Question: How do you know you are feeding a growing juvenile axolotl enough? Or too much?

eggdropsoup said:

Hi guys, I got a leucistic little guy (or gal? I've just been using boy pronouns until I can determine otherwise) two months ago. I don't know how old he was, just that he was small enough to fit in the bottom of a water bottle and not have to curve his tail at all, probably around 1.5 inches (3.8 cm).

I stopped using the little hard pellets the person I bought him from gave me after a few weeks and bought some soft salmon pellets from Ed's Fly Meat, and Mochi has been growing like a weed ever since. At least, it seems that way. He's just shy of 4 inches (10 cm) now. So clearly I'm doing something right, right?

I just wanted to get other people's input on feeding a lil guy around this size. Because I just the other day found out that I should be feeding him twice a day, and I had only been doing it once a day.

I was feeding him five or six of the pellets a day, and now after reading that I've been doing four or five in the morning and three or four at night. If you have these pellets, I'm talking about the ones that are already broken smaller, I pick around and leave the big ones for when he's bigger.

For those that don't have them, http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/TbUAAOSwPc9WzPgF/s-l300.jpg this is what they look like. The picture looks to be true to their real size.

Am I just overthinking this? I guess my concern is that I could be feeding him too much. I just know that overfeeding can kill fish, and I figure that axolotls probably have the same thing where they eat the food if it's there, even if it's too much for them. Because there's definitely never any leftovers!

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Holly12 said:

Is it the Axolotl pellets you are using from that site? I can't find any other pellets there. Do they sink?

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Donna001 said:

Hi there and welcome to the forum. :happy:

Juveniles grow very quickly, it great to watch them grow up.
When mine were younger, and being fed on bloodworms, I was worried about feeding, so asked a similar question. My main concern was that my wild type had eaten a lot and had been sick, so should I cut back on his food. I was told that you can't really over feed a juvenile. I guess they grow so quickly that they need the energy.
They don't always eat just because it's their either. They will often stop when they have had enough, but will happily feed again later in the day. Mine were fed small amounts 3 times a day.
If possible, as soon as your little one is big enough for earthworms/nightcrawlers, start introducing them into his diet. They are very good nutritionally.
Feeding only really changes when they start to mature.

I don't use those pellets, so perhaps someone who does (or one of the more experienced keepers) will answer your specific question, but I hope that this helps for now.

We'd also love to see some pictures of Mochi. Please.

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