My axolotls will not swallow pellets! Why?

I recently got some axies a week and a half ago, and they are growing like crazy.
They are all about 2.5-3 inches long now. I had ordered some small axolotl pellets from Ed's Fly Meat as I had only heard good things about them (very nutritious, don't break apart in water quickly, are soft for the lotls, and their strong smell makes them attractive to them).
The breeder who sent me the axolotls said that they were eating pellets.

It took them a while to get here, so in the meantime I had been feeding them frozen brine shrimp as this is all I could find in my area. I'd feed it to them with tweezers, and they really love the stuff. My only issues with it is that it messes up the tank (although my little guys are pretty good at finding the stray bits and eating them), it takes longer to feed them this way, and the cubes have these almost invisible strings in them which I guess are used to help keep the cube together, but my axies can't digest these strings and it seems to make it hard for them to poop! Other than that they are perfectly healthy. I just feel like the difficult pooping might be stressing them out a bit.

So their pellets finally arrived today and I was very excited about this. They are very small (about 2 cm in length), soft, and smell strongly. At first I dropped a full one in and my axie Julio went straight for it. He held it in his mouth for a minute while "chewing" occasionally, before he spat it out.
I figured it was too big, so I broke another one in half and tried to feed that to my other axie Bowie with tweezers. He went for it right away, but only held it in his mouth for a few seconds before spitting it out. I picked it up several times, gave it to him, and he'd take it, only to spit it out again.
So I broke the pellet into quarters, and tried one of the quarters with my biggest axie, Sagan. He pretty much did the same thing as Bowie.

I was running out of time and had to get to work, so I got the brine shrimp out and fed them that, and they happily nom nom nomed until they were full.

Could it be that my axies simply don't like the pellets, or could they still be too big for them? If it's just that they don't like them, what is the best way to train them to eat the pellets?

Keep trying. I've found that it's a texture thing. If they're used to eating brine shrimp, and now you're trying something that looks and smells and feels new, and they're not used to it.

The best way to get them to eat pellets is to let them go without food for a day or two, and then offer the pellets again.

Kaysie said:

Keep trying. I've found that it's a texture thing. If they're used to eating brine shrimp, and now you're trying something that looks and smells and feels new, and they're not used to it.

The best way to get them to eat pellets is to let them go without food for a day or two, and then offer the pellets again.

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That would be so hard! They always seem hungry and I love feeding them.
I guess I will keep trying for a few more days, and if I have no luck with that then I will skip a feeding or two until they eat them.

Thank you

It could be preference. If the Axolotls have become accustomed to another type of food, then they can become picky. You can mix the foods together and slowly use more pellet than brine shrimp until you phase out the brine shrimp and are using just pellets.

Shizeric said:

It could be preference. If the Axolotls have become accustomed to another type of food, then they can become picky. You can mix the foods together and slowly use more pellet than brine shrimp until you phase out the brine shrimp and are using just pellets.

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This also seems like a good idea. Thanks for all the wonderful tips

Well, last night I tried feeding them a combo of pellets and the frozen brine shrimp (i'd say 1/4 pellet, 3/4 shrimp), and it was a DISASTER. They just spat EVERYTHING out. SO MESSY.
So I decided to bring on the tough love and give them pellets only and if they didn't eat it then too bad.
Eventually, Julio did eat a small piece when given to him, but Sagan and Bowie just kept on spitting them right out.
There were, however, a bunch of spat out pellets on the bottom of their tank, and Julio started to swim down and eat those. Bowie followed suit and ate a couple, but Sagan kept swimming at the top begging for something different.
Eventually when I ignored him he swam down and I think I saw him eat one... but I'm not sure.
This morning I tried again. Julio ate a couple I gave him, but Sagan and Bowie just kept on spitting them out.
I'm going to try again this evening, and if they don't cooperate I'm going to have to switch back to the shrimp for the time being because I'm leaving for the weekend so my sister is feeding them. Then I will try again when I get back.

The first food i gave my axie was pellets but he kept spitting them out but after about three weeks of feeding earthworms and offering pellets he now loves the pellets just as much if not more than the worms! I think like people have said before they seem to develop a taste for them.

emz said:

The first food i gave my axie was pellets but he kept spitting them out but after about three weeks of feeding earthworms and offering pellets he now loves the pellets just as much if not more than the worms! I think like people have said before they seem to develop a taste for them.

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Haha if this is true, then I guess I have a fight up ahead. I hope that they start to eat them eventually. I want the pellets to be their main food with brine shrimp and worms being treats they get a couple of times a week.

When i first got him i thought oh god this is going to take up a lot of time as it took about twenty minutes to get him to eat! But he soon came around and now he swims up to meet me as i drop them. It seems to be a common problem when getting a new axie but all the worry was worth it because now i just get a lot of joy from owning him.

Just a heads up, brine shrimp basically nutritionless for your Axolotls, so the diet should include earthworms as well if they are going to refuse the pellets.

Shizeric said:

Just a heads up, brine shrimp basically nutritionless for your Axolotls, so the diet should include earthworms as well if they are going to refuse the pellets.

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I know It's the only thing my LFS sells asides from freeze-dried bloodworms. This is why I want them to eat the pellets so badly. Also, I don't have a yard to find worms in, and since I live in a city there aren't any bait shops for me either.

I am going to a lake this weekend and fishing is big there, so I'm going to try and get some worms and such there.

Walmart sells nightcrawlers.

Last night I experienced mild success!!! After fighting with Sagan and Bowie who just kept on spitting the things out (Julio is so much more compliant than they are!) I decided to mush up the pellets with the tweezers. So with little bits of pellet mush I was able to get them to eat some! And they seemed to enjoy it too. It's still a bit messy, but better than the shrimp.
I've also started only feeding them in the evening, instead of half in the morning and half in the evening. That way they're a bit hungrier and more likely to eat it all.

So I'm happy! When they get bigger I'm going to start trying to feed them more solid chunks. I am also still hunting down worms. I wish I had a yard to just grab some.