T. Verru not eating

[ryan]

Heh guys, i am currently keeping a pair of verrus. I bought them seperately, abt 1-2 months apart. The 1st 1 that i bought is feeding well, whereas the 2nd 1 is actually not eating much, or at all. When i bought the 2nd, i actually moved them both into an air-con room, and during that period, both of them seldom ate. Anyway, abt 2 months later, i moved them back to my original room (w/o aircon), and the 1st one started feeding normally again. However, till now the 2nd one is hardly eating anything, and is already very very skinny.
What could be possible reasons for this?
And what should i do now?
Anyway, i will add in a photo of the 2 of them together, and u guys can see the size difference.

 

[TJ]

Hi Ryan,

The "my newt is not eating" threads (and there are lots) really belong in the Newt and Salamander Help discussion area, so if you come back and find your thread missing here, you now know where to find it

With that out of the way, I would like to comment that I acquired two new light-colored verrucosus about 10 days ago. One of them has eaten like a pig from day 1. This evening, it ate 10 waxworms and some frozen bloodworm to boot(though it seemed to have had second thoughts about the bloodworm. But the other had not eaten at all. This evening, I made a concerted effort but it wouldn't accept the waxworms or bloodworm. Almost at a loss what to do, I put it in a smaller cube-shaped glass container and inserted a fairly large cricket. A couple minutes later, the cricket was disappearing down its throat.

So I guess the moral of this story is, if one type of food doesn't work, don't give up because another might do the job!

I also have a pair of CB Echinotriton, for instance, one of which loves frozen bloodworm and another that won't have a thing to do with it.

Good luck with them!

 

[foster]

Tim,
Out of the five tailengensis that I recently purchased I have one that fed three times initially but then refused all food for almost two weeks afterwards. Since it was still a bit on the skinny side I was getting concerned. One night I put a small slug from the yard in front of it and it went nuts, eating the slug in an instant. It now shows an interest in anything that I offer but has only accepted slugs and one earthworm. I find this feeding behavior interesting because it initially had accepted earthworms, waxworms, and freshly molted mealworms. A male kweichowenses that I have also seems to be somewhat picky.

 

[ryan]

Heh, thanx for your reply. Anyway, im sorry for posting the thread here. Shortly after my posting, i noticed there was a more suitable discussion area and i had already posted it there. Anyway, a few days ago i put in some BW for them to eat, and i am happy to inform everyone that last night, that skinny bugger ate some of the BW. I was so happy.....haha. Anyway, mod, u can close the thread here, because i have already posted an identical thread at the help discussion area. Sorry for the inconvience caused.

 

[TJ]

Hi Ryan.

No prob at all!

Given my own experience, why not try a nice, big, fat, juicy cricket next time?

 

[ryan]

Hi Tim. I am currently housing them in a tank with water as the base, with a bowl n another deco item as their land area. How should i put in the crickets? Would they die when they touch the water? The water level is abt 2cm...

 

[TJ]

Hi Ryan. Yeah, the crickets would probably drown.

I'd move the newt to a small but non-stressful (i.e. comfy) separate container for the feeding, and move it back afterward. The cube I used, with moss as substrate, worked well as the cricket really had nowhere to go and was easily cornered and caught. I wouldn't put in more than one cricket at a time though, to minimize stress.

Anyway. I'm just experimenting myself with Tylototriton so just take everything I say with a grain of salt. Others may have better ideas on getting them to eat

I can't get either one of my "silver-backs" to eat from the water. I tried live bloodworm the other day but they ignored it and just wanted to get out of the water...

Here they are: http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/985/23172.html?1096139882

 

[ryan]

Thanx Tim for ya advice. Nice looking guys u have there. For the next few days i tink i will juz continue to monitor to see if the skinny guy continues to eat my BW. Hopefully it will....

 

[jesper]

Have you ever noticed how surprisingly good crickets are at downing. I've often seen cricket drown in terrariums with only a small waterbowl and quite shallow water...Somtimes you gotta wonder how some species survive in the wild. I know, I know they like dry place....but still.

 

[ryan]

went to buy some crickets juz now. But the crickets ended up being eaten by the bigger fella instead. The skinny fella doesnt even bother abt the cricket.

 

[kaysie]

separate them during feeding.

 

[ryan]

actually i did, i placed the skinny 1 inside 1st. But after some time i noticed that the skinny fella wasnt interested in the cricket at all. Thats only when i put the larger 1 inside. And the cricket was immediately eaten up by the larger fella.

 

[kaysie]

Try earthworms. Keep trying. Just offer food frequently to the skinny one.

 

[TJ]

<font color="ff0000">This post has been moved here from the Tylototriton discussion forum.</font>