Best / Most nutritional food for axies???

Am sure I have seen a thread similar to this before, but am not able to find it for some reason. So here is a new one! I feed my axie mostly frozen bloodworms. Sometimes I also give her some frozen fish. I remember earthworm being recommended as very nutritious..but..but..I can't stand them!!!I honestly feel so physically sick it's difficult not to throw up when I have tried giving them to my axie (live worms)!! Is there anything else that's just as nutritious, but that may be frozen and easy to feed? What about mussels? Anything else? Many thanks to all the 'axie-experts' in advance

Well earthworms are probably the most nutritious, and I don't think you can find blackworms around there, mabye I am wrong... You could your axie some beef heart 2 times a week, but not everyone agrees that is a good staple but could be used in moderation. I guess you could try mussels but I wouldn't bother, they are salt water animals and would never be a food source naturally.

I know how you feel, Sherri, I get sick from blackworms, just watching them squirm together. Earthworms don't bother me, it is just the cutting up part that does because I feel like it is insanely cruel... but my axolotls do need to eat.

Frozen bloodworms are very good. They are rich in nutrients, but offering a veriety is also important. You can also feed raw shrimp, brine shrimp, gut loaded crickets, black worms (if you can stand them) Axolotl pellets.

I actually came across some interesting food in the petshop. It is called New And Salamander bites. After reading the ingredients, it sounds like it would be pretty nutrisous for axolotls, however, the bits are very small, so a large type of pellet would have to be purchased in the same brand.

I do not think you can get colony axolotl pellets over there from here in the states, but would you be able to order axolotl pellets online or find them in a pet store? They will probably not be the same as what the colony has to offer.

I read on this site that sinking or floating sticks, other salamander foods, and turtle foods can be offered. I've been feeding my two little babies the newt food along with the axolotl pellets, and they have been growing at a faster rate.

Here is what the brand and ingredients are:

HBH Newt and Salamander Bites
Soft, Sinking Amphibian food

Ingredients:
fish meal, wheat flour, corn Gluten meal, pea powder, fish oil, krill, L-asorbic acid phosphate (source of vitamin C) Biotin, Choline
chloride, folic acid, Niacin supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin supplement, Astaxanthin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B-12 supplement, vitamin A supplement, Vitamin D supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin K-3 Supplement, Copper sulfate, Manganese sulfate, Potassium Iodate, salt, zink sulfate, Ethoxyquin (preservative,) Propionic acid, sorbic acid, propylene Glycol.

Guaranteed Analysis
Min. Crude Protein 42%
Min. Crude Fat 16%
Max. crude Fiber 3%
Max. Moisture Content 17%
Max. Ash 12%

I think this sounds pretty good, but I wouldn't fed it as a stable. I feed it to my babies right now because I am finding it more difficult to keep blood worms as of recent in large amounts in my freezer. I keep enough to last me a few weeks, then have to purchase more later.

Soft sinking salmon pellets make a pretty decent staple. Rangen makes a good one that the Indiana University Axolotl Colony uses and you can order it from the IUAC in small quantities. I'd guess there are probably sources closer to you as well. Pellets will store well in the fridge or freezer for a long time and uneaten pellets can be removed easily without nearly as much mess as the frozen bloodworms cause (although I use a fair amount of those as well for young axolotls)

are mealworms a good staple? my lfs does not sell crickets but they sell mealworms and blowflys and thats it!. i prefer to feed my axies live food, just seems more natural to them.

Mealworms have a shell, or carapiece. I spelled it wrong but the idea is that it is tough to digest, sometimes gets caught in the system.

alex- i think its mealworms that are rather fatty so are best used as a treat.

with fish you cant feed them corn as it clogs them up- is it the same with axies? i read in Rheanns Newt and Salamander Bites that its got corn. and usually they write the highest percentages first, meaning corns pretty high...
but then again they have pea powder in there which we give to fish when they are consitpated or to keep them regular.

Sharn when it says Corn Gluten it doesn't literally mean Corn as a food source. Corn Gluten meal is made up of more than 60% protein, and is made from the wet milling of corn. It is a protein supplement where "real" meat lacks and is perfectly safe.

Since the food is made for newts and salamanders, and axolotls are a type of salamander, it is safe to feed it. It also says on the bottle of a wide range of newts and salamanders. My Axolotls readily except it, but I do not feed it as a stable alone.

Pea powder is Vegetable protein, which I believe supplements what the newt or salamanders prey would eat in the wild, i.e little fish or insects.

The newt pellets are very small, and can be fed to baby axolotls or juvies. Adults will just over pass them.

Sherri, here is a page on other food sources that can be used, and what can be fed as treats:
http://axolotls.org/feeding.htm

When I can afford it, I am going to feed squid and prawns to my axolotls, but they are expensive here, so that will be a once in a while thing for me

Newt bites have vegetable matter making up 3 of the top 4 ingredients. Since axolotls would never consume vegetable matter, I don't think they make a good food source. Ontop of that, they're not live, they make the tank cloudy, and they're HARD!

As for mealworms, their tough exoskeleton and biting jaws make them a not-so-great food source. If you decapitate newly molted ones, and pierce the exoskeleton, and feed in moderation, they're okay. But the bits of exoskeleton can cause constipation in axolotls.

I have noticed that in about an hours time the water starts to get a little cloudy in the babies tank from the left over pellets that aren't consumed. I only feed the newt pellets to the babies in that small tank, not to my adults.

I'm not going to rule out that they are not a good food source, but as something to feed on the side, they seem to be able to eat it alright.

Dogs and cats have rice and other vegetable matter in their food products, though cats have trouble digesting soy products.

Mainly the reason why I tried the food was to see how they would take to it. They seem to enjoy eating it, but not sure as of yet if they enjoy the colony pellets more or the newt pellets. They seem to just enjoy them both.

Meal worms I have never fed. They are just scary things to me. I would imagine trying to eat a meal worm would be like tring to chew and swallow cernal corn in the bottom of a popcorn bag lol. Doesn't sound pleasant to me

Wow! So many good replies! Thanks so much everybody! Axelina will be getting a mix of bloodworms, beefheart, fish..a variety! I have been trying to find Rangen soft salmon pelletes, or any other make salmon pellets from the UK, but no luck. Could anybody help me on that? Would love to have some pellets for my axie,too

Hey, I found one!! I mean a place that sells Aquatic Amphibian Pellets in the UK. Its : www.pollywog.co.uk Has anybody tried them? Also, should I order the pellets in size 2mm or 2-3mm or 4-5 mm? My axie is 7" in size, so am thinking either 2-3mm or 4-5mm?? Any suggestions? Thankx

I would go for the 4-5mm for his/her size otherwise you might wind up mooshing a couple together like I did when I ran out of my bigger colony pellets. Milo hadn't found the smaller pellets fulfilling and so I made the bigger ones and my fingers wound up smelling like fish for a good 20 mins after I fed him, haha... and that was after washing them. Horray!

(Message edited by ziggypie on January 06, 2006)

Pollywog's owned by a caudata.org frequenter I'd go with the bigger pellets also, just out of ease.

i hate the pellets that they sell over here. there so small it takes me almost 20 minutes to feed both my axies. the brand is called aqua master. lol these are the directions
directions: feed your axolotl twice per day. use an amount that they will consume in 6-10 minutes.

lol does anyone else have the same pellets??there the only pellets i can find.

I know the ones you mean, we have them and none of our axies seem to like them.

Also, when we first got them that 6-10min feeding instruction just didn't make sense to us; why doesn't it just state "x" amt pellets for such n such size/age.

Even worse when I had to feed my sisters fish while she was away January last year, way before we got the axie ; and had same instructions feed enuf for 5mins (how the heck can you tell how much and how long for / and is that per fish? How many pinches!) Who writes these instructions? (OK so I don't keep fish and prob. never will.... but thankfully none died while she was away!)

(Message edited by kapo on January 07, 2006)

just out of interest can you feed them maggots as i'm thinking about trying my two on them.

if you harvested them yourself on some sort of clean (like not rotting meat) food i suppose they might be ok? do they have a hard shell (personally i have never played with maggots lol)

maggots are quite soft, and keep for quite a while if kept somewhere cool. even though most are fed on meat there metabolism causes them to be quite clean. i would just be very wary of using coloured ones.

im PM ed if he doesnt happen to see this thread- hell be able to tell you for sure