Question: Am I feed my Axolotl too much!

[Axi Nutter]

I have only had Kelvin now for a couple of weeks, and I absolutely love him to bits. My concern is that I am feeding him to much. He has an enriched diet and on a daily basis will have pellets throughout the day and either a earth worm or two prawns. He just loves eating and I am sure he considers me as the food lady, since every time I go into the room he comes straight over and stands on his hind legs at the side of his tank. In terms of size he is approximately 17cm.

 

[Smoxolotl]

He is a beautiful axie indeed! A pretty good guideline to figure out if you have a chubby or skinny lotl is if the width of their head is around equal to the width of their body. These are right around the same width in a healthy axolotl. You could and probably should switch to a mainly earthworm diet for him. Earthworms are generally regarded as the best all around food for axolotls, the others being occasional treats. Uneaten food will spoil the water so that should be removed after a reasonable amount of time. Adults should be fed less often than quickly growing and active juveniles. I'm not sure how old yours is but he's approaching an adult size. You may think about cutting down his food intake to once a day or every other day to start and see how he does with that.

 

[Axi Nutter]

Thank you for your advice, that has really made me feel a bit more at ease. Kelvin has just had a large earth worm and he munched it down in no time, the greedy little thing.