Question: Methods for Handfeeding

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Spartacus

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This website truly is a godsend, gets all my questions answered by professionals :)
I've had a wee read around and wanted to know everyones methods for handfeeding.
My axie generally likes to sit in the corner of his tank at the bottom. I usually try to feed him with little circular salmon pellet things but they are really hard to hold for a long time near him. I also have some form of frozen axolotyl food which is bigger and easier to hold.
He never takes any notice of it. I see no signs of him smelling it or realising its there. If I put it too close, he swims away. I've been trying for days.
Do I have to be really persistant and just hold it still infront of him for ages?
If he doesn't eat it, should I leave it near him in the tank or take it out and keep try again later?
I don't want to be starving him if he wont take it from me, but I REALLY really want to handfeed him.
All advice would be much appreciated, he's still quite scared of my hand and I don't want to stress him out too much.
Also, my tank is full, would lowering the water level make hand feeding easier?
Please help me! I need you guys!
 
Hi Spartacus,

Here is what i do with my own axies. I actually adopted this method by slight modification, from various ideas thrown out in this forum.

I got a heavy (sinking) feeding bowl with raised edges and semi embed it in the sandy substrate. This is the common feeding bowl which i place rather near the front of the tank.

If i feed frozen bloodworms, after thawing, i would use a 5-10ml syringe to suck up the worms and then lower it to inject into the bowl slowly. All the worms should go neatly into the bowl without a mess. Same applies with blackworms.

For pellets and earthworms, i tend to just put them directly into the bowl as well. It took only 2 days for all my axies to get accustomed to the bowl and realise its the feeding spot. They would all gather there to feed.

If i want to offer treats, be it a piece of shrimp or a slice of fish, i tend to just use feeding forceps and hold it in front of their faces and wave it about. 70% of the time, they would take it. If they are uninterested, i just simply remove it.

I tend to leave live blackworms and earthworms in the bowl for a while, despite whether the axies are interested or not as they can survive for some time. Pellets and bloodworms i tend to remove after 30min if not eaten.

Cheers.
 
I know that this sounds like alot of work, but I remove my axies from theis tank, and I feed them in a small storage tub, from the Dollar Store. It does 2 things. No one will get bit accidently, and I get to do all my tank maint.,rearanging, ect. without worry. Oh yea, and some monitering of food intake,and who likes what, added is some one on one time with each individual.
 
The only thing I hand feed is earthworms...and that was not intentional! As soon as I lift the lid they are ready and waiting... I have a worm in each hand so they don't both go for the same one , and the axy just go for the worms:D
 
Hi Spartacus,

You don't really need to handfeed them at all. You should be able to drop the food from above the water and the axolotl will sniff it out. If this isn't working, there are a few things you can check.

First, maybe your axolotl hasn't developed the greatest hunting skills yet. Best way to teach an axolotl to hunt is to give it live food.

How big is your axolotl?

Second, you might try feeding at a different time of day. Axolotls are crepuscular (active at sunrise and sunset) (I love that there is a word for that) and so you might try feeding at sunset, when your axolotl is naturally inclined to be more active and hunt.

Third, could something be spoiling your axolotl's appetite? Is water quality and temperature ok? Have you just moved him to a new tank or did anything else happen that could have stressed him and put him off his feed? Are there any other signs of a problem (gills curved forward, bent tail tip, swollen body, floating, shedding skin..)?

-Eva
 
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I had noticed he was more active at sunrise and sunset, its cool to know he wasnt just being weird. There arent paticularly problems getting him to eat, he doesnt eat a lot but he seems ok with it, I just heard the stories of the "begging" axies and wanted to see that, or at least have some form of interaction with my axie, so he could learn to trust me.
I have already had a bit more success than my other tries, he didnt really run away, just sniffed the food. Still wouldnt eat it until I left him alone though. Trust between animals and humans is such a cool thing :)
Yay for some progress
Thank you everyone, youre tips and information are awesomely helpful
 
How long have you had him? He might still be getting used to the new tank. I use the feeding dish as well.
 
When i feed my axie i put the food hanging out of the end of a straw. I move it about infront of/ over hime and then when he is finished eating or doesn't want to eat i just pull out the straw and the food so there is no mess :D
 
What a clever idea Jadore! This should go into tips 101. I shall try using a long straw in future to see if slipping an earthworm in down the slide works.
 
You could use chop sticks to.
 
I feed my axolotls on pellets. I started out dropping the food in front of their faces, but eventually switched to holding it in my fingertips because the tank had a rock substrate and if they missed a pellet I dropped, it would get lost between the rocks and make a mess. It is definitely cute and endearing to have them following my hand looking for food! Some downsides are that they bite my fingers trying to get the food, which doesn't really hurt but does slow down the feeding process. And also it can take a while, especially as the number of axolotls I feed has increased over time.
 
I can now picture Rayson trying to insert an earthworm into a straw..
 
bellabelloo said:
I can now picture Rayson trying to insert an earthworm into a straw..
Click to expand...

Hopefully he will at least start at the feeding end and not hope the worm will crawl all the way though...
 
I attempted the straw method. Its the same as yesterday. He sniffs the food, follows it a little and seems interested, then suddenly just turns away and pays it no more attention.
Is this normal?
It's been warm here lately so Im going to do a bit of a water change to cool the water down, the PH level isnt off, he's still little so shouldn't he be eating heaps?
 
Also I've had him just over a week now. Usually his gills are fine but today they are curved forward. I have a small filter which is always on its lowest setting, I've decided to turn it off temporarily, should I do daily semi-water changes daily instead of using a filter for awhie?
 
Hi Spartacus,

How old is your axie? You do not need to feed it daily if its a full grown adult. Juvenile axies may be fed up to three times a week. Regardless, it still doesn't need daily feeding.

High temperatures, high water currents and poor water parameters can cause an axie to loose appetite so its right that you want to correct these.

However, a water change to cool the tank really isn't an ideal method. Have a look at these methods. http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml

Axies can tolerate a range of pH from around 6.5-8, although a neutral 7 is ideal. pH therefore isn't the most critical of parameters to watch out for but rather ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. You want to aim for 0 ammonia, nitrites and <60 nitrates.

As for filter, it is best you keep your filter running at all times. Turning off the filter can kill off populations of beneficial bacteria since they need the aeration to survive. You can diffuse the water currents by directing the outflow towards a tank glass surface, against ornaments and rocks, use of a spray bar and even sectioning off the area where the outflow is.

Cheers
 
Unfortunately my filter is ****. It stcks to the wall and only sprays out in a straightforward direction, i've moved it to a corner so it shouldnt bother my axie as much. I don't have a ruler to measure him but lengthwise, he's just over half the length of an average dvd case. Assuming worldwide that dvds are all sold in the same size rectangular cases. Sorry, its the only thing I have to measure him with.
I guess he's probably just not hungry.
As for cooling, I'll check into the pet store to see if they have anything. If not, could I scoop out some tank water, refridgerate it and put it back in later? Or would that still disrupt the bacteria growth?
 
Hi Spartacus,

I think there are easier ways to cool your tank. That method you suggested sounds so laborious, my fingers ache just thinking about it. :D

I would suggest if you have a fully enclosed tank lid to perhaps replace with a mesh netting type cover instead. This would increase evaporative cooling.

How about mount some small fans on the tank to further increase the evaporative cooling? You can even use a standard pedestal fan.

If you use aquarium lighting, restrict it to 6 hours per day. That would be enough to keep your plants happy and also allow the water to be less heated.

There is always the ice bottle method as well. They work rather well provided you are there to rotate the bottles.

Cheers
 
Ok, I can't change much about my tank until I have replaced it with a larger one so I will give the frozen water bottle idea a go
Thanks a bunch ^^
 
Hi again Spartacus,

Your axie is much younger than i initially thought. Assuming we all have standard size DVD covers, your axie is about 8cm. For a juvenile that size, they do need to be fed daily, maybe even twice a day. I had initially thought it was a young adult/adolescent axie.

Cheers.
 
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