R/axolotls gets on my nerves man

[Dess]

I think you are confusing me with Dess!


Exactly and they are alive many, many years after being fed that diet. You must be doing something right and I used your experience as evidence that axolotls do indeed "have the enzymes" to digest liver. Keep doing what you have been doing, it clearly has been working.

Also there is nothing in the "lab information" posted by Dess that in any way suggests that you are doing anything wrong. So there is no reason to doubt the "Lab or Research school", it is in complete agreement with your experience. The "Lab or Research school" entities also have a long history of feeding exclusively liver.

I think you are confusing me with Dess!


Exactly and they are alive many, many years after being fed that diet. You must be doing something right and I used your experience as evidence that axolotls do indeed "have the enzymes" to digest liver. Keep doing what you have been doing, it clearly has been working.

Also there is nothing in the "lab information" posted by Dess that in any way suggests that you are doing anything wrong. So there is no reason to doubt the "Lab or Research school", it is in complete agreement with your experience. The "Lab or Research school" entities also have a long history of feeding exclusively liver.

@frank beard
Frank,

Oh, I’m still here, I have not forgotten or left the conversation yet. : }
Have you ever visited the UKY site to see their axolotls? I’m not just spewing nonsense. The agencies you mention merely have general guidelines & oversight of laboratory testing sites. When I spoke about the subpar feeding of lab specimens it’s bc I’ve personally seen the stomach & GI contents of lab animals, sir. The UKY ambystoma climic has stopped feeding beef liver & hearts, solely feeding axolotl pellets. As for the axolotls at these facilities, they are most certainly not the peak of health. If you believe they are, then I feel concern for your own axolotls & your judgement. As for the person who has fed hers liver after bloodworms, well, I could say the same. They may be alive, but it doesn’t mean they are healthy. The very group we are on even stated years ago that livers were no longer recommended for amphibians. They do not specify axolotl’s, it addresses amphibians in general. You can just take that for what you wish. I’m attaching the pics. Have fun with that. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m trying to promote the best diet for axolotls & livers are not it. I don’t appreciate your mocking me for a know it all idiot as if I’m picking an argument over something menial. I advocate for the betterment of axolotls, not the opposite. Share that with others in the future.

Here’s the caudate link:

Caudata Culture Articles - Nutritional Values

 

[frank beard]

I never claimed to have visited the "UKY site". Have you ever visited it? Would you have any clue what you were looking at if you were there? How would you interpret the experiments that are taking place regarding gene expression? Why would it matter per the information in this thread if the "UKY site" no longer feed liver to their colony? Do you understand that there are many generations of axolotls which are the source of your axolotls that were fed exclusively liver?

IACUC is not an "agency". What does "merely have general guidelines & oversight of laboratory testing sites" mean? What are the general guidelines? What are the general guidlines for? What does the oversight of the "laboratory testing site" accomplish? Is the "laboratory testing site" the same as the "laboratory stock site"?

Which facilities have axolotls that are not at the peak of health? All of them?

You claimed that axolotls do not have the enzymes to digest meats like beef, chicken, lamb or livers but that is demonstrably false per the evidence presented here by multiple sources. There can be no question that axolotls can digest livers. You certainly offered no explanation about how jikaru's axolotls survived for 17-18 years without being able to digest their food.

I do not doubt that you intend to advocate for the betterment of axolotls. However your claims are demonstrably false. And you keep erecting boogeymen that don't exist. Your writing about "agencies", laboratory testing sites" and "the UKY site" show that you do not have any idea about how a research lab at a university is administered or how IACUC works (or even what an IACUC is).

These are facts:
-Many generations of axolotls were raised exclusively on liver.
-jikaru has axolotls which have lived for 17-18 years on a diet exclusively of livers
-hannarm06's axolotl did not pass undigested steak and produced normal feces
-axolotls in the wild do eat entire organisms that are "meat" and they digest them just fine. Axolotls undoubtedly eat one another and small fish in the wild. And while it has not been documented in axolotls the feeding behavior of many aquatic species of salamanders indicates that they would likely scavenge carcasses that could include "meat". Salamanders generally can't bite off chunks of animals but decaying animals that are falling apart would undoubtedly be consumed.

Please share these facts with all axolotl keepers.