Pellets

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone knows how to get my axolotl interested in pellets when I drop them in the tank. He doesn't even show the slightest interest in them at all unless of course it fell right in front of his face, but the thing is when they on the bottom he doesn't even look at them
The pellets are for carnivorous fish and have a picture of an axolotl on the front, not that it means anything. I have heard that they use smell and their lateral line system mainly for hunting and Im guessing in the wild if they are hungry they would scavenge dead food, or does it always have to be live? Does anyone here have success in getting them to eat pellets?

Peter

I think I have the same pellets as you. My axolotl won't look at them once they are on the ground either, so I use forceps/tongs to drop them over her. It doesn't solve the problem if you are wanting him/her to hunt them, but at least they would be eating!

The key here is patience. My animals showed no interest whatsoever in them at first (in fact if tricked they would spit them out right away) but persistence has made some of them grow accostumed to them and even eat them with greed. I started by feeding the pellets by tweezers(all my animals are used to hand-feeding and automatically check the tweezers no matter what they are holding). After that i started moving the pellets on the tank floor with the tweezers and it worked rather well. Then i mixed the pellets with frozen bloodworms(they become so enraged with greed when they smell the bloodworms that they´ll bite anything, including pellets). With that series of steps they started to associate their smell with food.
Also, it´s easier to train larvae or juveniles of course...
I find that it´s important to make them all excited with the prospect of food prior to dropping the pellets, because when their minds are set on "food", anything goes.

Now i succesfully feed pellets to T.dobrogicus(both adults and juveniles), C.orientalis(also adults and juveniles), C.pyrrhogaster, N.viridescens, L.vulgaris and i even tricked one of my P.glutinosus a couple of times hehe.

Keep trying, they eventually figure it out.

Hi Peter!!

When I first got my axies they werent interested in pellets at all. I feed them in a separate container and discovered that they seem more active about their food if I drop the pellets by the side of their heads, not in front. Maybe this works only with my axies, but I think it is worth to try!

Anyway, now they eat them like little piggys and the ones they didnt catch, they eat them from the floor of the container.

I also agree with Azhael, its helpful that they know is feeding time. Before i feed them, I just squirt some water
with a turkey baster, again, by the side of their heads, they try to catch "the water" by the movement it produces, and when I give them their pellets, they are more than ready to catch them!!