Question: Relatively new Axie owner, just a few feeding questions.

awesomesauce

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I've had my little guy for close to 3 months now, and I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing, but there are some things that I couldn't really find a conclusive answer on.

He's about 4 months old now, and he's growing pretty quickly. I measured him two days ago and he's about 7 inches long, and I've been wanted to mix up his diet a bit, I've been alternating between shrimp pellets and frozen blood worms. I just bought some frozen brine shrimp today so I haven't gotten the chance to try it, but I wanted to know when it was acceptable to start feeding him whole earthworms (i'm kinda squeamish and can't really handle cutting them up). I also read that you should only feed them about 2-3 times a week, but every morning when i go to say hi to him he swims back and forth all excited to get some food and I just can't resist. Is that too much, or does he just have an enormous appetite?
 
At 7" he is probably older than four months. You can buy appropriate sized worms if you do not wish to cut them, feed the axolotl as much as he wants. As he gets older/bigger he may feed less often, 2-3 times per week.
 
Worms are fine at 7", size is more important than age (although I agree he's probably older than 4 months at that size).
If you set up a small worm farm you'll always have worms of various sizes, its easy enough to do with a large bucket and lid and a few starter worms . Feed them mashed potato and they'll breed like rabbits!
Every day feeding is fine, when he starts to look fat or refuses food is when you cut down.
 
Awesome! Thank you guys so much. Is there any way to manage a small worm farm? I'm in college, living on campus so I don't have too much room (or money) to work with.
 
Worm farm bascis:

Get a ~20L container with a lid, heat up a pin with a flame and make tiny holes in the lid (for air circulation) Too big and the worms will escape. Bucket, plastic box, craft box, kids toy box - anything that has a lid to make it worm-escape-proof.
Fill it 2/3 full with loamy compost - don't bother with adding water. One worm farm prepared for worms. Keep it in a shady spot outside where it won't be disturbed or get too much water/rain falling on it.

To catch worms find a patch of quiet earth in an area not treated with chemicals - maybe approach an organic gardener or plant nursery. Cook a few slices of potato, and place them on bare earth later in the day (4pm onwards). Wait an hour, then check under the potatoes - there will be an accumulation of varied bugs and crawly things. Collect some worms and put the potatoes back for another half an hour. Check every 30 minutes until you have about 20 worms - put them in your worm bucket.

Worms love cooked potatoes, you don't even need to peel them and you can use sprouty ones and 'I'm not gonna eat it' ones - cook some up without salt, crush. chop or mash them (don't add butter or milk), and lay a 1" thick layer across the surface of your worm farm. Do this about once every 2 weeks, removing any uneaten skin as you go.

And they will breed - you'll have more than enough worms to feed your axies, just remember that the ones with big beige lumpy bands around their middle are in the middle of a breeding cycle and you shouldn't be using those for food.
 
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