Planning to get a fire-belly newt....?

Question

I need some REALLY good/really accurate care info.

Here’s some questions:

1)What size tank is reccomended for 1 newt?

2)What is the best way to tell males from females?

3)What kind of heating/lighting do they need?

4)Can you tell me just a general, effective tank setup?

5)What is a really good diet for a newt?

Any help would be great! My parents won’t let me get a lizard, so I decided I want a newt. =]

Answer 1

Newts are cool and all but I used to have 5 and they did absolutely nothing.

Buying the crickets for them is annoying because they never eat them and if a cricket drowns the newt wont eat them.

My newts just died 1 by 1.

I would recommend fire bellied toads as they are much cooler and they hop around and if u r lucky u can c them eat a cricket. but buying the crickets is still annoying.

Answer 2

A good tank size for one fire belly newt is 10 gallons, but you can get one that's a few gallons smaller. About 7 gallons is the minimum.

You can check out http://www.caudata.org. They have some information about telling the gender of newts, as well as general care information.

FBNs do not need heat. Actually, a temperature of about 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit is good. You don't necessarily need a cooler, though. Room temperature is ok.

For a tank setup, you can use large gravel, some fake plants, and at least 2 hides or caves per newt. Be careful with using too small of gravel; newts can ingest gravel if they can fit it in their mouths.

I used to have a paddle-tail newt, and I bought frozen bloodworm chunks at the pet store for him. Store it in the freezer, and when it's feeding time you put it in the microwave for a few seconds until it thaws. Bloodworms are a good staple diet for most newts, including FBNs. Store-bought newt pellets are not good because most newts will not eat them and they are not good from a nutritional aspect.

Good luck with your newt!

Answer 3

You asked very educated questions, and it indicates you are willing to take the steps necessary to provide your pet with what it needs, and to make it comfortable.  I would recommend that you google the newt, and learn all you can about it, before you purchase it.  They need a moist environment.  Google Vivariums for your Firebelly Newt.

Crickets should be gut loaded (fed a good diet) for 2-3 days before feeding them to your reptile/amphibian.  You will need to google this too, to be sure your pet's food is adequate to meet its needs.

Crickets are fairly easy to keep.  I prefer to use (for pin size) a small 2 1/2 gal. tank with a screen lid so they can't escape.  I keep them on a thin layer of play sand, and change this often, to prevent the growth of bacteria/odor.  They need cardboard (you can use pieces of paper towel or toilet paper rolls.  This absorbs their urine, and permits them to hide/climb) while providing a place to keep them for gut loading.  Keep their water bowl (you can use a small jar lid filled with a piece of wet paper towel to prevent drowning) and food bowls clean (use a small milk jug top for the dry foods, and another for the fresh fruits and vegies).  Anything they eat will end up in your pet!  

You can google "Gut loading crickets," but this is a general idea:

I recommend feeding crickets: dry Iguana food, dry dog food, chick starter mash, oatmeal (you can mix these things, and store them in the refrigerator until needed) supplimented with bananas, apples, oranges, grapefruit, carrots, green beans, squash, zucchini, kale, spinach, cactus pads, and just about anything else you can think of. I would suggest providing the dog food and/or chick starter mash, along with kale at all times, rotating the other food items through in succession. Again, the key is variety. What you are trying to do is offer your animal/reptile/amphibian crickets with guts 'loaded' with fresh foodstuffs. Don't offer more crickets than the pet will consume within a few hours, so you know the crickets will still be full of the good stuff when eaten.

Since this is hard to do when feeding small amounts of crickets; just save a piece of your vegies/fruits as you consume them, in the freezer in a freezer zip bag.  It's easy to use your thumb nail or the tip of a butter knife, to scratch off a tiny amt. for daily feedings for the crickets, and make sure your pet is getting a variety of nutrients when it feeds.

Your best advice will most likely come from your vet.  Ask them about the animal.  I would strongly recommend you have the animal checked by a vet at the time of purchase, to be sure its healthy (just as you would with a cat or puppy).  This is also a good practice so that your vet can become familiar with the particular animal.  It's better to have a vet ready for illness should it happen, then to try to find one after the pet becomes ill.  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," as the adage goes.

Reptiles show illness very slowly, and by the time one is acting like its sick; it can often be too late to help it.  So, know your pet well.

Be informed, and enjoy!

Answer 4

caudata is great also this one is brilliant i would read both

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/salamande...

read everything on both sites about fire belly newts and general newt and salamander keeping

fire belly newts make great pets

1)1 newt minimum of 8-10 gallons

2)ummm well look at the bit where the tail meets the body if there are 2 swellings (balls) its a boy

3)no heating keep under 21C (lower is better mine never go over 20C and are usually about 18C) a lower wattage low heat fluorescent lamp on a timer

4) 5inchs of water with branches/floating islands/some sort of decoration when they get out of the water.

5) mine get mainly bloodworms and chopped earthworms (crickets seem to drown themselves too quick and can bite your newts)