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Question: Varied Diet - Roaches, Woodlice, Crickets?

TopsyTurvey

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Alrighty, I've heard roaches, crickets and woodlice are fine for an axie to make a varied diet with my girl's staple being earthworms. But regarding the roaches, they always seem to refer to Dubia Roaches which I don't have access to because of where I live.

We do however have the 'American Cockroach' (Periplaneta americana) and the 'German Cockroach' (Blattella germanica) and I was wondering if these'd be okay to use instead? Also would I have to snap the head off to ensure the can't hurt the axolotl?

Also out of either of those, woodlice and crickets, which ones would be best nutritionally and digestion wise (regarding the exoskeleton). And how many would I be best to breed as well as the worms I've already got? Due to not having a garden and not having a big room I'd like to keep it minimal but roaches don't seem to need a huge amount of space and look pretty easy to breed. The crickets seem a little higher bit more complicated and the noise would be an issue.

Basically whats the best type of feeders to give her a varied diet?
I also could get my hands on some guppies and frozen blood worms pretty easily if that'd be a better way to go, and those are two options which my dad would no doubt prefer. ;p

How many options as well as the earthworms would she need to have a healthy varied diet? Would it be just one other thing or would I be better to go with 2-3? And how often do you feed one of the other things, every other feeding or weekly/fortnightly/monthly?
God there's so many options and if you can't tell, I'm a little lost and could really use some advice c'x
 

KumquatSquats

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"shelled" bugs with an exoskeleton are kinda hard for axolotls to digest so I wouldn't breed any of those to be regular feeders, im sure once in a while it would be a good treat for them. soft bodied bugs like worms are the best regular food, i breed 2 species of worm myself (red wigglers & European nightcrawlers) in a compost bin and sometimes will feed the fatty fly larvae that i find in there as a treat as well.

I do think its a good idea to mix up their diet for optimum health but i'm rather conservative in what I will add to my mix, beyond the worms and occasional larvae they get pellets or Repashy gel food on a loose rotation and they live with a couple feeder shrimp (ghost shrimp) that seem to be too fast for my guys to catch. When they were smaller I fed bloodworms and I haven't bought them since switching to earthworms but they make a decent treat from time to time as well.

Eventually I think I want to raise White cloud minnows as a feeder as well but that's a project for when my guys finish growing. Guppies also work as feeders but they like much warmer water then the axolotls do so they aren't a perfect match, seen plenty of people do it however!
 

AxolotlFarm

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I don't know of any axolotl friends of mine that have ever suggested bugs of that sort for axies. In my opinion, those sound like a good case of constipation or impaction for the babies. Personally, I vary their diets with different types of worms, for example a mixture of earthworms and red worms.
If I were to add treats into the mix to give them for variety, I place a few ghost shrimp (also an exoskeleton so use caution) and feeder guppies.
 

landonewts

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I had iffy results with minnows. They were tiny enough, but brought fungus into the Axolotl tank. I managed to treat the fungus with water changes, mild in-tank tea baths and almond leaves. (I was able to rehome the minnows to a friend whose small children adore them.) I will not try feeder fish again.

I started a worm farm, and feed my two juvenile acids homegrown earthworms with Repashy and those soft Axolotls pellets as treats. My two are happy and healthy and, after adjusting to their new diet, they eat everything now.
 
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