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If you have recently obtained a newt as a pet, you will obviously want to find out as much as you can about these fascinating creatures. Eventually, you might even run into issues such as why is the newt not eating. In regard to this particular problem, there are a few reasons.
New Surroundings
Your newt may be adjusting to its new surroundings. Sometimes animals need time to get used to a new environment and while they do may lose their appetite while they adjust. It is a good idea to keep an eye on the newt and to offer food regularly. The most likely scenario is that it will eat once it feels comfortable.
Rough-Skinned Newt 
Smooth Newt 
Eastern Red Spotted Newt
Do You Have More Than One Newt?
If you have more than one newt, it might be worth spending a bit of time monitoring how they are interacting with each other. In some cases, larger newts will dominate smaller ones, which can cause stress and prevent the dominated one from eating. If you notice this kind of dominating behavior, it might be a good idea to separate them and see if the smaller newt starts eating when not in the same tank.
Try Live Food
Although frozen food such as bloodworms is suitable for most newts, not all will enjoy this type of food. Some prefer live food, so it might be the case that you will need to buy live worms or even try digging for some outside if you can.
Although pretty gross, you might need to cut up the worms if you think they are too big for your newt to eat.
Emperor Newt 
Common Newt
How Long Can Newts Go Without Food?
Newts should be fed every two to three days. If you have noticed that your newt is not eating, then you will need to try to establish the reason why this is happening. Make sure you are feeding suitable food and if you have been feeding only frozen food, try to mix it up by providing live food every two or three feeds. Remember that newts do not eat plants and cannot digest such foods.
If your newt has not eaten for more than a week, it might be best to seek expert advice.
Photo Credits:
- Featured Image (Red-Tailed Knobby Newt): Seánín Óg
– Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). - Rough-Skinned Newt: Rennett Stowe – Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
- Smooth Newt: gailhampshire – This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
- Eastern Red-Spotted Newt: Bruce Lucas – This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
- Emperor Newt: Huangdaniel30 – This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
- Common Newt: Ian Kirk – This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
