Are newts or salamanders easy pets? Are they good pets for children?
They CAN be easy pets if you get healthy ones, keep them cool enough, and feed the right foods. Maintaining a healthy newt or salamander takes little work other than some cleaning and feeding. BUT realize that cooling your newt down to the temperature he needs may be very expensive. The most widely available newt species, Cynops orientalis, is very sensitive to warm temperatures and often arrives to pet stores in poor condition. Here are some species that are more hardy: Pleurodeles waltl, Tylototriton verrucosus, Cynops pyrrhogaster, and Cynops ensicauda. These four species can tolerate temps above 21C (72F) as long as they are healthy. None of these species is readily available in a pet shop, except occasionally C. pyrrhogaster. To obtain the others you need to find a breeder. Most children like pets they can interact with. Newts and salamanders are not that type of pet. Handling and playing with them will cause them a lot of stress, which could kill them. Instead they should be left
