Rough-Skinned Newt Feeding Questions

[NewishNewtist]

Hello,

I have two new Rough-Skinned Newts (first time owning a newt). After reading through the Caudata Culture articles, it seems like they should be fed every 2-3 days, and no more than they can eat in one go.

Here's the thing though - my newts (one in particular) seem hungry ALL the time. Whenever he sees me or my boyfriend near the tank, he wiggles over and follows us around like he hasn't been fed for ages. He's like a puppy (which is surprising and very cute). I know that dogs will beg for food and eat themselves obese, but I was wondering if newts do the same. I've read conflicting information online about this. Both newts seem to be at a reasonable weight, but I'm not an expert on newt body fat.

Could one reason be that he is nutrient deficient? We have been feeding them mealworms and brine shrimp, and the hungry boy in particular has a hard time finding frozen shrimp. We tried night crawlers, but when they're chopped up they don't seem interested because they don't wiggle, and whole night crawlers are the same size as them. The pet shop restocked on frozen bloodworms and some smaller red wrigglers, so we'll be adding that in the food rotation. However, so far he's most successful at munching on mealworms, and I know those aren't the most nutritious meal.

My second question is about food aggression - hungry boy is fine and polite with worms, but when the frozen shrimp hit the water, he becomes SUCH a jerk to our other newt! I think he can smell the food, but he can't find it, and so he just goes berserk and starts a fight. Any advice on this one?

Thanks in advance for the help

Hungry boy (aka Bruce) sitting on a stick, and Gladys (his slightly less hungry buddy) swimming about

 

[Roughskinned]

I would consider getting them treated for internal parasites. I had an absolutely ravenous garter snake for about 6 years that I didn’t know was wild caught. One day he regurgitated his silverside, started having neurologic symptoms and then died all in the same day (it wasn’t a vitamin B deficiency, as I’d fed him mostly mice). I thought he was just very food aggressive, but the vet found high parasite levels.