Question: Feeding and Earthworm Farm

No axolotl(s) yet but I'm doing a TON of research and planning so that when I do it, I can do it right, and I have a question about feeding.

I'm a girl and worms are gross...there I said it. Yuck. Ick. <shivers> BUT if that's what the babies need, that's what they'll get.

BUT, if I'm doing pellets and earthworms, are the worms the main source of food, and supplemented with pellets? Or are the pellets the main source, and the earthworms a treat?

Do most axies switch between the two easily?

And another question, if I do overcome the ick-factor and start my own earthworm farm how many will I need to start a "colony" for just two axies? I was watching some videos that one of the members has done here, I think Axolotl Whisperer (?) and he said he ordered like a thousand to start...but I don't need a thousand. I just want to have enough food for two axolotls without having worms overrun my house.

I used to be scared of worms.........like they were poisonous snakes, but i got used to them and now I pic e'm all up . I am not a girl though.

Welcome,

I think over time you'll get used to handling earthworms. They're not that bad and you'll soon find they're actually very tough and amazing creatures! You can feed a pellet diet to your axie, but watching them hunt earthworms is very fun.

My attempt at a worm farm ended in disaster so I buy mine in regularly. If you're going to make one keep it nice and cool and a secure lid so they can't escape if indoors.

I'm sure more people will post with good worm farm advise.

I feel you! I hate touching worms and I'm pretty sure I almost died when I saw 500 worms wiggling about yuck! So I use reptile tweezer/feeders to pick them out of the wormery and into the tank saves me so much grief

I'm so glad I'm not the only weenie scaredy-pants here!!

So if you lid the bin you keep them in, won't they suffocate? Is that a stupid question? I'm not going to apologize for being worm-ignorant because...ewwwww...

I'm fairly certain you have to stab holes in the lid or use something that breathes like cardboard (which they end up eating).

You can get large buckets with lids for a wormery, if you use a hot pin to make small holes in the lid that will allow for air exchange.
Worms are normally sold by the hundreds or by weight. And they breed well, so you shouldn't need too many to start. Feed them mashed potato and boiled food scraps (peelings etc).

You can use tongs to feed your axies if you really don't want to handle the worms. For the record my 15 year old son is icked out by the worms so it's not just girls!

It's pretty easy to keep worms and you don't need a lid or a cover if you use duct tape to narrow the opening of the container you're keeping your worms in. Don't use one layer, but at least two though. When you still would use a lid the moist will make the tape let loose. so don't use one.

I'm keeping my worms in a container like that for two years and I'm breeding them in there together with white worms and a black coloured specie of Collembola which accidentily got in my worm culture. That's the downside of an open container. Sometimes there are different kinds of fly larvae in the culture, so I have to keep them outside. When the culture has got a couple of cold days I don't need to worry about any maggots and such and I can take the culture inside when winter comes. I've tried feeding some of the larvae but animals died after eating them, so I just avoid them. You can use a pantyhose/tights to cover the opening if you don't want any flies and such in your culture.

I'm feeding the worms old coffee grounds, old bread (works well for white worms), green waistes and a lot of soaked rabbit pellets. I sometimes add soaked chicken pellets (for egg laying) which are rich with calcium, but they're a bit smelly.

Oh wow, so much information.

Thanks guys, this may end up being more involved than I first thought!

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melbell said:

...this may end up being more involved than I first thought!

Click to expand...

Oh yes. And the menagerie will continue to grow....
I started out wanting a couple of axies, I ended up with 4 ..... then came the worm farm, the little pots of various other live foods in the fridge, the little tank for river shrimp, the tropical tank for breeding guppies and cherry shrimp....
Then came the axolotl eggs, closely followed by a brineshrimp hatchery, a daphnia culture bucket, a microworm tub...

You can't JUST have an axolotl....it comes with an entourage!

Lol. Oh well... Nothing I can do about it now. To late to turn back because the other night I was watching YouTube videos of them and they are so cute it's painful. So I don't have a choice anymore! ;-)

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auntiejude said:

Oh yes. And the menagerie will continue to grow....
I started out wanting a couple of axies, I ended up with 4 ..... then came the worm farm, the little pots of various other live foods in the fridge, the little tank for river shrimp, the tropical tank for breeding guppies and cherry shrimp....
Then came the axolotl eggs, closely followed by a brineshrimp hatchery, a daphnia culture bucket, a microworm tub...

You can't JUST have an axolotl....it comes with an entourage!

Click to expand...

Don't let my wife hear you say that! I so see that all coming though Working on finding info about odorless worm farm. Been told no smelly compost in the house. Apparently axies haven't captured her heart... yet. :3

auntiejude said:

Oh yes. And the menagerie will continue to grow....
I started out wanting a couple of axies, I ended up with 4 ..... then came the worm farm, the little pots of various other live foods in the fridge, the little tank for river shrimp, the tropical tank for breeding guppies and cherry shrimp....
Then came the axolotl eggs, closely followed by a brineshrimp hatchery, a daphnia culture bucket, a microworm tub...

You can't JUST have an axolotl....it comes with an entourage!

Click to expand...

While I do not have any axies *yet* I do know this to be true with my keeping of frogs and my sister has turtles. I have 2 wormeries one with earthworms the other with red worms which contains little isopods (pill bugs), a colony of dubai roaches and am considering starting a turkishtan roach colony too, a culture of springtails, plus I breed mollies as well for the turtles and have recently added a self cloning crayfish to the molly tank. Not that I meant to but snails (pond, ramshorn, and MTS) also reproduce at astounding rates with the mollies and my betta fish so those go to the turtles too.

And I cannot express how much I LOVE my tongs for feeding! I tried a few times without but am too jumpy when whatever animal lunges forward for the food, with the tongs I don't yank the food out of their mouth when they grab it. Plus no more accidental nipping of my fingers and nothing trying to climb back onto my fingers!

I'm really glad I'm not the only person here who doesn't want to play with creepy crawlies! Now I just have to figure out the logistics of the worm farm, and if I even want to bother with it.

I just found this article yesterday when I was trying to help another member(and looking for myself) and I highly recommend it:

How to Start a Worm Farm for Profit: 7 Steps - wikiHow

You might not want to make worms for profit but if you get started and have extra, you could always sell them or gift them to any friends and family who like to fish. Personally, I think I'll be waiting until spring to start my farm because I'm not especially keen on having worms in the house, even if it's the basement.

As far as being creeped out by worms, I'm not really scared of them but I don't like them either. Snakes are fine, I have three ball pythons and I love them to death. I let them crawl on my neck and shoulders, in my hair(they love forcing their way through the gaps when I braid my hair), and they like to roam my dino figure display shelves. I've even caught little worm snakes in my stepmother's garden(or any snakes I find outside, so long as they aren't rattling, metallic, or carrying around a mouth full of cotton) but worms? To them I say nay nay. There is nothing worse than the nasty smell and squishy feeling under your feet when the worm hordes come crawling out from the depths after a heavy rain. I can pick them up if I have to but they smell, feel, and look gross.