Axolotl growth ??

[ChaosX66x]

So I've recently become the new mother to a baby lotl unsure of the sex now I've been calling it a her named spunky because she's super chill but has some serious pep and spunk she's awesome! So I have had her since about the last week of December she was roughly 2" when I got her home now she is about 4.5/5"...... Everything I've read says they can grow a half inch to an inch a month but she's massive now! I started out feeding her 1/2 a block of blood worms a day she's up to almost two a day now. She was missing a hand when I got her she now has all her fingers back and her arms are fat and healthy she looks great. I just wanted to see if anyone else has seen this type of growth before because I can't find anywhere it says they can grow this fast. We can see her growth daily right now it's crazy I believe she's a wild type but she seems to glow green so I'm thinking a wild gfp. I will post pictures when I can figure out how.

 

[ChaosX66x]

This is my spunky pic in front the the rock was the day I got her can't really see the growth in the pic from today but she wasn't in the mood to model

 

[AnimeDan]

Babies grow super fast, and some Axolotls grow faster than others. My Axolotl Buddy is 2 months younger than my Axolotl Princess but he’s probably at least double her weight.
If your still feeding blood worms I’d suggest switching to red wigglers because as they get older blood worms don’t contain enough nutrients for a balanced Axolotl diet. It’s also useful to feed them a variety of things so they don’t become fussy eaters later, red wigglers/night crawlers, high quality pellets, and/or Repashy Grub pie will all provide the nutrients your water baby needs to grow up big and strong. I made the mistake with Buddy and it’s a fight to get him to eat anything other than his favorite wormies.
On a separate note, the gravel pieces i see in your pictures concern me. They look nice but your Axolotl could swallow them which can cause impaction in their digestive track. The rule of thumb is either sand which is small enough to pass through their System, or things larger than their head that they can’t fit into their mouth. They aren’t the brightest little dudes and will try to eat about anything they can fit into their mouth.

 

[ChaosX66x]

Yeah I was worried about the rocks but I feed spunk off a large dish so she won't eat sand or the rocks she's been doing well with that she's moving in a little while to a larger taken too with all sand. She's in a 5.5 gl I thought it would take longer to grow....she's moving into a 20gl she gets brine shrimp and blood worms right now and I plan to pick up other choices when I got to the pet store soon. Covid makes it hard to get out to often. Thank you for the advice on foods and the concern for her I feed her with a turkey baster also to cut down on non food stuff in her mouth

 

[AnimeDan]

While feeding her on a dish will help axolotls will sometimes snuff around and swallow sand and debris even if there isn’t any food around. Iv trained both of mine to come to the top of the tank for me to hand feed them and they still have sand in their poop. They just eat sand sometimes. I once tried using these beneficial bacteria ball things and had to remove them because I caught my guys taking bites out of them (even though they were clear and nearly invisible in the water). They are probably too big for your baby to swallow now but later it could be a concern. Just some concerns one Axolotl parent to another.

 

[madcaplaughs]

Lovely axolotl!
Young axolotls grow at quite a fast rate, as you've come to find! Cherish it, because the baby won't stay like that long, and they're cute when this young! On average, young axolotls tend to grow around 1" per month, though sometimes more. My axolotl nearly doubled his size in the first two months of having him.
As for the substrate, I'd highly suggest you remove any and all of the gravel, as @AnimeDan suggested. Even with the food dish, axolotls are not always the brightest and have a high likelihood of ingesting substrate, and those pieces of gravel absolutely pose a high risk of impaction. The food dish will not prevent them from eating the gravel. Your axolotl is also old and large enough to be switched onto pellets and earthworms. Bloodworms are not a suitable diet for axolotls as they do not provide the necessary nutrition needed for them to grow adequately. They're essentially french fries to them; yes, they're tasty, but living off a diet of french fries will yield health issues in the future. You'll want to feed the axolotl a varied diet of chopped earthworms and sinking carnivore pellets (I use the brand Hikari).
And yes, your axolotl does have GFP genes, as indicated by the green iris.

 

[ChaosX66x]

I love my spunky very much I hopefully will be going out this weekend to get her a better food source! And she will be moving to a pure sand only tank probably this weekend as well we just got a new tank set up and we are upgrading every thing. (We have a 29 gl set up will be setting up a 75 gl have a 40 gl in the process currently so I can move our fish so spunky can have the 20gl long tank) we are a fish house I'm excited to see spunky grow to be a little godzilla!

 

[madcaplaughs]

I love my spunky very much I hopefully will be going out this weekend to get her a better food source! And she will be moving to a pure sand only tank probably this weekend as well we just got a new tank set up and we are upgrading every thing. (We have a 29 gl set up will be setting up a 75 gl have a 40 gl in the process currently so I can move our fish so spunky can have the 20gl long tank) we are a fish house I'm excited to see spunky grow to be a little godzilla!

Glad to hear! Sounds like you have a good plan set up for them.

 

[ChaosX66x]

Spunky today just to show large she/he's gotten in a month gills have turned a really cool purple. She's super chunky she just ate. Will they over eat I read they eat till they are full but can you over feed?? Still got to clean up after her she's very messy

 

[AMurry24537]

Spunky today just to show large she/he's gotten in a month gills have turned a really cool purple. She's super chunky she just ate. Will they over eat I read they eat till they are full but can you over feed?? Still got to clean up after her she's very messy
View attachment 86857

Most axolotls will limit themselves, but there are some (mine for example) who will try to eat anything and everything that moves, even if he just ate a huge nightcrawler half an hour before! The best thing to do is to keep an eye on their weight. Ideally, the widest part of their body should be about the same width as their head.

 

[ChaosX66x]

Most axolotls will limit themselves, but there are some (mine for example) who will try to eat anything and everything that moves, even if he just ate a huge nightcrawler half an hour before! The best thing to do is to keep an eye on their weight. Ideally, the widest part of their body should be about the same width as their head.

Good to know she's got a belly but head in it's fairly even I think I've been feeding every day since I'd read you should feed young daily for them to grow well should I be feeding less? I'm going out tomorrow to get other foods currently only feeding blood worms and brine shrimp

 

[AMurry24537]

At this age/size, every day is perfect. Some even feed twice a day. As they grow older, their metabolism slows down, so you don't need to feed them as often. Once mine was about 5-6 inches long or so, I started feeding him every other day, but yours might start weaning itself off daily feeding earlier than that. I agree with what was said above: you will want to switch to other worms like nightcrawlers or red wigglers. Some axolotls prefer one kind over the other because they taste differently depending on their slime coat. These worms provide the best nutrients for an axolotl, but are too big to eat when axolotls are newly hatched. Your axolotl may be hesitant to eat worms, so keep brine shrimp on hand just in case for now. You will also likely need to cut the worms into smaller pieces for a little while.

 

[AMurry24537]

I forgot to mention, bloodworms can still be used as a treat; they just don't offer enough nutrition to be a consistent meal.

 

[ChaosX66x]

At this age/size, every day is perfect. Some even feed twice a day. As they grow older, their metabolism slows down, so you don't need to feed them as often. Once mine was about 5-6 inches long or so, I started feeding him every other day, but yours might start weaning itself off daily feeding earlier than that. I agree with what was said above: you will want to switch to other worms like nightcrawlers or red wigglers. Some axolotls prefer one kind over the other because they taste differently depending on their slime coat. These worms provide the best nutrients for an axolotl, but are too big to eat when axolotls are newly hatched. Your axolotl may be hesitant to eat worms, so keep brine shrimp on hand just in case for now. You will also likely need to cut the worms into smaller pieces for a little while.

Awesome thank you yeah I'm good with cutting them up. Come from a family of fish lovers and fishers my father is obsessed all summer he's out with my kids fishing and he's got somewhere around 2000 gls of water with fish is just his basement LOL 800gl pond built in the basement his smallest fish is maybe 6" largest close to 20...

 

[madcaplaughs]

Spunky today just to show large she/he's gotten in a month gills have turned a really cool purple. She's super chunky she just ate. Will they over eat I read they eat till they are full but can you over feed?? Still got to clean up after her she's very messy
View attachment 86857

No, they are not prone to overeating. You need to remove those pieces of large gravel immediately. The pose a serious risk of impaction.