what is your feeding technique?

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DantezGirl

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DantezGirl
hey have read a few posts about feeding problems just curious to know what feeding techniques other members use?

had a record high of 23.c in the tanks today 21.c this am when i woke up there both in the fridge in separate containers with water from there separate tanks the newts are 19.c there in a cooler place near the floor than the axies

I think my filter is to small for the 4ft tank as there is fine pieces crumbs of food floating around in there have c.bully's from the lake in there cycling the tank for me

the tank is 4ft and i have the water level at 21cm with a filter designed for a 60-70 liter tank and I'm not sure how to calculate how much water i have in there

the water parameters are as follows ammonia .50 nitrate 0 nitrite .25 taken before water change started cycling the tank on the 29th December 07 with meat then added fish from the lake

both are doing well so far and so are charmander and charizard
 
it depends what i'm feeding as to what technique i use. If it is live food such as worms or slugs i just drop them into the tank onto a bare section of sand in front of the axies and let them catch the food themselves, sometimes they even grab it before it hits the bottom. For meats such as liver and prawn I just use my fingers and offer it to them, they usually take it immediately.
 
My axie Reptar is completely uninterested in any food except axolotl pellets!
He won't even eat them if I drop them in the tank. I had to devise an ingenious way of feeding him. I now have a straw that I hold in front of him, then I drop the pellet in the straw and he catches it every time.
He is even so used to this method that he jumps for the straw when he sees it coming :p
 
lol

i just found a way to get my two to eat i drop a pellet in if they miss i suck it up with the turkey baster the pellet is to big to go up so is stuck on the end wiggle it in front of them and they go

bonkers even chase the thing around lol so now they both get feed equally and i know they are eating it and best of all no mess lol they have even started hunting around on th ground for food

cant wait for there month to be over i wana see if they are going to be civil to each other lol
 
My Axie Axle lives outside in a black tub in the ground No filtration ph stays around 6.8 We feed him live earthworms which he comes up and snaps at like the lochness monster. We also feed him pellets if worms are short which he eats on the way down or then eats off the bottom. If in one hour he hasn't eaten anything on the bottom. I use this electric battery operated siphon which I bought of ebay to siphon up food and waste. I have used aged ice cubes to cool down in super hot temps. and change 25% of water every 2 weeks. He seems very happy.
 
depends on the food type, i hand feed worms and froen blood worm is fed on a plate
 
beccause i can only find frozen bloodworms i have given up trying to feed them to spot and midnight just make to much mess for me so they live on pellets and live worms and fish when i manage to catch or buy any they seem happy with the arrangement lol

any one no a good way to feed frozen bloodworms? i usede to feed with a tweezer didn't look to safe to me and i had to get my hands wet so didn't like that and they didn't tend to eat them of the ground no movement i think
 
mine get fed almost exclusivly earthworms now and we feed them using a thing that looks like a robotic claw, you squeeze the end where the handle is and the claw clamps down on the food.. let go and it releases.. it has smoothed edges so it cant harm the axies if the gulp the claw and we have tug of war games with it... Very fun...
the babies will snap at the claw if it comes in the tank even without food..
 
lol i would love to feed mine just worms but our soil here at my house is terrible no many worms to be found so they get worms when ever i can find any i may look into starting a worm farm been offered a two litre container of worms for 5 but i think thats a rip of not sure may do it was meant to ages ago lol
 
Think a worm farm is a great idea, have been going to do it myself, but our vege patch gives up a few every week which keeps mine happy. He also has frozen bloodworm cubes (yes, messy, I feed these just before a water change and clean the bottom of the tank while I siphon off the water) and axolotl pellets. I feed him the earthworms with tweezers, and so far he hasn't got my fingers. I understand it doesn't hurt, and I can't see any teeth in there;).
 
nah they dont hurt at all, unless your son is the one feeding them and he smashes the tank glass because he wasnt expecting the axie to try to gulp down his finger.
I always jump a foot when they gulp it off me, thats why we err on the side of caution and use the claw... even my 5 yr old feeds them now...

we bought a complete worm farm setup for 185 which has 4000+ worms and we have it in the kitchen, and we always have many many worms, and very healthy plump worms too..
 
Yea I tend to look away when I am feeding my axolotl as then I don't see when he jumps to attack my fingers. It doesn't hurt at all, just is always unexpected when he lunges. The very first time I fed him it was a shock and I got water all over my keyboard as I pulled my hand out very quickly! He can be quite stubborn in letting go of my fingers too. One time I had to hold my hand out of the water for about 5 seconds until he let go... :p

With pellets I drop them on his head (when he hears me he will swim up with his mouth open now) but everything else is hand-fed to him - just hold it in front of his face and wiggle.
 
lol funny stories i did that the first time i feed midnight but i like watching and feeling the sudden bang as they grab the food its quite funny im used to it now may invest in a claw type thing for worms allthau they chase the worms around if they wiggle close enough same goes for guppy's but they wait for those to come near there hidey hole door then snap

Is it true they will slowly reject pellets if they have to much live food?
 
I haven't had that experience. I have been using live food for hmm about three months I guess, and my axolotl will still accept pellets in between lots of guppies. I was warned about that from the person who sold me the axolotl, but I guess it varies per axie...
 
I used to stress about feeding my axolotl because it would take work/patience to feed him. By the time I'd finally get him to suck down his frozen cube of bloodworm/brine shrimp/beef heart, it would be almost all desinagrated.

This past week I bought a large pair of stainless steel feeding tongs which has made feeding so fast and easy. I grab the cube firmly and shake it around the surface of the water to get it fairly soft, and to get the attention of my axolotl. He'll quickly swim up to the top and grab it. Done in less than a minute!
 
How we do it!

We get one fresh, home composted earth worm every day. These usually appear at about 1900 hrs each night attached to two big wiggly thing we think are called a finger and a thumbs. As soon as we spot this, we both swim (well as best as we can - some might not describe what we do as swimming!) to the top of our tank and swallow the worms in one swift gulp.

Sometimes we also get a treat of red ice cubes which slowly melt and drop these little worms all around. It takes about 30 minutes to hoover these up and we never leave any waste!

Life is tough as an axie!!
 
I've been giving Mirabu and Ujimitsu little bits of squid. I tend to give Mirabu abit around 10mm sq and Ujimitsu one around 15mm sq (as he's around twice the length of Mirabu). Both of them know when they're being fed so I always feed Ujimitsu first as Mirabu can't swallow Ujimitsu's piece yet so if he grabs it out my fingers first he just spits it out again (after 10 minutes the little git ¬_¬) and while Ujimitsu's swallowing his I can give Mirabu his smaller bit without fear of Ujimitsu grabbing it and swallowing it whole.

It has got to the point of them not accepting any other food. Blood worms are ignored and pellets just end up in the sediment till I clean them up. They seem to prefer the movement of something being moved up and down in the water in front of them that has a loose movement to them.
 
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