Axies wont eat 'small' food

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Melissalotl
Sooo I was wondering why my axies won't eat anything smaller than a whole worm or cube of food. I'm thinking they are blinder than most because they can attack the food in the wrong direction and go completely past it. Sans my hand they are seemingly oblivious!

I haven't seen them eat anything that I haven't been dangling directly in front of them. Which is very annoying because night time tempratures in my tank are dropping to 8 degrees atm. Icy!

Tried the bloodworm in a jar trick. Left it for an hour. No bananas. Tried the bloodworm in a bucket trick. You guessed it, no bananas. I just cannot get them to even hardly notice the bloodworms! Or any piece of food smaller than my pinky nail.

Whyyyyyy????? Reading the forums/looking at youtube videos, my axxies feed completely differently! Whhhhyyyyyy??!!! :) How can I get them to feed without me having to shove my whole arm in the tank for five minutes?

Thanks!
 
Hiya
How big are your axolotls?
I spoilt mine a bit and put all there food directly in there faces.
Now they have learnt to sniff it out.
It could just be a matter of patience. Are the bloodworm live or frozen?

Mel
 
i have the exact same problem as you do! my water is freezing too and i have to dangle the worms right in front of their faces for them to eat. :confused:
 
Well you see my 1st axxie is a bit dopey even by axxie standards, so i thought thats just how they are. So when I got my 2nd axxie, even tho he is much more spritely I just handfed him too. I was wondering how on earth do these things survive in the wild?? But now after seeing the vids, especially, I know it's not right. They can find meal worms if they're still wriggling and dangled near and will folllow you up the tank for it. I doubt that Axle could catch a live fish. Honestly. Oro might do.

They are frozen, unfortunately, I'm waiting on some earthworms I ordered, but I also need to use up this whole block of frozen bloodworms I have. . . . .

I'm rather OCD about making sure no food is left in the tank. How long would you leave it there for?
 
When they are in colder water they will probably eat less.
Mine normally eat all the bloodworm so i dont need to remove it.
I would try leaving it for 10 - 15 minutes see if they can sniff it out.
If you try them when they are hungry that might help.
You should see them put their heads down and try to sniff out the worms.

I used to pipette feed mine lol. And he'd sit and wait while ever i was there hoping i would feed him from the pippette. Once i left him alone he'd find the food for himself.

I reckon they would eat live bloodworm if you tried them. They react to the movement, so it can take them a lil while to get used to 'still' food

Mel
 
It doesn't even look like they're trying to find it, tho' . Like a petulant child who wants breakfast in bed, lol. Well they will be hungry in a couple of days if the earthworms don't get here soon. The frozen food I bought dissolves straight away in the water and are therefore useless. What cr*p. Arrr.

Oh well, she'll be right mate.

Ta!
 
1 - Try feeding at dawn or dusk. Axies are crepuscular and feed most actively at those times.

2 - Offer live food as much as possible - live blackworms and earthworms especially. Wriggliness stimulate appetite.

3 - Axies hunt by vibrations and smell more so than vision. Give the axie sometime to locate the food source.

4 - Temperatures below 10 degree celsius can make some axies go completely off food. Alternatively, they may regurgitate a bolus of ingested food to prevent decomposition in the gut. At low temperatures, the digestion rate slows down considerably.

5 - Offer food that are highly digestible such as live blackworms. Food pieces should be cut into very tiny portions with the greatest surface area for digestive enzymes to work upon.

6 - Try novel treats. Finely diced portions of shrimp or prawn works really well for me. Sometimes a novel food source will kick start their appetite again.
 
I do not know if these is commonly used or even a good food source. But for a long time i never fed my axolotls earthworms or salmon pellets(which is what he eats mostly now) because they were hard to come by where I live. Something that is easy to find and ship that my axolotl loves are the formula 1 fish blocks with a gel binder. formula 1 (carnivore) was much more accepted by him than formula 2 (herbivore) and i would just put a cube or two in warm water for 5 min, cut them into 4 pieces and feed away. i did this as a staple for almost a year with a resulting fat, healthy axolotl so maybe this helps.
 
Thanks guys
They have fine appetites - for moving food! And I do usually feed around dinner time.

Might try some blackworms if the earthworms don't arrive soon. Still they look so small for an axxie. When I saw them in the pet shop I thought, 'if they wont eat bloodworms is it likely they'll eat these?'.
 
It seems like they just need to get used to them.
Keep at it and they will take to them eventually.

Good Luck!
Mel
 
The axie will actually eat a clump of blackworms at a time rather than individual worms. It would be fine. I think its like the axie having its version of spagetthi or chow mein.
 
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