Question: Have i left it too late to encourage my axie to interact with me?

[dad of axle]

Hi my axolotl is just ten months old and I feed him a combination of bloodworms and red earthworms, I know that somepeople on this forum talk about hand feeding their axie and was wondering if I have left it too late to train my axie to take food from my hand? If not are there any tips about how to go about this ? at the moment I drop the food in the tank and let him go to it. With the worms they disappear quickly and with the bloodworms they seem to be rather messy and get caught in the filter and then he goes and sits on the filter to eat them off the surface of the filter where the suction has them up against the filter inlet. ( probably not good for the filter or my axie)

Also I havent really handeld my axie much he seems ok when I move his hides to clean the tank but if he is sitting on the filter and i move it he darts around in shock like you wouldnt believe.

I havent moved my axie from his tank in the eight months i have had him (3ft tank) and wonder whether this will be detrimental if I ever need to catch him to put him in a holding tanks/container .
so should i acclimatise my axie to having my hand in the tank near him?

[Chirple]

I don't know if it's different for others, but I didn't have to really "train" mine to eat from my hand - he just knows it's food and doesn't care what's holding the food. :P Same with if I have to move the food with the turkey baster - he's gotten to associate the turkey baster with food, so if he sees it in the tank, he goes over to it. If I put my finger up to the glass, he'll walk over - and he gets a treat for doing so. :)

As for touching - I don't. If you absolutely have to touch them, I would rather it be an ordeal than repeatedly stress them out in hopes they'll become more okay with it. It's kind of a pain to "catch" them if they're feeling spunky, but not impossible - and if you get a soft net, it would be really easy. :)

[imzunicorn]

At first, when I tried to hand feed mine, they would be afraid of my hand and would run away. I hand feed them now, so you should start by feeding with tweezers or chopsticks. After a while of this, do the hand feeding. That is, if he's afraid of your hand like mine originally were.

It seems like axolotls get used to things rather quickly though. At one point, I was gently scooping them out with a container in order to feed them. I wasn't able to tell them apart and found I was feeding one twice and not the other. Now, Stardust has freckles on his face so I can tell them apart. Anyway, they became so accustomed to being fed in the container that they would voluntarily go into it when they saw it.

Mine really aren't afraid of me any longer, occasionally when I stick my hand in to pull out dropped food or move ornaments around, they'll try and nip at my arm. One actually bit my finger today. It surprised me so I jerked away, but it didn't hurt at all. It was strange. And here I was so afraid of them biting me, haha.

Also, a tip on catching them, don't chase them around with a net, do it slowly. Doing it slowly, for any aquatic animal, prevents them from panicking. My boyfriend worked at a petshop where he would regularly have to get fish for people and i was better at netting the fish than he was. Just do it slowly and gently instead of as quick as possible and you'll prevent them from darting. Oh and if you start out doing it fast, it scares them and you miss, that's how you end up chasing them around the tank.

[beckwan]

When I got my axys they were about 5 or 6 months old I think (both measured 4 inches) and at first I used to just feed them frozen bloodworms. I didnt start feeding them by hand til I had them a couple of weeks and as long as held the food in front of them they would go for it. Axolotls dont seem like shy animals and mine have defo got used tto the invading human hand lol. They will chase my hand around the tank sometimes when im replanting plantts theyve rooted just to have a nibble on my fingers :) if your axy doesnt like your hand at first it will hopefully get used to it if u keep trying.

[dad of axle]

Thanks everyone I am going to use the chopsticks over the next few weeks and then slowly switch to earthworms by hand, I mainly want my axie not to be scared when i put my hand in the tank and to come to the glass when i am near. It sounds like some great interaction is possible without touching them too much to avoid damaging their skin.