Can someone please help me make a feeding schedule for my starved rescue axolotl?

[faebugz]

I rescued an axolotl yesterday, and he's so skinny it's terrifying. This is him after I've fed him even, just now:

Can someone please help me design a feeding schedule for him? Yesterday I fed him some worm chunks and a few salmon eggs over the course of 24 hours, but tonight I cleaned his tank and found he vomited everything back up. There was also a couple small gravel bits that came up.

I'm really worried because he's so skinny. I don't want to accidentally overfeed him again or cause refeeding syndrome. I fed him another worm chunk right before I noticed he threw everything up, not sure if he kept this one down though. After that I very carefully fed him some frozen brine shrimp one at a time to go easy on his stomach. I think he probably ate about 15 of them (they're very small).

He is 1.5ish years old, but only 6 inches long maybe. He seems to be doing okay but this is scary not knowing how much or how little to feed!

 

[michael]

I think you have the general idea. The first thought might be to feed heavy to bring it up to size. The axolotls metabolism is not fired up to digest much food. Start out feeding at about 1/3 to 1/2 of you would feed a healthy axolotl of that size. Slowly work your way up

 

[faebugz]

I think you have the general idea. The first thought might be to feed heavy to bring it up to size. The axolotls metabolism is not fired up to digest much food. Start out feeding at about 1/3 to 1/2 of you would feed a healthy axolotl of that size. Slowly work your way up

Thank you for the advice. I've been feeding him repashy grub pie since I have it on hand, and the brine shrimp weren't interesting him much. At first I had to douse it in garlic oil to even get him to look at it, and eating was slow going the first couple days. I would sit there for 10 minutes at a time holding a small chunk in the tank while he pushed his mouth against it and swallowed repeatedly until he would finally open his mouth and take a bit. Rinse and repeat for an hour or two. Luckily today, he seems to have gotten an appetite and figured out how to eat food without as much help- I'm now able to drop chunks in, and he will even sniff out a few he misses on the way down.

I would say up until today, I fed him about 1/16th-1/8th tsp of repashy twice a day, eating possibly less than that in the morning. Today, he has eaten possibly double that.

My only concern at this point, is I haven't seen a poo yet. Is this normal? He doesn't appear to be pushed out at all or constipated.

Here's a couple pics of him from yesterday, after 3.5 days of feeding

You can see where his spinal bones are jutting out of his tail

 

[Firefly dragon]

Thank you for the advice. I've been feeding him repashy grub pie since I have it on hand, and the brine shrimp weren't interesting him much. At first I had to douse it in garlic oil to even get him to look at it, and eating was slow going the first couple days. I would sit there for 10 minutes at a time holding a small chunk in the tank while he pushed his mouth against it and swallowed repeatedly until he would finally open his mouth and take a bit. Rinse and repeat for an hour or two. Luckily today, he seems to have gotten an appetite and figured out how to eat food without as much help- I'm now able to drop chunks in, and he will even sniff out a few he misses on the way down.

I would say up until today, I fed him about 1/16th-1/8th tsp of repashy twice a day, eating possibly less than that in the morning. Today, he has eaten possibly double that.

My only concern at this point, is I haven't seen a poo yet. Is this normal? He doesn't appear to be pushed out at all or constipated.

Here's a couple pics of him from yesterday, after 3.5 days of feeding
View attachment 88958
You can see where his spinal bones are jutting out of his tail

Hi i am a new owner of an axolotl but having a lot of research, reading every post that refers to them and watching her 18hours per day i realize that the times that i thought that she has vomit her food, it was actually poops that after a second they where melted and separated in small pieces that looks almost food without digestion , especially the frozen bloodworms! Maybe you facing the same case, and its not by overfeed it. I use to feed her as much as she want within 3 minutes . She can eat a whole earthworm in a size of her body every night and a half of a frozen bloodworms cube as a breakfast!! .she is 12cm now and was just 4 when i adopted her. I assumed that she is about to 5 months old, and it was very difficult to me to find the proper feed schedule too, because of the luck of information about axolotls in my country. My suggestion is to try to find the schedule that fits to your axolotl appetite by let it eat as much as it wants and watch the outcoming staff. I hope my experience with mine axo helps you to be less stressed about feeding, at least .( Sorry for my poor english , i am from Greece.)