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Won't eat motionless food

ReptileGirl

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So my critter won't eat food that isn't alive and moving. I've tried bloodworm cubes, dried shrimp, dried mealworms, dried crickets, protein pellets, liver (which he had no idea what to do with) etc and he won't eat anything that isn't moving. I've tried manually moving the items - and when I do that he will come up and push them with his nose, but never actually eat them, eventually he gets bored and goes back to his house. He ate one bloodworm cube once, but that was because I dropped it on him (oops) and scared the daylights out of him. After that, even if I dropped it on him, he spat it out. Is there a way that I can convince him to eat non-living food? I'm totally fine with feeding him 100% living food, but I want to be able to give him the best variety so it would be helpful if he ate non-living foods. Thanks!
 

pookiewn

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The best food for him is earthworms, they are nutritionally complete and other foods are not necessary.

A couple of my axies are fussy in the brand of bloodworm, and it took them a while to eat pellets. The best way to introduce new food to them I found was after feeding a wriggly worm, they then went into hunting mode and were happy to sample different foods, but it took a long time for it to be dinner on it's own!
 

Alkylhalide

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If he is under 1.5" It's understandable. I was feeding my babies frozen bloodworms since they were 1" and could eat it chopped up.

I did hear though that some axolotls can become very picky very easily. If you wean them off live food, by just incorporating the not live food, "sometimes" the axolotl will never want food that is not live and will only take it if its live.

Same with sometimes if you feed them one thing for while, then introduce a new treat, or food, that they may never go back to the old food again. Pretty much be careful what you feed them :)

My two lotls that are 8" have been fed on nightcrawlers for a while now. Which is the best food to feed them anyways, and they are live. Mine aren't picky though and I can put anything in the tank(including fingers) and its food!

My three juveniles that are 5" long now(WOW) Are being fed mostly still on frozen bloodworms, and also smaller earthworms when I can find them(yay free food) Once Im out of bloodworms though they will be going on a full earthworm/nightcrawler diet(cheapperr) which is only 4days away.
 

narny101

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I was wondering, is feeding an axie earthworms right out of a garden ( rinsed of cores) a good idea... I have heaps of worms in my backyard but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea ( I read that they could have a virus or something?)
 

ReptileGirl

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I was wondering, is feeding an axie earthworms right out of a garden ( rinsed of cores) a good idea... I have heaps of worms in my backyard but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea ( I read that they could have a virus or something?)

I haven't been here long - but a lot of people here just grab them from their gardens, so I tend to doubt if there's much danger in that. What would worry me more would be the residual presence of insecticides and/or herbicides. But for me that isn't a factor since my reptiles are kept outside and I live in a semi-rural area so neither I nor anyone around me uses harmful things. In another thread someone (I think it was Mel) mentioned feeding woodlice from gardens - which I tried and my guy actually eats them.
 

Tephra

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If it's moving, an axolotl will eat it. Teaching them to eat motionless food (especially pellets) can take some time, but they'll get the hang of it. They have to be in the water for a bit before they become detectable through scent by the axolotls. When the pellets get like that, you might want to try stirring up the water a bit with a chopstick or something like that, get the pellets to move so the axie spots them. It worked for me.
 
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