Newt Not Eating!

[Critter Mom]

I have 3 C. Orientalis, and 1 is a very good eater, seeming to eat almost anything not nailed down or plant matter..and she has accidentally eaten a plant upon occasion, and one of the others is a hit or miss kind of eater, but when he does eat, he eats well, but the third one worries me a bit. This one is really picky, and seems ONLY to eat thawed bloodworms with powdered calcium with D3. I have been rotating their food items so he has only eaten once in a week...maybe two! He is thin but not to the point the hip bones show, but the others are quite stout in comparison and they shed more often. When the picky eater eats it is usually not as much as the others, but sometimes I get surprised.

Should I be worried?

How long can they go without eating anything?

 

[xMIDNIGHTx]

Because of their relatively low metabolism, newts can literally go one or two months without any food. This is of course not exact and depends on species, temperature, etc. I have ran into a couple of situations where my C. orientalis would get picky and not eat much if at all.

One was when I first got him and moved him into his in home. He eat once or twice for the first couple of days and then turned down food for almost 3 weeks. After some quiet time and keeping the water quality in check he turned around and started eating. The second situation just seemed to happen, he turned down food for a couple of weeks after eating well for months. At this time he would also leave the water and I assume stress of some sort was a problem.

I would make sure that water quality is great, keep on offering a variety of food, and be patience. I always relied on hand feeding at this point, offering different food and saw what the interest was. I would keep an eye on the "fuzzy" guy but not be extremely worried at this point. One other thing to consider is that when breeding is in the water, the males seem to stop eating as much and the females pork themselves.

Mitch

 

[Critter Mom]

Thank you. That could be what is happening. I did a change to their habitat about a month or so ago, and I have been adding plants into their tank ever since.

Also, the female is HUGE and is an eating machine! She always has been, but she is constantly shedding because she eats so much, especially the last week or two. She will get done with a shed, eat some more, and shed again a day or so later. One of the males has an appetite, but not like hers, and the other never has had a large one, but he is just maybe going through a phase of not really being interested in eating right now. He is very interested in his environment though, and is perched on top of the filter, and likes to watch the snails. He almost stuck his head in the water watching them the other day.

The female has been taking some very uncharacteristic dips in the water in the last couple weeks, so maybe she is laying eggs I have not found yet, or searching for more food? I don't really know. The males just mostly float around on the cork, and the water parameters are fine.

 

[vistajpdf]

My pair didn't eat for a month when I first got them. The female ate first. I was thrilled when the male finally ate a bloodworm. They were also terrestrial for many months, but once returning to the water, haven't been out of it, really, that I've seen. They eat in there and quite well, never turning down anything. From what I'm experiencing, the ones preferring land just don't eat well. I still haven't seen my morphs eat and when my adults were on land, they didn't eat well - I'd push them into the water or take them to a shallow bowl to feed. Thankfully, they did go back to the water in time and eat there as I don't like to handle them excessively and certainly don't want my sons to do so.

Good luck. Be patient. If the one is a younger male, I'd expect some periods of decreased appetite until he goes aquatic again.

Dana

 

[freves]

I have no real experience with C. orientalis to speak of, however I note individual food preferences time and time again with the various Tylototriton and Echinotriton species that I keep. Some individuals in any given group are eating machines while others may turn their nose up at anything but chopped earthworms. I would not worry too much as long as the individual does not appear to be losing weight and otherwise seems healthy.
Chip

 

[Critter Mom]

Thanks guys. I have not noticed any significant weight loss, so I guess I will just be patient and keep offering different types of food, and supplement the food as I go when possible.:happy:

I hope with the a/c being on a lot that they don't think it is winter, lol.