Axolotl feeding

I have a juvenile axolotl and he won't eat anything unless its right in front of his face. How do I get it to eat off of the bottom of the tank?

How big is he? If an axolotl is very young they only know to eat what moves, which would explain why he only eats what is right in front of him. You could try training him to eat in a certain area, like a food dish or just a spot by placing live food only there. The axolotl might catch on that there's food always there when he roams around, or you could coax him there with bits of the food.

I was taught this trick by the LFS I got my axie in, and I would constantly see him on the dish feeding or looking for food. It only works with live food because it moves, and the movement tells them it's food. They will ignore non-living foods unless you drop them right over their face or hold it on front of them, at least until they grow up and learn to hunt by smell, but mine never did.

oooooooo yeah its only 3~4 inches long just got him couple weeks ago. Thanks so much for the straight forward answer! :happy:

I think he's nearing the age where he might hunt down things like pellets, but it will be a trial and error thing. I think you could leave the pellets in the tank for about 20 minutes or so, maybe a bit longer whenever you want to try. He's also at a great size for earth worms. Red wrigglers and Canadian night crawlers are the most recommended, the latter being the most easily accepted because the red wrigglers release a foul tasting slime. If you wanted to go with worms, which are the most nutritious, you would feed them a worm about the length of the axolotl. You could also cut them up to make it easier for the axolotl to eat them, but mine will eat them whole (when he does).

Glad to be of help, good luck with the food. My axolotl's favorite are Hikari sinking carnivore pellets, but I've been attempting to switch him to earth worms as a main diet. He seems to like the Canadian night crawlers more than the red wrigglers.