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Question: Worm farm?

NaterPotater

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Who can tell me about feeding axolotls exclusively through home-grown earthworms? I heard that it's pretty simple. Does anyone have any experience with this--maintaining a little indoor worm farm to feed their axies?
 

tammyaxie

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I feed mine from my own tiny farm I have in my fridge

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
 

KCKme

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My daughter and I keep a few smallish container of worms in a mini fridge. And it is really simple. There is a great thread on this forum on Worm Farm instructions, just do a search.

The e. hortensis (European nightcrawlers), reproduce quickly. More quickly than the Canadian variety. We have both in containers and we see lots of eggs and babies in the European group and none so far with the Canadian variety. All we do is change out the soil in the container every week and half or so and also refresh their food source, plain mashed potatoes. For containers, I just bought some simple plastic, food grade containers and poked very small holes in the lid (used a sewing needle warmed by candlelight).
 

Creepella

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I have a vermicomposter in my kitchen. It's made from a stack of plastic tubs. Bottom tub catches the liquid "compost tea", the middle one has older compost, top one is the active one. I add vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and filters, shredded paper and egg cartons, rinsed eggshells and hay/used litter from my rabbit. Do not add meat/egg scraps, anything oily, dairy products, cat or dog poop (rabbit is OK because they're vegan) smelly items like onion or garlic, or scraps from citrus fruit. They're either bad for the worms (oil suffocates them, citrus is too acidic) or they stink when they rot. I freeze the scraps in a bucket, then thaw them before adding them to the composter. This breaks down the scraps and makes it easier and faster for the worms to "process". There's no odour in my kitchen from the composter, I only smell a rich soil smell when I open the lid. My worms are "red wigglers" which are a bright red colour. They're smaller, thinner and more active than standard earthworms.

For more details on composter designs you can Google "vermicompster" or "worm composter". There are lots of different designs that people have made for their homes.
 

Creepella

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I was thinking more.... bucket of worms. haha

Got it! I should have mentioned that you can use any size of container right down to deli cups. The big thing is to feed the worms the right kinds of scraps, it's just like gut-loading feeder insects. Don't use animal products, grease, or smelly/acidic vegetables. Do add crushed eggshells, they're good for the worms and add calcium for the axies.
 
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