Mr. Newt peeking at me

I am repainting Mr. Newt's vivarium stand so his tank is currently on the floor. I am unsure of his level of awareness or memory capacity (?) but he has been behaving somewhat outside the norm the past few days he's been down there. He seems to be aware of and curious about the change in view. I noticed a little head peeping at me when I walked by and thought it was cute I do not regularly see him hanging out in this part of his log. I also got to thinking it's been about *9* years since I took him in! Since he was a year or 2 old when I got him and has a 25-30 year life expectancy, that's how many more years to go of cleaning an aquarium every week and handling live insects

Can you spot him?






Grumpy newt says- "Stop taking photos of me"


Edit: For those of you who haven't seen this guy before, while he spends most of his time underwater, he breathes air and does need a small patch of "land". He occasionally hangs out up there on top of the plant or the magnetic ledge out of the water. That's why his tank is only half full, to provide an out of water area and enough space above he cannot climb out of the tank.

I love Mr. Newt! He's very fortunate to have found his way to your home 9 years ago.. with the excellent care he gets, he should be enjoying a full lifespan for many more years . Wow, I had no idea they are capable of living that long.

RavensGryf said:

I love Mr. Newt! He's very fortunate to have found his way to your home 9 years ago.. with the excellent care he gets, he should be enjoying a full lifespan for many more years . Wow, I had no idea they are capable of living that long.

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He may not be a "pet" in the traditional sense, but we're also lucky to have him. He's a fascinating little creature to observe, very tranquil and peaceful. Does not make noise Compared to the big green all consuming :16:, he needs very little care.

Many people do not realize that with proper care, many species of reptiles and amphibians have exceptionally long lifespans, some of 30+ years (like those giant snakes)! My leopard gecko is now in his 20s and reaching the end of his long and natural lifespan. When he goes, it will be of simple old age. Unfortunately, people put little value on the lives or reptiles/amphibians and rampant neglect has skewed the perception towards the belief they are short lived pets In reality, while they may be less work, they require a lifetime care commitment akin to many medium sized parrots!

What kind of newt is he? I had no clue they could live so long. When I was a kid we had a pond in the woods out back, my brother and I would get 5 gallon buckets and see who could catch the most frogs and/or newts, lol

Very nice newt. You will appreciate this story. When I was in my early 20's, I lived upstate New York, way out in the sticks. My brother would come up on weekends and we would go snakin' , catching garter, black racers, milk snakes, what ever was native to upper NY. And one time, messing around this big swamp, we hit the jackpot, and caught hundreds of newts and red efts. My brother would take the weekends efforts back to New York City and sell them to pet shops all over NY. We kept a few too, so I can appreciate having to keep live bugs (crickets). These were smaller newts, Spotted or Red Bellied, cant remember. But a couple lived like 10 years with us.

ToMang07 said:

What kind of newt is he? I had no clue they could live so long. When I was a kid we had a pond in the woods out back, my brother and I would get 5 gallon buckets and see who could catch the most frogs and/or newts, lol

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He is almost certainly in the paramesotriton genus (Asian warty newts), though I am less certain past that as to his exact species or subspecies. I believe him to be a Hong Kong warty newt, though I have had trouble with reliable identification. A neighbors kid lost interest, thats how I ended up with him. That guy said he was a fire belly newt, which he is not.

I spent a good portion of my childhood catching lizards and lots of bugs to feed them with! I wasn't really a "dolls" and "dress up" kind of girl My parents would let me keep them a couple days but then I had to let them go back to nature where they belonged

wrench13 said:

Very nice newt. You will appreciate this story. When I was in my early 20's, I lived upstate New York, way out in the sticks. My brother would come up on weekends and we would go snakin' , catching garter, black racers, milk snakes, what ever was native to upper NY. And one time, messing around this big swamp, we hit the jackpot, and caught hundreds of newts and red efts. My brother would take the weekends efforts back to New York City and sell them to pet shops all over NY. We kept a few too, so I can appreciate having to keep live bugs (crickets). These were smaller newts, Spotted or Red Bellied, cant remember. But a couple lived like 10 years with us.

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I have lots of family way upstate and I loved the little red efts (no real memories of finding any adults). They were always my favorite little critters to find back there, so small and cute I have a vivid memory once of putting one in a (clean) tuna tin with some dirt and keeping it on my grandmas table for a day and really finding it difficult when it came time to let it go. I was always iffy about snakes. Lots of poisonous ones where I grew up in Arizona, so I always left them be. I'm not scared of pet snakes, but wild ones I'd be afraid to misidentify! I've never kept a wild-caught reptile or amphibian for any significant period of time, but interesting to hear others have had them live long times as pets!

Kiwibird said:

I spent a good portion of my childhood catching lizards and lots of bugs to feed them with! I wasn't really a "dolls" and "dress up" kind of girl My parents would let me keep them a couple days but then I had to let them go back to nature where they belonged

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^That part in particular sparked a memory I had all but forgotten, lol

So when I was 11-ish, we had a 10 gallon tank that we kept trying to keep wild caught crawfish in. (They usually died in a week or 2 and would not eat.) Well, we decided to try a wild caught bluegill.

We put the 2 bluegills in. No sooner had we made it about halfway across the living room when we heard this loud "Thrap!" and a crack.....one one of the bluegills managed to throw itself into the side of the glass so hard it cracked it right down the seam.....and there goes 10 gallons of water, and 2 bluegills back out to the pond. I took my time coming back....I was very much in it for that mess, lol!!!

ToMang07 said:

So when I was 11-ish, we had a 10 gallon tank that we kept trying to keep wild caught crawfish in. (They usually died in a week or 2 and would not eat.) Well, we decided to try a wild caught bluegill.

We put the 2 bluegills in. No sooner had we made it about halfway across the living room when we heard this loud "Thrap!" and a crack.....one one of the bluegills managed to throw itself into the side of the glass so hard it cracked it right down the seam.....and there goes 10 gallons of water, and 2 bluegills back out to the pond. I took my time coming back....I was very much in it for that mess, lol!!!

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How large of a bluegill did you try to keep?! Those fish get to be the size of a salad plate! I bet your mom was less than pleased about 10 gallons of water all over the floor:52:

Hard saying.... probably 5-7", wasn't THAT big, but yeah.....big mess, lol

I've always had a fascination particularly with lizards and frogs since childhood. I remember a friend and I would catch the tiniest hatchling lizards that were so small they could sit on our fingetip. They would always die because we'd fail to realize that they needed food... they probably wouldn't have eaten anyway, even if we provided tiny bugs. Poor things . Another friend and I would have a snail collection. I recall we even took them swimming.. we noticed they didn't swim well .

Incredible your leopard gecko is in his 20's. That's great. It's Leo, isn't it?

Kiwibird said:

RavensGryf said:

I love Mr. Newt! He's very fortunate to have found his way to your home 9 years ago.. with the excellent care he gets, he should be enjoying a full lifespan for many more years . Wow, I had no idea they are capable of living that long.

Click to expand...

He may not be a "pet" in the traditional sense, but we're also lucky to have him. He's a fascinating little creature to observe, very tranquil and peaceful. Does not make noise Compared to the big green all consuming :16:, he needs very little care.

Many people do not realize that with proper care, many species of reptiles and amphibians have exceptionally long lifespans, some of 30+ years (like those giant snakes)! My leopard gecko is now in his 20s and reaching the end of his long and natural lifespan. When he goes, it will be of simple old age. Unfortunately, people put little value on the lives or reptiles/amphibians and rampant neglect has skewed the perception towards the belief they are short lived pets In reality, while they may be less work, they require a lifetime care commitment akin to many medium sized parrots!

Click to expand...

Strange story, my husband has a warehouse and office in an industrial area and my son found a leopard gecko while he was cleaning in there. I have no idea how it got there, but of course my son brought it home for me to take care of. It's not that I don't like reptiles and amphibians, but they're not exactly a pet a would buy for myself.

I've had her for about four years now. I think it's a her because it lays eggs. She doesn't do much of anything, she pretty much stays inside her rock and only comes out to eat crickets.

I don't know much about them. She seems content, but she rarely comes out of that rock. Is there anything else they particularly like? I feel like she must be bored and would like something else to do other than sit in a rock all day.

RavensGryf said:

Another friend and I would have a snail collection. I recall we even took them swimming.. we noticed they didn't swim well .

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I know I shouldn't find it funny but I just can't help but laugh a little. The snails didn't swim well😂😂😂 I bet not!

Sandy19 said:

Strange story, my husband has a warehouse and office in an industrial area and my son found a leopard gecko while he was cleaning in there. I have no idea how it got there, but of course my son brought it home for me to take care of. It's not that I don't like reptiles and amphibians, but they're not exactly a pet a would buy for myself.

I've had her for about four years now. I think it's a her because it lays eggs. She doesn't do much of anything, she pretty much stays inside her rock and only comes out to eat crickets.

I don't know much about them. She seems content, but she rarely comes out of that rock. Is there anything else they particularly like? I feel like she must be bored and would like something else to do other than sit in a rock all day.

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Nope, that's pretty much what mine has done all the years I've had him- hide in his little cave and do a whole lot of nothing. I joke that he's lived so dang long because he does absolutely nothing to age him. They are not very 'interesting' reptiles to keep as pets TBH. The truth is, leopard geckos just "appear" to sleep all the time because they are in fact a nocturnal species and typically active after we humans have turned off the lights and gone to bed. Reptiles are mostly solitary creatures and do not need attention per se, but they can learn to not fear being held and can in fact come to enjoy being held because our hands are warm Mine will just curl up in the hand and let you pet him because he likes the warmth. They are actually quite soft, yet bumpy.

They are fairly hardy reptiles and don't need too much care. Mist the enclosure once a day, always provide fresh water. I'd recommend a substrate of reptile carpet to sand or wood, both of which can cause gut impaction (they eat a bug and a bite of substrate with it, my guy almost dies once because of severe impaction). Be sure to provide a reptile sunlamp at one end of the enclosure during the day and don't let nighttime temps drop too low (they need warmth to digest food and function, as cold blooded creatures), but avoid those undertake heaters. I have heard one too many horror tales of those overheating and cooking the reptile or catching fire. When they shed (about once a month or so), they will turn a sickly color a few days prior before turning white. A few extra spritzes from a mister is helpful to them in getting their skin off. They will eat most of their skin. It is nutritious and normal for them to do this. In addition to gut loading your feeder insects for 48 hours prior to feeding, since she is an egg laying female (males do not lay eggs), you should also dust the insects with a reptile calcium supplement. Do not feed her every day. A larger feeding two or 3 times a week is better. It's a hard thing for caring pet owners to not feed a pet daily, but it is not healthy for some reptile species to eat every day. Overfeeding significantly reduces lifespan, actually. Watch her tail, it should be nice and plump but not outrageously fat. About the size of a thumb if she is a large adult. The tail is your visual that she is getting the right amount of food. If you notice it thinning out, then feed her more often. It is natural in cooler months for leopard geckos to eat less and their tails to thin out a bit. In nature, they would enter a semi-hibernative state. Lastly, thanks for being willing to take her in even if she's not your pet of choosing

I don't feed her everyday. After having a saltwater aquarium for years I've found that it's very similar to the fish and less can be more. People think they should be fed everyday, but they really don't. It's healthier for them and their living environment to have feedings only a few times a week and they're happy and healthy.

I didn't think about the sand, however. I'm going to the pet store tomorrow and I'll see if I can find the reptile carpet.

Here's a picture of her I already had on photobucket. The other picture is a baby I found in her terrarium about a year ago. I live in Florida where lizards are common so I don't know if this is a baby lizard that coincidentally got in my house and jumped in there or if she actually had an egg that hatched. Anyway my son couldn't leave it alone and it jumped off his hand never to be seen again.