Annorexic axolotl near to death please help!!!

[sheena22]

Hello, Im so sorry to post asking immediate help! I'm from the UK and have a very very FAT axolotl but I've found a new one.

Today I've walked into my boyfriends fish shop, looked in the newt tank and saw an axolotl the same size body as a newt if not smaller and its head and gills were bigger but gills really tiny.

Someone has brought it and starved it to death nearly and brought it back. No bigger in width than my thumb, so scared for it bellys gone in and everything!

Set up a tank today going to collect it next week and hopefully *fingers crossed* nurse it back to health and get it fat and healthy.

Seems reluctant to eat, so my question is really what to feed an annorezic axolotl?

Do i annoy it with food if it survives and get it to snap and taste the yummyness of a small earth worm?

Large blood worms or small ones? Daphnia?

I was thinking i know its stupid but to try brine shrimp as they are tiny and maybe hed accidentally breath one in and think oh i actually like that!

Please i am so worried, its lovely to have joined the site , I'm sorry its in such a bad time though!

Thank you for reading and HELLO!

Sheena22

Im disgusted someone could have done this to an axolotl !

 

[scooty16]

Hi Sheena

Can I just say first off, I think its absolutely amazing and kind of you to take this little fella on and look after him/her. It's disgusting to think someone has let it get to this state.

The best thing I could suggest would be the earthworms, usually axolotl's cannot resist a nice juicy worm! Bloodworms are okay, but they are very messy! If you want to feed it bloodworms make sure you can try and clear any of the bloodworms it doesn't eat up, but for now, earthworms are the best thing this little guy could have! Make sure you get them from a source that hasn't had pesticides used there.

Does he/she have anything else wrong? Or is it just reaal skinny?

Maybe when you get this poor axie, post a piccy for us to see?

And again, well done, you have done a very awesome thing, this little guy is lucky you came along! :happy:

Ohh feed him gradually too, to build him up!

 

[Aaran]

You could try putting it into a shallow tub and fill it with live daphnia, If not you could always blast some toward it (obviously not too powerful) with a pipette,

Try various foods, but your best option is live to tempt it

Worms - even frozen bloodworm but wiggle it with tweezers

Goodluck!

and welcome.

 

[mewsie]

Poor little thing

Earthworms are definitely the best nutritionally, although worth getting some frozen bloodworm too, especially if the little guy is weak and not up for a wrestle with a wriggly worm.

Defrosted bloodworm must have a good smell to an axolotl and might encourage him to eat.

 

[scooty16]

Yes, they do love live foods, and can't resist the worm when it's wriggly!

But mewsie has a point, if it's weak then it won't want to wrestle. When I used to feed my axie he would just hoover the bloodworm up off the floor!

And it does have a smell to it, I've sniffed it as I had never seen bloodworm before when I first got my axie, and I could smell something. Oh god, I sound like a weirdo...

 

[sheena22]

Thank you scooty and aaron.

When i go to the shop tomorow ill get a picture, you wont like it though it doesnt even really look like an axolotl its so skinny its really upsetting me i just want to get him in the tank and feed him !!!!

It is animal cruelty really, youll all be disgusted i just want to hurry up before another moron comes in and buys it (because apart from my boyfriend the rest of the workers there will sell it because they are money minded!) .

Ill try all i can ill get rid of all the waste,from bloodworms and such, a shop near me does giant blood worms and they are excellent for axiesot a lot of mess at all ! Ill try just tempting him and all the things youve suggested.

Thanks aaron ill try the pippette, hopefully he or she will accidentally suck some in because i dont think she wants to eat.

Thank you for saying im good to take it on but i cant watch things suffer, and I'm home now for a while so ill hand feed it and do everything I can. It looks like a baby axolotl but its not its quite old because mines large now and was brought before or just after mine and its been starving since i think.

I dont want to upset anyone on the forum by showing the picture I will get soon, but it needs to be shown because it can show what not looking after axolotls can do!

It doesnt look like there is anything else wrong with it scooty, but i couldnt really see a lot as theres not much of an axolotl there, I cant believe its survived, youd think bad water quality they must of had if they werent feeding it, god knows how it survived!

Thank you so much everyone very VERY scared at the moment, I hope i can turn the poor thing into a happy fat axie! Just want to cry to be honest knowing its not here, i know it sounds silly but i really need it here now before it dies so i can save it!

 

[Aaran]

If you want something smelly?

go for some blackworms Sometimes with the frozen blisterpacks ive found they misslabel them, they say bloodworms but they are the blackworm kind not the little red ones.

I prefer the reds just for my nose However i have found my axolotls dont mind when they are hungry which type they get!

Best option is Variety! If you arent having sucess with frozen foods try live if no success again try pellets, if no success then, leave the little fellow in a quiet dark room leave some bloodworm on the bottom of the tank. Not too much so you can tell if it eats them, and leave it be for abit and keep checking on it

 

[sheena22]

Thank you mewsie, i have frozen bloodworms in the freezer i will try!

Never had any success with axolotls and things that dont move! Tried everything with my fat axolotl and she only eats wriggly things even when she got skinny because she had fungus, but shes fat and healthy now.

It isnt creepy, the bloodworms do smell a lot, i dont really like the smell lol but it attracts axies!

My axolotl is quite big, shes so naughty bless her, she curled up a bit whilst turning round as she finds it hard to turn round saw her tail move and took a snap at it!:happy: Eat anything that moves she will, ill get photos of the healthy axie up too !

FINGERS CROSSED POORLY AXIE WILL LIVE!

 

[Aaran]

the axolotl i found in a petshop was in good condition bar its gills, bit on the scraggy side, Its tank was okay had a hide and sand, just too much light and too much flow, although they had redirected the flow onto a rock. poor lotl was stressed, it was pining its friend that had died,

good thing is they wouldnt sell me it unless it was eating, they even reserved it for me! Shame really as i had 2 lotls at home it could have played with but atleast they were straight with me.

They rang me and informed me that sadly it had died they even had tried to force feed it

 

[sheena22]

Bless, RIP axie, they are normally quite strong bless them. I want to try save this life now because my boyfriend will take it from the shop and bring it here because it will get better looked after here x

 

[mewsie]

Bless, RIP axie, they are normally quite strong bless them. I want to try save this life now because my boyfriend will take it from the shop and bring it here because it will get better looked after here x

Best of luck Sheena, sounds like you love the little guy to bits already. I'm sure when you get him you'll keep us updated, and do post pictures of your current little monster.

Welcome to the board, by the way.

 

[sheena22]

I do hes so lovely, poor little thing ill keep you updated with both, one annorexic and one morbidly obese axolotl who likes attacking herself and leaves x

Thanks so much for the support, ill get my camera back off of a friend and post them , it will make you all sad the photos of the skinny one, but if we can fatten him up we will and all the forum can see his fat belly x

 

[aeviette]

Nothing quite like a lovely tubby axie belly

 

[memojo1979]

My friend's axies weren't that thin when I got them from her (see this thread http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ussion-free-all/75865-fostering-axolotls.html it's very basic, but shows there is hope!). They didn't respond to ANY food that I tried, unless right in front of them + moving.
So, I ended up spending 1/2hr every morning + evening, squirting thawed bloodworm from a pipette, right in front of their noses! It took ages to progress them, but I then got them onto bloodworm squirted into their tubs, rather than right in front of them (for them to hunt for themselves), then just evening feeds, onto 2-3mm pieces of earthworm (soaked for 10-30mins before feeding) with tweezers, then the same pieces of worm into the tubs without tweezers, next was gradually increasing the size of the wormy-bites, then because they'd grown so well, I had to move them from their isolation tubs into a normal tank + finally, we worked on small, whole earthworms + they have been rehomed just a couple of days ago
I'd agree with Aaran about putting it in a small tub (with only just enough room to turn around easily) + doing daily water changes. The small tub will make it easier to monitor feeding + pooping.
Once eating, I'd recommend the 2-3mm pieces of earthworm - they don't take much effort, but still give the best nutrition :happy:
Fingers crossed for you + the little guy

 

[sheena22]

Thank you ill read that in a minute hes literally near to death so anything is worth a try!

I dont know whether putting him in a small tub is going to do any good may that stress him out even more? Im setting up a tank going to have some sand , java fern moss balls bog wood lots of hidey holes and some plant pots so he or she can hide, its not that big of a tank anyway, dont want to stress the poor little thing out by putting it in a small enclosure, im going to watch her a lot of the time where im at home for the next month or so!

thank you very much and fingers crossed!! x

 

[Kaysie]

Best of luck. These are hard situations!

 

[Aaran]

Drop a lid on it with some holes,

when mine were babies i kept them in the display cabinet for safety darkness and quietness

and i could see them / get to them easily.


I wouldnt even use substrate for now, possibley some dark card underneath to darken the bottom, and i would think about buying some elodea or camboya, doesnt need to root properly and will grow floating even with daily water changes, it creates enough shelter and makes the lotl feel safer.

Just try make sure it cant escape out the top of the tub haha!

goodluck!

 

[jstedman1]

Wait a second. If the axie hasn't been fed well that doesn't mean you should give him/her a feast when you get it. Maybe this doesn't relate, but I know that when you find a starved human/dog/cat you could possibly kill them by excess feeding at once. I would suggest a feeding pattern of smaller/normal amounts every 2-3 days. In terms of what to feed him, just ask. If he responds to feeding on something better than others maybe stick with that for a while. I like using frozen blood worms, then throwing in a few baby guppies from my aquarium once in a while. In terms of his home, since you just created it, would it be good to use some water from a healthy tank? I don't know, just a thought. I'm sure just regular bottled spring water should do the works. Good luck!

 

[Aaran]

Just to help a little, if and axolotl eats to much like majority of other creatures it will vomit

were going on the basis it wont eat much anyway, if you eat less yourself your stomach gets used to smaller amounts of food, so you wont eat more anyway.

As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink...

 

[Kaysie]

Justin has a good point. There's such a thing called re-feeding syndrome. Gorging a legitimately starved animal (especially herps [and birds, which are just avian reptiles]) will overload their system. The reason is that their body doesn't have enough energy to digest the food within, and it just rots. They don't even have the energy to barf it up.

Rather than feeding every 2-3 days, I would feed it very small meals every day. Smaller meals take must less energy to digest than even a normal-size meal. Once it starts putting on even a little weight, you can really ramp up the feeding.

Using water from an existing tank should be fine. Just don't mix equipment between the new axolotl and your existing tank. Try to maintain a strict quarantine. You don't want to make your axolotl sick. Bottled spring water would be fine too.