I have to disagree a bit here. In my clinical set-up containers (shoe-box w/ damp paper towels), my regular routine is to chop up a nightcrawler, open the container, place the animal inside into a larger holding basin, start the animal feeding, clean and rinse the container and replace the towelling, and finally replace the animal into the container and move on to the next. I have maintained Tylototritons, Cynops, Ambystomids and Triturus in this manner for years without a single problem. That said, I would not try and make a habit of removing an animal from a clean container or naturalistic enclosure SOLELY for the purpose of feeding. I generally avoid handling my animals unless necessary to minimize stress. At times, an animal will refuse to eat when I'm cleaning, so I'll leave a worm piece in the container and check back to make sure it doesn't go bad. I DO wait until the animal has swallowed the worm until moving it again...Any unnecessary handling is never a good idea, but a bit as needed generally does little harm. Some species are more accepting of handling than others, so there are a lot of variables out there. Dane, the 3 species you list on your profile, I've kept in the past as well and they should have no problems eating outside of their tanks once they've become established. They're nice animals and easy to work with.
Asian Newt Group
