General questions please Help!

Hey people thanks for reading,

My axolotl Rose has had a few problems settling into her new home however after a few weeks I thought everything was ok and she was happy swimming about everywhere. She is a year old and has been on a mixed diet of earthworms and salmon pellets which she seems to love.

However many times I see her trying to eat the leaves and thermometer in the tank which makes me think she's hungry? I wont feed her any more (i feel so cruel) as she's either had 4 or 5 salmon pellets or 3 lots of small amount of earthworm (3 quaters of an inch) a day. Is this right?

Today I have fed her a couple of pellets and a 1 and a half inch of earthworm, thinking she would be fine on that. However I returned tonight seeing her trying to eat the plants in her tank eventually pulling them over and scaring herself, into her tunnel.

Later on she left her tunnel and I saw something strange in there. On closer inspection I saw and retrieved an inch long, 1 cm wide, cylinder shaped piece of brown weird gooey substance... any idea what this is?

Thanks alot for reading! any ideas would help me big time thanks

Hi AJBriggs,

If anything, I think you're feeding her too often. I would recommend cutting the feeding back to twice a week.

The best way to ascertain if over or underfeeding is to monitor the belly. The belly should be as wide as the head - plump - but not obese.

Axolotls are oppurtunistic feeders, and will snap at anything that moves (including plants, thermometer probes, etc) just in case it is 'food' (they are ever hopeful ). This is normal.

Later on she left her tunnel and I saw something strange in there. On closer inspection I saw and retrieved an inch long, 1 cm wide, cylinder shaped piece of brown weird gooey substance... any idea what this is?

Click to expand...

Axolotl poop .

Hi Briggsy,

The amount you're feeding rose is more than adequate for a healthy adult axolotl.

ajbriggs said:

However I returned tonight seeing her trying to eat the plants in her tank eventually pulling them over and scaring herself, into her tunnel.

Click to expand...

Are the plants moving at all? Are they in the path of the filter outlet? She may be snapping at them because they're catching her attention. Some Axies will bite at anything that moves.
She may also just be a little bit odd, axies are like that, sometimes.
Maybe someone else here could shed more light on this behaviour but it doesn't sound very out-of-the-ordinary to me.

ajbriggs said:

Later on she left her tunnel and I saw something strange in there. On closer inspection I saw and retrieved an inch long, 1 cm wide, cylinder shaped piece of brown weird gooey substance... any idea what this is?

Click to expand...

That, my friend, is axie poo. Sounds like a description of fairly normal poo. You may not have seen it before because it tends to be quite fragile and usually disappears into fragments shortly after being delivered.

I think what you found was just axolotl poop...
As for the eating it sounds about the same as what I feed my axies and one of mine, bob often bites at the plants so I don't think that is anything to worry about.

Cheers guys your awesome!