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Question: What do you feed your axolotl?

MG72

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Hello everyone,

I'm a new member, I'll hopefully get round to properly introducing myself at some point but was hoping I could just ask a quick question first. Apologies, I'm sure this thread has been done to death in the past.

I've raised my little guy (Ari) from spawn, and until now I've been feeding him live daphnia. But he's getting pretty big now (about 8cm) and is eating the daphnia faster than my culture can supply him. I've tried him with dried daphnia and he's just not interested. This is my first experience of axolotls, and its been a brilliant learning curve!

Can anyone recommend something tasty and nutritious that I can wean him onto?
I'm in the UK (not sure if this is an international forum) so needs to be something I can easily get hold of, and not too pricey (I'm a student!).

I've tried to attach a recent picture of my little Ari but I'm not sure if I've done it right!

Thank you :happy:
 

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BIGBODYBEAR

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Live black worms & bloodworms , i think you can start him on frozen blood worms, brine shrimp, my little guys are about 3 1/2 inches & they are eating frozen blood worms , chopped earth worm , small live bearers , & the occasional chopped superworm .

Also if you feed them frozen food , you will have to use tweezers & wiggle the food infront of their faces because if u just throw the food in there & it sinks chances are it might not find it
 

BIGBODYBEAR

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Also dont use turtle pellets or fish pellets because they most likely contain wheat & soy which axies cant digest , they are strictly carnivorous of if you use pellets make sure they are salmon pellets which are 100% meat
 

MG72

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Thanks, that's really helpful. I found some bloodworm pellets and some frozen bloodworm in the local pet shop and Ari's gobbling everything down very enthusiastically! I'll do some rummaging around in the garden over the weekend and see if I can find any tasty worms for him there too :)
 

Colinna

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You can also buy Axolotl Pellets at some pet stores.

I use a mix of the Axi Pellets, frozen blood worms and live earth worms that I grown in my own worm farm.
 

Machiavelli

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Thanks, that's really helpful. I found some bloodworm pellets and some frozen bloodworm in the local pet shop and Ari's gobbling everything down very enthusiastically! I'll do some rummaging around in the garden over the weekend and see if I can find any tasty worms for him there too :)

Hi,

I'm a newbie to the site, and I wouldn't want to offend anyone....

But, I'm sure that I read that we should be careful about feeding our axolotls garden worms incase they've been affected by fertilisers etc that may have been used in our gardens.

I'll be happy to be told that I'm wrong about this.:eek:

I'm really interested in this topic because our newly acquired axolotls would not eat the frozen blood worms we offered them yesterday, so I have to find something that they'll find tasty enough to eat.

Mach
 

Machiavelli

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Hi Colinna,

How big is your worm farm?

Do you keep it just to feed your axolotls?

Any advice you can give would be very appreciated.

I'm at Mango Hill, QLD. Are you nearby? Thinking I could maybe buy worms from you rather than grow my own:eek:

Mach



You can also buy Axolotl Pellets at some pet stores.

I use a mix of the Axi Pellets, frozen blood worms and live earth worms that I grown in my own worm farm.
 

BIGBODYBEAR

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I dont know how much are earthworms in europe but here in the US i get them for 3$ for a pack of 30 lasts me a month in the fridge & the worms stay alive
 

MG72

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I tried my little man with some little earthworms from the garden today and they've gone down very well!

Machiavelli - I've lived here for 10years and never used any sort of fertilisers or chemicals so I doubt that the worms here contain any nasties, but thank you for pointing that out - it's not something I'd considered before and will definitely bear it in mind in the future when worm-hunting!
 

Colinna

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Hi Mach

I bought my worm farm from Bunnings, it is the rectangle one on legs. Just bought the standard starter pack of worms. Put in all my fruit & veggie leftovers and the worms multiply and grow really quickly. http://www.bunnings.com.au/diy-brochure.ashx/31/How_to_Build_a_Worm_Farm.pdf?stateID=7

It looks like this: Worm Cafe - Bunnings Warehouse

I bought it originally just for the Axi's but I now use the "worm water" that drains out the bottom for my plants and once the worms have mulched the current section I can use that for my garden as a fertiliser.

Unfortunately I'm southside, out near Beaudesert. So not really close enough. LOL!!
 

JayFaye

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Up until now I've been feeding mine frozen bloodworm cubes, and they work great. The only problem is that they come apart easy do you end up with worms you have to net out eeeeeverywhere. But just recently I bought freeze dried brine shrimp (From Omega One but I saw one or two other brands too), and they're great! My axie eats them right up. Not to mention anything he doesn't eat floats rather than sinks, so it's such an easy cleanup! So that's my personal favorite.
 

Kaysie

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Freeze-dried food isn't very nutritious. It's like feeding your axolotl nothing but rice cakes.

Earthworms are a much better option.
 

Pasleylg

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I made a mix of ground beef heart, broccoli, carrots and unflavored jello that I freeze and cut into cubes. For 10 bucks I got food supply for about 2 months feeding 5 axies =)

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