Good pellet food for newts

[Aesyir]

Hello, I have had my alpine newts for awhile now I even got them to reproduce in my setup and the larva are doing great but there is one thing I would like to see if I can change. I have been feeding them chopped night crawlers I prepare for them and the issue is -I hate the entire process from keeping the worms in my fridge to chopping the poor little dudes up. Is there any pellet food newts will accept with similar nutrition to a night crawler?

 

[Viking]

Newt will sometimes eat shrimp pellets. I have been used sinking small pellets for African Clawed frogs. My adult alpines will eat it. Of course yours might not. I am using for Spanish Ribbed newts larvae. They will fight over it. I buy it from Xenopus Express. The other problem with it is that cats and dogs will tear open bags to eat it. I have to keep out of reach. My favorite dog has eaten at least 5 lbs. so far.

 

[MnGuy]

There's a basic newt pellet that my alpine newts eat. I don't recall the name.

They also love eating the Fluval Bug Bites I feed my fish. The issue with Bug Bites is they float, so I either take a pinch between my fingers and hold it underwater so some sink (some will still float), or, I sprinkle some on the water surface and use a dropper or something else to dunk them in the water so they get wet and sink.

They're also very small granules so they aren't as easy to feed as the newt pellets. And if you have fish, they eat up the pellets much faster than the newts can get to them. I usually feed Bug Bites when my newts happen to be gathered near the front of the tank so they have a better chance of getting them.

Good luck.

 

[jewett]

The only pelleted food that I am aware of that seems appropriate for caudates is the Rangen soft moist Salmon Pellets (they are available on Amazon).

I think the majority of other pellet options do not have the correct nutritional profile for newts - I have looked at the ingredients of several common brands out there and they seem to include a lot of plant based ingredients. At no stage in their life cycle are caudates herbivorous (though they may get some plant nutrition in the gut content of their prey items), so I only feel comfortable recommending something that has little to no plant based ingredients and states that is is formulated for carnivores. The Rangen pellets do list wheat flour as their second ingredient, but the rest of the ingredients seem to be all animal based and while I don't feed pellets myself, many other newt keepers do and Rangen is the brand I see recommended the most.

 

[michael]

Check the caudata.org sales adds for Rangen soft moist salmon pellets. The 3/32" pellets are good for small to medium size salamanders and 5/32" pellets are good for large salamanders.