# Other Animals > Other Amphibians >  Do Newts & Salamanders Make Good Pets: 5 Points to Consider

## findiviglio

_Hi, Frank Indiviglio here.  Im a herpetologist and book author, recently retired from a career spent at several zoos, aquariums, and museums, including over20_ 
  Despite my very wide interests (my career with animals has, quite literally, spanned ants to elephants!), Ive always been partial to newts and salamanders. I focused on them from my earliest days working for the Bronx Zoo, and had the good fortune to author two books on their care and breeding. As pets and zoo specimens, they range from nearly impossible to keep to being among the longest lived of all captive herps (to age 50+, for the Fire and Japanese Giant Salamanders). The following points, drawn from a lifetime of working with these wonderful creatures in zoos, the field, and at home, are useful to consider before embarking on your amphibian-keeping venture.  Read the rest of this article here Do Newts & Salamanders Make Good Pets? Five Points to Consider 
  Please also check out my posts on Twitter http://bitly.com/JP27Nj and Facebook http://on.fb.me/KckP1m

  My Bio, with photos of animals Ive been lucky enough to work with: That Pet Place Welcomes Frank Indiviglio | That Reptile Blog

  Best Regards, Frank

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Cliygh and Mia 2, Krispy

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## Heather

Very nice article. Thank you, Frank  :Smile: .

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## findiviglio

> Very nice article. Thank you, Frank .


Much appreciated heather..sorry for the delay, post notices not coming through,  best,  Frank

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## Firebellyman

So for a experienced  frog keeper but a blank salamander and newt keeper what specimen would you rye comment keeping I'm interested in starting a newt keeping string I have experience in lizards too

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## Firebellyman

So I have a 20 long and the tetra fauna river bed thing would that be ok with aquatic plants in water half for fire belly newts 
if so how many would be good and is it ok to feed them a staple diet of blood worm sang guppies if so how many guppies would they eat? would it be worth setting up a breeding tank for guppies ? Thank you and I hope I can make a carrier out of my passion like you did

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## Seth

@Firebellyman
I would recommend _Pleurodeles waltl_ for a beginner newt. Take a look at this care article: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pl.../P_waltl.shtml
If you would rather have a "fire belly newt" ( which can refer to well over a dozen species ), I would recommend _Hypselotriton orientalis_ the Chinese Fire belly newt. However, don't buy from pet stores, find some CB ones online. That may be difficult, however, which is part of the reason I recommend the former. For this species, please look at this care article: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cy...ientalis.shtml
You can also look at care articles for more species here: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/caresheets.shtml
That web site in general has tons of great info, and is written by experienced hobbyists and experts.
Hope this helps! -Seth

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## Deva

Interesting article.  I have kept quite a few different salamanders/newts.  I have not had any success keeping fire-bellied newts or eastern newts (both red efts and adults)  alive for more than a few months or a little over a year.

I have kept now for several years a pair of Kweichow newts, a red salamander, a tiger salamander, slimy salamanders and fire salamanders. The fire and red salamanders will probably outlive me, unless we have another major power outage and the air conditioner goes out in mid summer!  The oldest are the Kweichow newts (6 years), which were fully grown when I got them. Their bright orange spots are fading, probably due to age.

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## Firebellyman

Thanks for the article

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