How often do you feed your axie?

I don't know if this is a stupid question but how and what do you people feed your axies?

I give mine earthworms I bought from a fishing supplies shop. I generally give him one or two a day, and he's probably about 8 inches long. He's ALWAYS interested in food and will swim up and 'beg' so I worry I'm not feeding him enough. But on the other hand if I fed him a worm every time he begged he'd be an obese axolotl! (He will take an earthworm when he's already got one in his mouth, greedy thing...) I gather axolotls feed by instinct, and will go for movement, so how do I know when he's actually hungry? Does anyone have a good way to know the 'right' amount to feed them?

Hi Cory,

Axolotls are oppurtunists when it comes to food, they will eat and eat and eat if given the chance and are very able con artists!

I feed mine mainly earthworms and pellets, and on occasion bloodworm.

For that size axie I would drop the feeding to once every three days or so. A good way to ascertain if under or over feeding is to monitor the belly - it should be as wide as the head at the head's widest point - plump but not obese.

Each axie is different in how much they will eat, and how fast their metabolism is.

If he is looking a little lean, increase feeding to once every two days or offer more worms when feeding once every three days.

Hehe, how do you persuade yours to eat pellets? I've tried but they just sit, motionless, on the bottom

See I'd say his belly wasn't quite as wide as his head yet. He was a lot thinner than that when I got him from the pet shop...

Hey Cori

Try using a large set of tweezers.

place the food just above your axie's head, and you should find after a while they will get use to this method, eventually you will be able to drop the food onto it's nose and the axie will snap it up.

Good luck

about every other day

Twice per week in winter, three times per week in summer.

I've found that most axies are pretty individual in their eating habits. Like what Havelock has said, just monitor the belly. Also remember that the warmer the tank the more active it will be, AKA the more it will eat.

Also, the "older" an axie gets the less it needs to feed. Since yours seems about full grown, (8 inches), you may find that its' eating habits begin to slow down. You mentioned that it was skinnier at a pet store? I may have simply developed a "bingeing habit". Much like a stray dog, when food is offered it comsumes all it can...not knowing when it might eat again. Just make sure it gulps it's food down easly. If it has to struggle with the worm for several minutes, spitting it out several times before it manages to get it down--then it's deffinitely eating too often.

As long as it looks healthy and not obese, I really won't be too concerned with how often you feed it.

Cheers-