Having trouble feeding axolotls

[gavin]

hi i have a new axolot and having trouble feeding him. I've been feeding him feezedried bloodworms, shrimp, and tubifex worms. They just float and i can't get them to sink. My little guy just sits at the bottom so cant see the food. I've been trying to get all the air out of the food and trying to sink it down but that is very time consuming. I would really appreciate some feeding tecniques.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Hi.
Axolotl prefer to eat live food.. live earth worms are one of the best. Alternately it needs to be more on the bottom of the tank. I suspect freeze dried food will only float , frozen tens to sink better. What size is your axolotl at the moment?

 

[mitchell101]

If you can't get your food down to the bottom of the tank use tweezers or forceps. If you don't have forceps just use your fingers, it's just a bit trickier because you can't really see what you are doing but it's fun hand feeding. Just hold the food near his face and he should gulp it up. If he doesn't like the foods you are giving him try him on other foods because like humans axolotls don't like the same foods as each other and each one eats differently. Most of them love worms, you can either buy worms for a bait store or pet store, make a worm farm or just dig them up from your garden. Have fun feeding.
Mitch.

 

[ianclick]

Hi Gavin,

For my axolotls its all about routine. I feed them at the same time at regular intervals. They have come to expect food at this time and are ready and waiting as soon as I approach the tank. I hand feed them and always in the same place in the tank (a different place for each axolotl). I do this as I have two tanks with four axolotls in each and it ensures I know that they have each had a feed.

I feed them either beef heart or a store bought mix called Axie Tucker which is a mix of meat, insects, minerals and vitamins.

The biggest issue with hand feeding is cleanliness just think what we touch in the course of the day and also what chemical products we use and remember to wash and rinse your hands before and after the feeding.

 

[Darkmaverick]

Hi Gavin,

Firstly freezedried anything really isn't nutrionally very sound so you might like to feed other food varieties.

For staples i recommend live earthworms, blackworms, bloodworms and pellets. For occasional treats i recommend bits of fish, shrimp, beef heart strips (although i like the word julienne). And good news they all sink!

Here are some links i think would be useful for you to have a better understanding of nutrition for axies.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/worms.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml

Live food are really nutrionally very complete and have the added bonus of stimulating the axie's appetite by their wriggly movements. The axie has special vibration sensing receptors which makes them think MEAL TIME!

You can do as the rest suggested and try hand feeding them or use feeding forceps or you can drop in some live earthworms in front of their faces and let them hunt. They are opportunistic feeders so its really quite fun seeing them root around for food.

If you use a feeding bowl and if you feed at a regular time (routine), you can actually somewhat 'train' your axie. Whenever its meal time, my axies come out from the hiding spots and await in anticipation near the front of the tank or see me walk by.

Also axies are crepuscular (Eva's favourite word), and are most active at dawn and the evening, so feeding them around these times would be ideal.

Last but not least, if you are willing to quarantine feeder fish or freshwater shrimps for a period of 30 days minimum, you can actually put some in your axie's tank as feeder fish/shrimp. They are occasional treats that the axie can work for by hunting.

Cheers.

 

[gavin]

he's only like 3 inches long.

 

[Jacquie]

Hi Gavin,

When feeding the axolotl frozen bloodworm (very messy food) you could try using the jar method (ensure jar is large enough to accommodate the axolotl):

• Fill a jar to the brim with water from the aquarium
• Pop in the bloodworm cubes, let them thaw and settle to the bottom
• Ensure jar is full to the brim and gently immerse the jar into the aquarium
• As the jar is full of water there should be no water turbulence to disturb the bloodworm in the bottom of the jar
• Lay the jar on its side on the tank floor
• Now that the jar is laying on its side, the bloodworm should now be to the rear of the jar

Position the jar in an 'easy to find and wander in' section of the tank and it shouldn't take long for the nosey axolotl to find the bloodworm in the jar. You can leave the jar there for about an hour or so.

The jar method also helps in keeping the tank clean as the bloodworm is kept to a confined space while the axolotl lunges and munches at it, and this makes for easy removal of leftovers.

At three inches the axolotl should be more than capable of eating small earthworms, or chopped up large earthworms. Axolotls have very large cup mouths, as a rough guide the portion sizes should be about as long as the axolotl's mouth is wide.

I would definately add earthworm to the axolotl's main diet as earthworm contains all the nutrition an axolotl needs.