Feeding an adult axolotl

As the title says, what do you feed an adult axolotl?

Most people, myself included, feed their adult axolotls earthworms and/or sinking salmon pellets.

Thanks

I also feed mine home-bred guppies and platys, snails, and shrimp, as well as woodlice and any other bugs that happen to be so foolish as to wander into my house.

-Eva

This may be a stupid question but live shrimp or like cooked shrimp?

Oh - sorry, no, it isn't a stupid question. I raise little "feeder shrimps". They have names like red cherry or red fire. I looked up the Latin name for you since I buy them in German. The ones I have are forms of Neocaridina. I asked around for shrimps that are tolerant of mild changes in water quality (apparently some are quite sensitive) and that breed readily in fresh water (some need salt water for the young). There are also some that are apparently dominant, which means that they would terrorize the other breeds and eat their young, but the ones I have are all peaceful little darlings. They breed readily indeed and do a nice job on any algae in the big tanks when they get moved over to become snacks.

-Eva

Thank you . I joined another forum (before this one) and I got called stupid for asking easy questions; hence I apologized in advance. However everyone learns once.

I really want an axolotl; I'm re-decorating at the minute and then I plan on getting one (I just want to do my research now so I am prepared for when the time comes - i.e. I'd like to know how to care for it when it's an adult and not just small).

Thank you very much

I feed earthworms, axolotl pellets, and cherry shrimp (raised in the axie tank, and a separate tank) as staples. I also feed her blood worms (from a frozen packet, but defrosted in a jar), and beef heart as treats.

Phil

@Dipsydoodle: I don't think anyone here would whomp you for asking even a stupid question. And you'd be surprised, some people don't learn once, some folks never learn. Anybody gives you grief about asking a question, you just tell me and I'll whack 'em with a bad rep point. You can do the same, too - maybe that's what keeps folks here so nice. Naaa, folks here are just nice folks.

Indeed, I have read of many people actually feeding shrimp-shrimps, you know prawns, to their axolotls, but I haven't tried them. Seems to me odd to give a freshwater animal saltwater critters as food, but that's just an opinion and nothing based on fact or data.

I forgot about treats! I've tried different things from the petstores, where I am fortunate to have a wide variety of live foods. None of mine really cared for live bloodworms, neither the normal ones nor the "giant" ones. They like the mealworms a lot, and after they got used to them, they seemed to like the zophobas ("superworms"?) too. I tried some waxmoth larvae (I think that's what they were, big fat white things almost the size of my pinky finger) and they didn't like them at all. Maybe just too big? These are all basically treats, although when I buy them you kind of get a lot and so they have those for awhile, but I only buy them about twice a year.

There is a section on live foods here on the site (click here), and it's in the Advanced Section where posts have to be approved by moderation before being visible, so even if you manage to think up a truly silly question, the kind mods will have mercy and move your question to a more appropriate forum. There are also a few excellent articles on feeding on the Caudata Culture page (here).

-Eva

Brilliant; thank you. I'll check the links out ASAP.

The waxworth larvae sound disgusting - I'm not a fan of creepy crawlies. Small things I'm ok with but not big things lol.

Eva are you actually German? - Sorry I'm only asking because if you are your English is brilliant. I have a friend from Uni who is German and honestly she sends regular long emails and the mistakes she has made in the emails I think I can count on one finger. I wish I could speak another language as "badly" as my friend thinks she speaks English.

No, I am actually American, from New Orleans. I've lived in Germany these past 14 years now, though. Love the weather. Miss raw oysters, crawfish, and music in the streets, though.

Have you got a nice wriggly menu worked out for your axolotl now?

-Eva

Ha I don't have an axolotl yet; I'm just planning now so when I get one I don't do anything wrong.

"Getting there is half the fun," eh? Well good for you, your axolotl will surely benefit from having such an informed keeper right from the start.

-Eva

Getting there is certainly fun. To be honest I want to do as much research as possible now because I want to keep the axolotl for life and I want to give it good care; rather than half way through deciding it's not for me and having to give it up.