Caudata.org: Newts and Salamanders Portal

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Did you know that registered users see fewer ads? Register today!

Johnny's Pellets for Axolotls

SludgeMunkey

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,299
Reaction score
79
Location
Bellevue, Nebraska
Here is the recipe I came up with for axolotl pellets. I feed these in the off season around here once or twice a week when many live foods are unavailable to me.

A few notes before we get started:

Go to the thrift store and buy a used blender. Your significant other/parents will kill you if you use the one in your kitchen.

This is a messy process with quite a bit of stink involved. It is best to do this project outside.

These pellets, while dry, should be stored in the freezer in an airtight container. I use a vaccuum sealer to package mine.

You get to kill live bugs and worms for this project, if you are a bit squeemish, you may be better off buying pellets.


Equipment/ Materials needed:

-Blender with GLASS pitcher and metal blades
-Disposable plastic storage containers (like Ziploc disposables)
-Vacuum sealer and bags (Ziploc makes a cheap one that works great!)
-Disposable Frosting bag, and nozzel (use the nozzel with the 1/4 inch hole, or make the hole bigger)
-Waxed Paper (like for baking)
-Large Plastic Mixing bowl
-Rubber spatula
-Paper towling
-disposable spoons

-1 lbs (1 bulk packages) San Fransico Bay brand or Hikari Brand Frozen Bloodworms (The bulk slabs, not the cubes)

-1lb frozen Bulk Brine Shrimp

-1 lbs live worms (I prefer Lumbricus terrestris, avoid Eisenia foetida) preferably gut loaded with Goldfish Flakes

-1200 Large Live Crickets (about 1/4 lb), gutloaded on Goldfish Flakes (or use grasshoppers, Brown Junebugs, brown may beetles, etc)

-1 Box of Knox Unflavored Gelatin packets, or equivlent

-1 gallon of Spring Water


1. Place the container with the crickets in your freezer for at least one hour. Warm up the spring water in the microwave. DO NOT BOIL! Lukewarm (130F) is perfect.
2. Thaw out the Bloodworms and the Brine Shimp in a plastic bowl, keep all the liquid!
3. Place the worms a handful at a time in the blender and set it to Whip, untill all the worms are blended into a disgusting milkshake. Add small amounts of spring water to ensure an even consistency.
4. Add the thawed brine shrimp and bloodworms and all the liquid from thawing to the worm slurry. Liquify untill you have a nice even consistency. Your mix should be a pinkish brown by now.
5. Fetch the now dead gut loaded crickets and blend them in also. If you blender is not big enough to hold the entire mix, pour some into the bowl you used to thaw out the shrimp and bloodworms in.
6. Continue blending on the Whip setting until the whole mess is of even consistency. Add warm spring water as needed to get it about the same consistency as warm gravy.
7. The mix should be thin enough to pour easily. If it does not pour easily, add more spring water and continue to blend untill it is. Try to get all the lumps blended out.
8. While the blender is running, lay out some sheets of waxed paper and get your frosting bag ready.
9. Blend two packets of Knox Unflavored Gelatin (dissolve the packets into one cup boiling spring water first) into the warm mix. Blend It thouroghly!
10. Now you need to work quickly! Pour some of the mix into the frosting bag and sqweeze it out in long, thick (about 1/4 inch wide) even stripes on the waxed paper. Continue to do this untill all the mix is on the waxed paper.
11. Go have lunch and clean your blender and bowl.
12. The pellet mix will set up into a thick stick. Let this dry in direct sunlight for a few hours, or use your oven set on warm. A food dehydrator works best!
13. Once the sticks have dried up, but are still somewhat moist, break them into pellets about 3/4 of an inch long and store them in vacuum pack bags in the freezer.

These pellets have a high nutritonal value, and can be fed as a staple to axolotls and other salamanders/newts when live foods are not readily available. They have a shelf life of about one year when kept frozen in an airtight container. These pellets do not float when thawed out and are readily eaten by my axolotls.
 

SludgeMunkey

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,299
Reaction score
79
Location
Bellevue, Nebraska
Ohh!

Mysis shrimp!

Now that is something I had forgotten about.

I will have to try your recipe out! Agar-Agar is the vegetable alternative for gelatin, however I have never worked with it. Guess I will have to give that a try too. I cheat on the vitamin supplements and go for what the good folks at Hikari add, in addition to those loaded worms and crickets.
 

Melmo

New member
Joined
Apr 18, 2009
Messages
85
Reaction score
3
Location
New Jersey
I have to say, this is revolting. If I ever try this it would be the first time I would actually blend insects. Props to you though, this is a great idea.
 

AU SalamanderRG

New member
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
24
Reaction score
1
Oh wow. These sound too good to simply JUST be for salamanders/newts. These sound good enough to be MONSTER fish pellets!:D
 

SludgeMunkey

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,299
Reaction score
79
Location
Bellevue, Nebraska
Just a bump as this has come up in conversation recently. And, it is old enough to be a bit hard to find in the archives.

Any yes, I still use this process, though I use the pellets only when I cannot get worms.
 

Coastal Groovin

Active member
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
923
Reaction score
46
Location
USA
I just was caught by the wife grinding up dried leaves in the blender. I'm sure this will go over any better.....lol.
 
J

jcj57

Guest
Lucky I'm able to access live food all year round and my axis are quite happy eating the commercial pellets. I'm glad the net does not come with smellavision, must look disgusting, lol
 

axiesoph

New member
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
If you did not want to blend worms... Ewwww. What kind of pellets available in stores can people recommend?
 

Otterwoman

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
6,617
Reaction score
102
Location
Wappingers Falls, NY
Freezing worms will kill them and when you defrost them you will be greeted by the most putrid, foul-smelling unusable mess you have ever seen or smelled.
 
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    There are no messages in the chat. Be the first one to say Hi!
    Top