Question: Feeding struggles

[Wyvell]

Hello all!
I have an axolotl thats a little over a year old and just about 10 inches long. However, I cant get her to eat worms. She is scared of them. I put them on her head and she snaps at it, spits it out and backs away from it quickly. If I leave them in the tank, they tend to stay for a few days and then die. I have thus far been feeding her pellets and bloodworms but I would love to get her to eat normal worms. She has also eaten live ghost shrimp before so I don't understand why she is afraid of the worms. I have also gotten her to eat Wax worms on occasion (I know they are not a good source of nutrition but who doesnt like a cheeseburger every once in a while) but she will only eat them if they have been cut/pierced.
Any Ideas on what I can do to help her eat them are helpful.
Thanks Guys!

 

[Rxoc]

I am by no means an expert, but have you tried cutting the worms? I would definitely wait and see what others with more experience have to say.

 

[ghosttheaxolotl]

I have had the exact same problem with my axolotl! They will not eat worms and appear to be scared of them since they just swim away quickly when they get close. I had to resort to just stop trying and try again later. I have yet to try again but since he’s grown a little I am planning to retry in the next week or so

 

[tundrabadger]

What kind of worms are you trying to feed her? I've heard that red wigglers (which are smallish, red and in my experience really very active) have a bitter taste to them that some axies don't care for. I've had some success with them personally but I usually give them a rinse.



One of my axies will kind of hop backwards showing every sign of what I would describe as fear when you try to give her something she really doesn't feel like eating, and another goes and hides in the corner if his food is too big for him to swallow. So I wonder if it might be a taste or, as Rxo_c suggested, a size issue. if you're trying to feed nightcrawlers they are fantastic food for axies, all mine seem to love the taste, but they can get really big and fat, and I've had a couple that I needed to chop in half even for my biggest axie, who I don't have a "what she does when she doesn't want the food" story about because it's never come up so that should tell you something. SO you might try cutting the worms as well, keeping in mind that if they have a particularly wide girth you're going to want even shorter pieces....maybe thirds rather than halves, for example.

 

[NidiaNz]

Blanching the worms in hot water should do the trick.

 

[Hayleyy]

All of the above! My axies don't like red wrigglers, but love nightcrawlers. Steve was scared of the worms for a month after I got him, he would always swim away. I started feeding him chunks of worm as he got used to it. Now he eats them in one gulp How long have you had her for?

 

[ophelia123]

Definitely try cutting them up. My axolotl loves Canadian crawlers. When she was a baby I cut them, but as an adult she's fine swallowing them whole, but I would guess if the axolotl didn't start eating them from a young age, they might be more hesitant.

Have you tried feeding frozen? Frozen blood worms are easy to find, though they can get kind of messy. Are you overfeeding? Axolotls really don't have to eat much. Try giving her a worm after maybe two days of not eating to see if she has a better appetite for them. But if she doesn't like worms and she's eating fine and this isn't a sudden change, I really wouldn't worry, you can always feed her something else.