Picky eater!

Hi I've had my axolotls for a few months now and I've been having problems feeding my wild type and leucistic. The problem is they hate everything! As soon as I find something they will eat they start hating it. The wild type isn't as bad. They would not go for the salmon pellets at all. I then started to buy frozen bloodworms they took for a little while but then they wouldn't eat them anymore. After that I started getting black worms. They loved them and would eat them quickly. After awhile they didn't care for them anymore. The leucistic will spit out any Canadian nightcrawler even if I cut them up smaller nexuses a full one is too big for their mouths the wild type will sometimes go for it and eat them. I feed them by hand or they'll ignore it. I didn't want to go for fatty foods but I figured I'd try wax worms and see how it went. The leucistic loved them but now she hates them! My golden albino she doesn't care for them I'm not really worried about her ( you can see the size difference ) as much as the other two I don't want them to starve to death because they're picky and I don't want them to get sick from only eating bad food. I'm worried they will wither away to nothing unless I find a good alternative that they won't refuse to eat after a few days/weeks. I'm sorry for the long post but I decided since I was taking them out to do a water change I might as well take a good above picture of them too. They're maybe 6-7in. Thank you for the help and advice I really appreciate it!

Have you tried raw prawns / shrimp?


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I haven't yet I will try that next and see if they will take it they're very picky

Axolotls, just like us, get bored eating the exact same thing for days and weeks at a time.

If I were you I would mix it up a bit. One day pellets, next day earthworms, next day blood worms, next day meal worms, etc. Or even offer multiple items the same day.

My adults eat earthworms 3-5 times a week with pellets every once in a while thrown in.

They actually don't look that thin at all to me.

I think the golden is a perfect size. The Lucy is fine and the wildtype could do with a bit of weight as could the Lucy but they aren't at all worryingly thin, they look healthy just work on putting a little bit of weight on them, but don't stress yourself about it.


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My melanoid is super picky too.
He hates nightcrawlers,
I usually have to soak them until they shed that gross slimy stuff before he will even give them the time of day. Also they have to be dug from the back yard, if I buy them from fish supply places he wont eat them, I'm not really sure what soil they are brought up in, but someone told me manure!

Recently, I've tried Repashy Grub Pie, which is a powder, and you mix it with hot water and microwave it for a minute and then let it set up like a Jello, and cut it into worm like strips. It's easy, cost effective and MAN do they love it! You can keep it in the fridge for 2 weeks if its covered properly. And sometimes I'll thaw out a few blood worm cubes and mix it in so it gives them some extra little nuggets of goodness


I live in Canada so it's impossible to dig worms up half the year, and this stuff has changed everything!

Thank you guys so much for the advice I really appreciate it, it's really helpful so far.