Question: Advice on pellets?!?

My little ones are around 3" now. Only 2 are eating the pellets, and we usually spit them out at least once before finally going down the hatch.

Do any seasoned Lotl owners have suggestions on making this transition to pellets a little easier?

We are literally dangling over the side with a pipette trying to keep it suctioned to the end while they are still hard and then when they get too soft they break apart like crazy from the suction. Our pellet spitting out routine takes a good 60 minutes of my day just trying to get the little boogers to eat. I didn't want to use tweezers since that could hurt them. Kitchen tongs are way too large for tiny pellets. The ones that do finally eat the pellets won't eat them out of the dish, I guess they can't see or smell them?

I know the pellets are good because I ordered them from Michael Shrom approx 2 weeks ago.

Any thoughts or suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!!!

To switch juveniles from live food to soft moist salmon pellets I do it gradually. I back off the amount of live food a little and introduce a few pellets to the meal. Missing a couple feedings is no problem for the juveniles. I eventually feed a small amount of live food with mostly salmon pellets at a feeding. The axolotls will transition to the new diet.

I use bare bottom tanks and just put the food together. If you use a substrate in your tank use a feeding dish or feeding jar. Salmon pellets are nutritionally better for salamanders than blackworms and frozen bloodworms. They are comparable to an earthworm diet without the risk of getting a "bad" batch of worms.

Michael- I didn't want to bother you, again, with all my questions. I really appreciate your help!!

These little guys are slightly spoiled and seem to only want to eat their blackworms while being fed right from the pipette. My tank is bare bottom and they just sit on top of the worms and worm balls. I tried the feeding dish and the few that figured out to climb up just swam on and off flinging worms.

Going to spend some time looking up ideas for feeding dishes.

If you skip a feeding or two you should be able to train them to hunt for the food.