off my finger. Thelma does not seem to have this ability, she just has to put her face right up on the worms and hope for the best while she opens and closes her mouth! It appears to be a real struggle for her. Thelma came from a tank at the pet store that was horrifically over-crowded, and I believe the trauma of living in that environment impacted her little nervous system in such away that she did not develop a healthy relationship with food. Some of the newts in the tank that she came from were missing limbs, and it looked like the larger ones were preying on the smaller ones. Bartholomew came from a different tank that was nowhere near as bad. I wish I would have thought to complain to someone at that pet store about the conditions but I was too young and timid.

I see, yeah I've had newts that seem to struggle with food before as well. I'm glad to hear she's back to a normal size. If the water parameters are within range, then I don't have much else advice, but I do think it'll help her feeding if you can get her to be in the water more often. In my experience it's a lot easier to get them to eat in the water vs land. Maybe someone else has some advice for that. But either way, really happy you've had them with you this long.