A bit of a problem with salmon pellets, help please

Well today I recieved my order of salmon pellets (the biggest size) and they are way too small. How am I supposed to feed these to my mudpuppy who is 10 inches long?? Dropping them by her face did nothing so I put four of them on a flat rock (they'd get lost in the pebble substrate, plus that isn't safe). I was hoping she'd smell them and crawl over to them and eat them, but she has shown no movement towards them. How long does it usually take an axolotl to smell them? How long should I leave them in the tank just sitting on the flat rock? Is there a way I can some how combine them so I can more easily intice her to eat a big chunk that I can hold in front of her face. I paid like $13 for these pellets and I really don't want to waste my money. Help would be great. Trying to find other things she'll eat has become quite a pain. Thanks

If she does not learn to take them you could always feed them to crickets and/or roaches and then feed the bugs to the mudpuppy. That's what I did when I ordered salmon pellets several years ago only to realize that they were too small to work with my tylos.
Chip

Thanks, but I've tried feeding her crickets which she sucks in, chomps on for a bit and spits them right out.

But what if I played off that idea and crushed the pellets into fine powder and sprinkle it in my container of dirt with the worms. Wouldn't they ingest it while they take in the dirt? Would that work?

Tomorrow is my next feeding day, any other ideas anyone? Does that earthworm idea sound okay?

Okay I have no idea if this would work but... When I feed my earthworms, I usually sprinkle some corn meal on top of the soil every few days. They seem to do fine with the powdered cornmeal so perhaps mashing up pellets into a powder and then mixing it with some of the cornmeal would cause them to ingest it? It might pass though the worm but I don't know if it would add much nutritional value to the worm itself.

Material only spends a few hours inside the gut of an earthworm before it passes though and the amount of that is relatively small. Worms themselves are very nutritious regardless though and I'm not a worm expert by any means so perhaps someone more enlightened on the topic could help...

My newt loves pellets (she is a little strange) and my pellets are also pretty small. When I feed her, I usually jar-feed or feed over a plate inside the tank to make them easier for her to see. She usually passes over them 3 or 4 times before knowing exactly where they are and then she sucks them up one at a time. Prior to this, she was obviously excited by the smell but she couldn't find the pellets in the tank. Other caudates I have kept simply weren't interested in nonliving food. Good luck with your necturus!!!