How to feed Bubbles the Axolotl?

So i have had my little baby axolotl for about exactly a week now and im just going to refer to the little guy as a girl lol i named her Bubbles. She likes bubbles. Ok so since i have had her she has only eaten one salmon pellet the first day, nothing for the next 3 days and then refused to eat the pellets. She would suck them up, naw on it then just spit it out, then do it again...Yesterday i added sand to her tank so that i could plant a few real plants in there and it looks really nice i love it. I took her out of the tank to change it and tried feeding her a chopped up earth worm and a chopped in half wax worm. She ate one half of the earth worm and one half of the wax worm. After i got her tank ready i decided to put her in a medium sized container with no substrate ect because i figured that way i can regulate how much she eats and riding of her waste. But my question is, i have two actually. First how much is a 3 inch baby axolotl suppost to eat, because today she only ate one half of a wax worm and spit anything else i tried feeding her out...is that normal? Also my boyfriend thinks shes unhappy in there yet shows no sign of stress lol so its kind of a smart thing to keep her in the container until shes bigger right? So she gets used to hand feeding ect plus this way she wont suck up sand.

Hello there, your Bubbles sounds like a cutie pie - can you post a photo and also one of your tank and her container ?

Little Axies should be feed a couple of times a day whilst they are growing, Bubbles might just be having trouble with the size of the food.

You can feed chopped Earthworms (should be cut to no wider than her head), live black worms (also cut if too big) or bloodworms.

If she goes back into the big tank, use a feeding jar to avoid mess and sucking up sand, otherwise feed in the container but make sure to remove leftover food and waste ASAP.

If you decide to keep her in the container for a while longer, just make sure you are really vigilant with water conditions as your parameters can deteriorate quickly when there is only a small amount of water involved. Also have you got somewhere for her to hide and some plants / moss for cover ?

As a comparison, my 5" Axie eats daily 2 Earthworms (minimum) and sometimes half a cube thawed frozen bloodworms too - seems to always be hungry ! He's been in our 20g since we got him at around the same size as Bubbles with no problems.

Sorry to waffle on, look forward to some photos and good luck

feed a little bit each day or a bigger feeding every 2nd or 3rd day.

I have a hide in her container and a few floating fake plants and thats about it for now, but in her tank theres plants and hides, a filter and a bubbler. i try feeding her twice a day, once in the morning and once at night but she only will eat once a day. also i can only get her to eat one half of a wax worm a day. Shes only ever eaten an earth worm once, but she almost ussually refuses the earth worms...which is weird because axolotls eat them lol. And i always remove her waste and uneaten food as soon as i see it. and i give her a water change every other day, every two days if its cleaner than normal.

This is a picture of her temporary home.
Bubbles Temporary Home Photo by MaeBleu_Art | Photobucket

This is a picture of her actual tank
Bubbles Tank Photo by MaeBleu_Art | Photobucket

and her is Bubbles herself!!!
PicsArt_1364614496146_zps94380fde.jpg Photo by MaeBleu_Art | Photobucket

Oh my, what a cutie she is ! Such beautiful long gills ..... Jealous

I would persevere with the earthworms, sometimes it takes a while for them to get used to them and certain types smell/taste foul so make sure you rinse with tank water before feeding and maybe chop them smaller for her as she looks quite little.

Is everything else normal - swimming, pooping etc ?

ok i will do that yeah they smell really gross especially when i chop them up. i make sure i chop them small its just hard to grasp with the tweezers. And up i find poop every once in a while and she swims all the time and is perfectly fine with me handling her only when i have to though. And i know not to handle her often because of her slim coat.

So Bubbles just ate the most she has ever eaten. She ate one whole (little) wax worm cut into three and then another half of one...but then i realized there were these little tiny white worms on the bottom of her container...i did research on the web and on this forum and i think they are nematode worms and i guess they are coming from the earth worms i am trying to feed her...i got the worms from Petsmart...maybe a bad idea. But i only have one wax worm left so hopefully my Daphnia comes in the mail soon and hopefully she likes them because she looked like she was getting alil skinny until she ate a lot this morning thank goodness. She shows no signs of stress what so ever so at least that's a good thing. Im gonna go change her water now.

I have 2 adult axolotl's and one of their babies.

I feed the adults very large earthworms called "nightcrawlers" from petsmart and the baby I feed frozen bloodworms (not freezedried). You can find the bloodworms at petsmart in the freezer and they have "mini" ones which my baby seems to really enjoy. I have also cut up the nightcrawlers into a bite size piece for the baby, which he seems to really like. I try to give him the piece of worm while it is still wriggling, that way it catches his attention. You will want to take out any uneaten food after about an hour if he has not eaten it. I really really reccommend the frozen bloodworms. He will smell the blood and the worms floating in the water make them look alive so it intrigues him!

I know this doesn't sound feasible to you, but you can try fasting your axie for a day and then feed him the next day. That way his appetite is in full throttle.

Also wanted to mention, using a turkey baster to take out any poop or uneaten food works really well!