Feeding a JFBN

[beckie]

allrighty...well i learned that tiger salis are illegal in michigan so none fore me...so i got a jap fire belly (being more specific, 3 of them). but they refuse to eat. i've had then fore 2 weeks and they've each eaten once, each different bugs and different times. I've tried cooling with frozen water bottles, leaving them alone for a while w/ the bugs, holding it over their mouths, but nothing works...one is very thin and i'm worried that he'd starve.

ok, 2 more questions, 1) how often do i feed them? and 2) i have a 1/2 land 1/2 water tank and i dont know how to feed them in it. i dont like taking them out every time to feed them but the worms will eather sink and squeeze between the gravel or burrow in the dirt, the ones moths and fire flies fly away or drown. and the crickets just seem too fast! how do i feed them?! ok...thats all my rambling for now...thanks bunches guys!

 

[chris]

Well I'm pretty sure fire flies are poisonous

.

Someone would probably say it later anyway but sooner would be better for the newts.

 

[beckie]

really? cause i know a guy who feeds them to his chamelion...by the way, is there any way to force feed a newt? JIC the baby doesnt eat...

 

[joeri]

I have had the same problem with my CFBN, I had 4 of them. Two of them got very skinny since they wouldn't eat. It broke my heart that I lost both of them.

The other two look fine. They usually eat at night. So far they've eaten red blood worms, fruit flies and a kind of schrimp.
A sad thing is that after the first two dying, one of the other 2 remaining doesn't like to hit the water anymore. I've red on this forum that CFB don't need so much land, so in my new tank they don't have much of it. In fact just a large peace of wood. I moved them yesterday to the tank and he's been on it ever since. The other one explored the entier tank and now joined his mate on the chunck of wood.

I don't worry to much about it since both of them do eat (in the water).

Oops, I've wandered a bit off topic. To get back to it. Let me tell you how I fed my CFBN. The red blood worms are frozen, I just wash them and then spread them around in the tank. The fruit flies are also dead when I give them. I have a spotlight wich aims at my seeling at night and in there I can find dead fruit flies all the time. I just put them on the watersurface and the newts swim for it. The shrimp was alive and apperently unaware off the danger.

I hope someone will be able to give extra information in how to force skinny newts to eat. I'd like to replace them, but I don't want to make the same mistake twice. Good luck with your Japs.

 

[jennifer]

If you can get LIVE blackworms, put them into a shallow (wading depth) feeding dish.

 

[chris]

I looked up fire flies for you and they have toxins in their body to ward off predators and the illuminating tail part is a toxic chemical reaction.

That's also a note to newer hobbyists,Don't feed your animals fire flies so you can see it blick later!