What to do when away?

[i.]

Hi everybody,
I have to leave my home for a month and I need some advice on how to handle my newt's feeding while I'm away.
I'm going to have someone come and clean the tank once a week while I'm away and feed the newts at that time but I usually feed them every 3 days and I'm scared that once a week will not be sufficient. I have 3 pleurodeles in the tank, they are rather plump right now. They also have a dozen glass shrimp in with them that they can hunt and I'm going to add live bloodworms in before I leave, I have a gravel bottom so if I put more worms than usual I'm hoping that they will burrow in the gravel and the newts can hunt them down later.
Any advice and tip would be much appreciated.
thanx in advance

-Isabelle

 

[jennifer]

I left my guys for a month last summer. First, be sure you train your newt-sitter VERY well! Have THEM do one complete feeding/cleaning while you are there as training. And also make a written checklist of tasks. I learned these the hard way on previous trips.

I had my newtsitter come two days in a row (feed on day 1, clean on day 2). Then she didn't come at all for 3-5 days, depending on her schedule. This seemed to work well. The only mishap was that one of the newts became injured and she freaked out, not knowing what to do.

Good luck with your trip!

 

[swan]

Once a week will definitely be sufficient for a month unless you have juveniles.

 

[aaron]

Don't put too many bloodworms in the gravel as they can die off and create tons of toxic ammonia.

~Aaron

 

[i.]

thank you very much, I'm much relieved that once a week will be sufficient.
I'll be careful not to overdo the bloodworms and train my sitter well.
Jennifer, I'm sorry to hear about your newt, I hope it made a good recovery.
thx all