Chinese Fire Bellied Newts

Newts are wonderful. Easy to keep, fun to watch and with a brain somewhat bigger than a scorpion’s, they make very interesting pets. Personally, I have two and you’d be surprised how different their characters are.

Housing: Water quality is very important for news, salamanders, and just about any other amphibian. Ideally, you’d keep them in a large aquarium with several liters of water and a strong but safe pump. That’s the ideal situation. Strong pumps I’ve got, safe ones I haven’t. Therefore, instead of a pump, I use guppies and a small freshwater shrimp. Between them they seem to keep the water at a decent level. Besides, I think the aquarium plants absorb some of the Nitrogenous waste.

I keep my (fully aquatic) newts in a 15gallon aquarium that is about 2/3 filled with water. Their aquarium must… and that’s worth repeating… must have a lid that stops your pets climbing up the sides and escaping. My aquarium is basically divided in two parts. One part has a mound or (large) gravel that is almost as high as the water is deep. The rest is pretty much empty swimming space, except for a few aquarium plants in one corner to provide entertainment and hiding spaces. I also keep a semi-submerged branch for the newts to ‘bask’ on. These newts seem to prefer cooler conditions, so don’t heat their aquariums to tropical levels. Change their water regularly – about once every week, more often if possible (obviously don’t give them a temperature shock – only change a small amount of water at a time).

Feeding: I feed my newts a staple of live bloodworms. I occasionally give them a small mealworm and I’m sure they nab the occasional baby guppy. I just hold the mealworms close to the newts using a thin pair of tweezers (make sure the newt can hurt itself if it accidentally grabs the tweezers instead of the worms). Once the newts see the blood worms wriggling they will lunge at them and such them into their mouths. A word of warning: guppies can make it insanely difficult to do this. Adding guppies helps with water quality and provides an occasional snack, but will force you to spend a considerably longer time feeding your newts (which actually adds to the fun..).

Final words of advice: Make sure you remember that all amphibians have very sensitive skins. Whenever, if ever, you have to handle them make sure your hands are perfectly clean (no chemicals) and moist. However, also remember that these animals’ main defense, as advertised by their vibrant underbellies, is poison. I don’t recommend you rub your eye or stick your finger in your mouth after handling them…

Philippine Hanging Parrot

This is certainly not a beginner’s parrot. Generally shy, hard to tame and with pretty significant special requirements, think twice before getting (or, as in my case, adopting one). Having said that, they are lovely little animals and their quirky habit of hanging upside down when they sleep (sorry… no photo) and their constant antics will entertain you for hours.

Feeding: Philippine hanging parrots feed primarily on fruit. I feed mine pawpaw (papaya) as a staple and occasionally give it a piece of mango or a banana. With both pawpaw and banana they make an unholy mess – mashing the pulp in their curiously designed beak to remove all the juices before flinging their heads to get rid of it, chucking it in all directions. Its previous owners couldn’t handle this. I occasionally also hang a piece of spray millet in its cage, which it enjoys playing with and I think eats a bit of as well. As I keep a Java Rice Finch with it I always have seeds in the cage as well. These are not necessary, but I often see it investigating them (I don’t know if it actually eats any – other observations would be welcomed). With bananas it doesn’t make as much of a mess, but I don’t think it likes them much.
Water is important, especially as hanging parrots love to take baths on hot days. Otherwise I think it gets much of its fluids from the fruit it eats.

Housing: A regular bird cage will do. Anything you would keep a cockatiel in, but ideally with a flat roof so that the parrot can sleep hanging from it. Mine loves to display on a long, horizontal perch – running along it while uttering high-pitched chirps. Try to simulate the forest canopy, without completely removing flying space. These birds are made for running along branches and climbing through foliage so I keep several perches (mostly horizontal but with one at an angle) of different diameters positioned so that he can jump form one to the next. Adding a palm frond every week or so (you’ll need to change it) will provide it with hours of fun.

Taming: I’ve tamed several small parrots before, namely two lovebirds and two budgies. However, I found this little parrot immensely hard to tame – in fact I’ve failed. If you want a bird that will sit on your shoulder either A) get a captive bred one or B) get a budgie. In any case, if you intend to try I suggest you go with the perch method. They aren’t the smartest parrots, so the perch method (getting it used to stepping onto a perch you’re holding then making the perch progressively shorter) is the most likely to give results. As you can hopefully see in the rather poor quality photo, mine is tame to the point that I can take it out one a week or so to give it some exercise in my ‘bird run.’ Getting him back into the cage is usually far harder than getting him out – he’s far more agile than more conventional pet birds. A lesson I very nearly learnt the hard way - - never let your hanger out of its cage with lovebirds around. Lovebirds are the pit-bulls of the parrot world. Actually, never let any bird out while your lovebirds are out of their cage. Mine would even gang up on 1month old ducklings (considerably bigger than them)!

Final note: When I got mine I decided he desperately needed to have his nails clipped, so I did. However, it seems that this species naturally has very long nails which it uses to grip branches and foliage when hanging upside-down. Therefore, if your bird’s nails are so long that it is getting stuck on the cage bars, have them clipped (only clip them yourself if you know how and have something to stop any bleeding – flour never works for me). Otherwise give it perches or different diameters and textures and it should wear them down to an appropriate size. Mine has black nails, so it is really hard to see the veins. Never let these birds out in a room that has insect screening. There is nothing worse than trying to free a small, frightened bird that has it’s nails stuck in an insect screen – I know. If you have an accident provide it with a perch right under its belly and with a long, thin stick try to carefully jiggle each nail out of the screen. Do not grad your bird and pull! Even if you manage not to harm it, it would probably never forgive you.

Little File Snakes

I've had a little file snake (Achrochordus granulatus) for a number of months now. I won't say it's a great pet... It could be, but mine isn't yet. Being wild caught it still needs to get used to captivity. Although they don't seem at all inclined to bite and can be handled readily, they are still 'observer pets' (unlike corn snakes, ball pythons, etc). Being entirely aquatic, they don't seem to have muscles designed to support them out of the water so I am strongly against handling them out of their aquarium. Wild caught ones shouldn't be handled at all... it would simply be too stressful.

I am not an expert on this species, but here is a website that has absolutely brilliant information on it, both in captivity and in the wild. It has certainly helped me get my snake to calm down and start to eat more regularly. Enjoy!

Personally my setup is a 35 gallon aquarium with a light and temperature gradient, shrimp as cleaners, fish as cleaners and food, a section with gravel (large), a section with plants and soil, a hiding place on each side of the aquarium, and a few decorative rocks. I keep the temperature at around 32 degrees Celsius at it's max (down to about 28 degrees) and add a teaspoon of aquarium salt every couple of weeks or so (not too much as I am afraid it would kill the shrimp and fish).

Advice and suggestions from other little file snake owners would be welcome as a comment.