How often to feed an Axolotl

Hello everyone.

I am wondering how many earthworms to feed a medium, 5 inch or 12.5 cm size Axolotl.
I don't want to over feed him or under feed him.
They are small to medium size earthworms.
I also have meal worms as treats and some sinking pellets.
What kind of feeding pattern do others owners use?

Thank you in advance

Soohie said:

Hello everyone.

I am wondering how many earthworms to feed a medium, 5 inch or 12.5 cm size Axolotl.
I don't want to over feed him or under feed him.
They are small to medium size earthworms.
I also have meal worms as treats and some sinking pellets.
What kind of feeding pattern do others owners use?

Thank you in advance

Click to expand...

Mine is around the same size and I feed him 2 small-medium earthworms a day. He's still growing and I want to make the most of the first year so he can be big and strong when he grows up I've heard that growth really slows down after 12 months. He spits out the worms if he isn't hungry.

If someone has a different opinion then I'm all ears, but I'm pretty sure what you're feeding sounds like a good amount.

Side note: Just to check, are you feeding him live mealworms? Are you decapitating the meal worms first?

Hi there,

Thank you for your reply.

I was not decapitating the meal worms but I can.
How come?
Is this due to a chitin build up?
Is this bad for the Axi or for the filter system (low flow)

If they are not hungry they spit things out - good to know.
If they spit work, s out do you offer them a worm a day until they eat it?
Can Axi's be fussy? Or like variety?

Many thanks.

My 8.5 inch axie is in 14 to 16 degree water now because of winter and I will chop up 1 night crawler every other to every 3 days. He will sometimes eat it and sometimes spit it out. I think it's because the water is really cold so he doesn't need to eat as much but yeah, they spit their food out, lol.

Most of my gang are fully grown now, so I feed them a worm or two every other day. One of my older axies has always eaten a little less than the others, so would refuse a second worm sometimes.
When they were growing up I offered them food every day. Most of the time they would eat everything offered. I mainly fed small to medium earthworms daily, but sometimes (once every 2 weeks or so) I would defrost some prawns for a treat and hide axolotl pellets in them, because they went off pellets when they were introduced to worms. I also asked questions about feeding on this forum, and was told that it is difficult to overfeed a growing axie.
When one of my wild types was quite young he would sometimes eat very quickly, and then regurgitate his food, but he soon grew out of that.
As for decapitating meal worms, I can't remember exactly which worms have pincers, but those that do can damage your axolotls if they are still alive when fed, so it is safer to remove them before feeding them to your axie.

Soohie said:

Hi there,

Thank you for your reply.

I was not decapitating the meal worms but I can.
How come?
Is this due to a chitin build up?
Is this bad for the Axi or for the filter system (low flow)

If they are not hungry they spit things out - good to know.
If they spit work, s out do you offer them a worm a day until they eat it?
Can Axi's be fussy? Or like variety?

Many thanks.

Click to expand...

I have no personal experience of this but I've read that mealworms have pincers and can potentially internally and externally hurt your axie. Decapitating or crushing the pincers before you feed can eliminate this risk though.

If they're spitting food out they are usually simply still full from their last meal, but have a strong instinct to attack things that are put in front of them. Just offer food on a regular basis and if they don't want to eat it remove it. Don't worry if your axie hasn't eaten for a day or two, if he doesn't want it then leave it until the next meal.

Hi. I notice you guys talk about decapitating live mealworms - eeek. Not sure I can do that. Bit squeamish. Will the eat dried ones and will they do the axolotl any harm?