Leaving on holidays

[cathal]

hi,
I own a chinese fire-belly newt & have had it for 6 months now & i am going on holidays in a few weeks for 2 weeks & i am wondering what i should do.
I have a small terrapin in with him in a relatively large tank with 2-3 inches of water & a few stones but he prefers to stay in the water.
I feed him earthworms 2-3 times a week & give him commercial newt food aswell.
He never eats much, well, not compared to the terrapin, but they never fight anyway. I have a live plant in there aswell for the terrapin to eat when im gone but am not sure if the newt will eat it. he doesnt like to eat plants like lettuce.
well anyway, i would like to know what to do while im away cuz there's noone i trust to come in & feed them.
Tanx.

 

[mark]

Eerrrm....no. terrapin + newt = disaster

Split them up pronto!

 

[heather]

Yes, seperate the two asap. As for leaving on holiday, the newt will be fine for 2 weeks while you are gone if you fatten it up a little before you leave and the temp is nice and cool. Earthworms are a great newt food, and the pellets arent bad as a supplement if the newt is actually eating them. But forget about the lettuce, newts arent herbivores and dont normally eat plant matter. Here is a care sheet on chinese fire bellies:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_orientalis.shtml
Good luck, and feel free to ask any more questions. Look around the site a little - there is a ton of good info on newt husbandry and I bet a lot of further questions will be answered by reading the articles and other info found on this site.
Heather

 

[benjamin]

If I were you I'ld take the newt out. I can only imagine this working if you have a giant newt and a hatchling terrapin. The terrapin will probably grow and eat the newt, and then die of poisoning. Also terrapins,being reptiles have slightly different needs then newts. 2-3 inches of water is not enough for a newt either. You need to do some serious relocating make large changes to your setup.

Another thing, NEWTS DON'T EAT LETTUCE OR PLANTS!!!

 

[jennifer]

I agree. Even if the terrapin and newt "seem OK" now, it's only a matter of time. As for vacation, the newt doesn't need to eat for 2 weeks, but it DOES need to be kept cool (people often turn up the thermostat on vacation to save on air conditioning), and it does need to be saved from becoming turtle chow. How about moving the newt to critter-keeper type setup and housing him in a cool location at someone else's house?

 

[cathal]

Hey Tanks 4 d info! I was really worried about wot 2 do. Tanx 4 d care sheet aswell, ill separate the 2 when i logoff. gr8 site by d way! better dan d turtle 1 anyway. lots of gr8 info.
Tanx!!!

 

[cathal]

hey,
I like dis site sooooo much i joined!

 

[mark]

Welcome along Cathal. Did you write your previous message using only your thumb? What would Shakespear say eh? I hope your terrapin and newt lead happy lives in separ8 tanks

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