Growing newts

[Paul Wagland]

Jeannine and I are growing great crested newts from eggs!

We did this last year with a reasonable success rate, and this year have invested in a much larger tank (£5 from a boot fair!) to try and cut down on water-quality problems.

The eggs arrive on strips of plastic and are floating in a kitchen sieve balanced at the top of the tank, to protect them from any naughty snails etc.

Hopefully these pics will show you the set-up. The third one is a tank of daphnia (water fleas), grown in strong light as food for the newts.

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[penny]

where did you get the eggs?

[HeyWayne]

Isn't the third one a screen grab from the opening credits of a Pixar film?

[vicky]

Cool - new pets!
So what do you do with them when they've hatched? I assume they are released at some point?
And this is something run by an organisation (which one?) - I imagine it's not some lawbreaking scheme you've come up with by yourselves!
How many eggs do you get? More details please, it sounds really interesting!

[Paul Wagland]

where did you get the eggs?

Mail order from a guy who breeds them (and other native newts and toads). PM me if you want his address, though it might be too late for this year...

Isn't the third one a screen grab from the opening credits of a Pixar film?

Haha - It certainly could be! Never seen the lamp move on its own though. Maybe if I lick one of the newts?

So what do you do with them when they've hatched? I assume they are released at some point?
And this is something run by an organisation (which one?) - I imagine it's not some lawbreaking scheme you've come up with by yourselves!
How many eggs do you get? More details please, it sounds really interesting!

They will be released into our garden - just like the newts we produced last year. Hopefully this will give us a good breeding colony - provided the chickens don't develop a taste for them!

It's a program run by a private individual - the eggs are laid by captive newts so there are no legal issues (you can't take them from the wild, as I'm sure you know).

We ordered 20 eggs (they come in tens), and I tried to get palmate and smooth newts too, but he said the larger species will predate the smaller ones, so best wait until we get another tank set up.

He also does natterjack toads (how I want those on my allotment!) but this year rats broke into the breeding enclosure and ate all the toad spawn before it was ready

[Flummery]

where did you get the eggs?

Well, when a mummy newt and a daddy newt love each other ...

[HeyWayne]

Well, when a mummy newt and a daddy newt love each other ...

Before or after they're p*ssed.

[janeyo]

Are those the protected ones? There is a strip of land behind us (woodlandish) with deer and loads of unusual birds like woodpeckers, and hopies(spelling?) and they now want to develop it.
I am thinking if I can get some protected newts in they can't!

janeyo

[jeannine]

Janeyo, I've been wondering about exactly the same thing.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that if Great Crested Newts are living somewhere it can't be developed - might be worth checking with the Wildlife Trusts, they know about that sort of thing!

[Headfry]

Paul you are sooo lucky. I keep looking for newts in my pond but alas nothing

[HeyWayne]

Janeyo, I've been wondering about exactly the same thing.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that if Great Crested Newts are living somewhere it can't be developed - might be worth checking with the Wildlife Trusts, they know about that sort of thing!

I'm pretty sure it's true, it came up in the recent activity around the proposed warehouse/stadium development next to our village - alas, I don't think any crested newts have been found.

[Headfry]

Paul you are sooo lucky. I keep looking for newts in my pond but alas nothing

[Paul Wagland]

We do worry that the babies will be eaten by dragonfly larvae - but they seem to have survived since last year.

[SueA]

I'd check the legality of what your supplier is doing though Paul as it's illegal to sell or barter a great crested newt or any part of it (could include eggs?). Here's a link to Froglife & you can open a page about 'Legal Protection'. You're not allowed to disturb them in the wild without a licence & this has led to lots of delays in building works as the sites have to be inspected (& can only be inspected at certain times in the year so as not to disturb breeding etc.) & licences granted for them to be rehomed etc. Apparently we have quite a lot in the North West & especially in Cheshire where people are always wanted to build large expensive homes to live in & being held up for months by newts! I saw some great crested newts at a garden centre about a month ago, the guy had brought them in from his own pond to show people & he had a licence & had written a book about them, they were bigger than I thought & very 'prehistoric looking!
Froglife - protecting amphibians and reptiles in the wild

[Paul Wagland]

I'm sure this guy is kosha - he's one of the UK's leading herpetologists.

Yes, I did have to look that word up