Feeding questions - earthworms & pellets

[sparklysalamander]

Hello! New owner here with my first axolotl, who I brought home about a week ago. She is about 7 months old and 6 inches long. Up until now, she apparently has only been eating Reptomin pellets. I have a jar of those and she still likes them a lot, but I'm aware this isn't the healthiest diet for her. I purchased some live earthworms from Walmart and we've been working on her eating those instead. I just have some questions about "logistics."

When I cut up the earthworm into pieces, out spurts white and yellow goop, brown goop, blood, etc. Am I supposed to "wash them off" before feeding them to her? I can see dirt and blood flowing from the worm into the tank water. And sometimes after she eats a piece, she'll cough out little brown chunks.

How fast should she be able to eat a piece of worm? I'm cutting them into maybe 1 inch pieces, but she's very slow - she'll suck it in, spit it out halfway, suck it in, spit it out halfway, and then finally she sits there and swallows many times before it seems like it's down for good. I just want to make sure I'm not choking her or overfeeding her...On our worm days I've been doing maybe 3/4 of an adult earthworm.

Should she get a worm every day? Can I alternate worms and pellets? How much should she be eating per day at her age and size? (7 months, 6 inches) Thanks!

 

[AMurry24537]

When my first axolotl was a similar size (and a lot of this stuff I still do now), here's what I did (sorry in advance for the novel):

Take a small cup, scoop out some tank water (I usually made it so the cup was about 1/3 full, but it shouldn't really matter) and plopped the worm in there to rinse off, and (sometimes) even to clear the poop out of their system. I used nightcrawlers, which I quickly discovered were incapable of climbing out of these cups and they don't really drown unless you leave them in there for a long time, so I usually would let them sit for a couple hours. They'd come out pretty clean of dirt and poop. Now though, I'm more impatient, and usually only get the dirt off, lol.

Anyway, for cutting them up, I usually started by chopping the worm in half with a scissors, rinsing the pieces off again really quickly in the cup water, and then dropping them in the tank. There still might be some yuck, but it should be more manageable. If it completely spits out the half worm, you can cut it again in half and repeat. This helps them get used to eating larger things until eventually they can eat whole worms.

The half-spitting is pretty normal, for young axolotls especially, who are still getting used to fitting food into their stomachs. It tends to take a little while for them to eat, but they get faster. I've noticed that mine (as an adult) will still kind of hold the worm in his mouth and move it around to maneuver it the way he wants it to go by letting little bits of it out at a time. Interestingly, he's developed a technique where, even if I feed him the worm butt-first (if you will), he manages to maneuver it around in his mouth so that the tail is hanging out. The worm is still alive, and poops to try to save itself, and thus my axolotl cleverly avoids eating that part, lol.

As for feeding amounts and schedules, at that size, I usually fed my axolotl every day, either with as much of a worm as he would eat (they're usually pretty good at self-regulating, but do keep an eye on their weight) or pellets. I alternated the two as much as possible so he didn't get too used to one or the other. There was one point where I could only give him pellets for a couple weeks and it took him a while to get used to worms again. I personally use the axolotl pellets from Invert Aquatics, which you can buy on Amazon. At the time, I usually gave him about 8, but I was also trying to have him gain a little weight since he came to me underfed and thin. Again, keep an eye on the weight. Pretty soon, you should be able to start switching to feeding every other day or 2-3 times a week.

 

[sparklysalamander]

When my first axolotl was a similar size (and a lot of this stuff I still do now), here's what I did (sorry in advance for the novel):

Take a small cup, scoop out some tank water (I usually made it so the cup was about 1/3 full, but it shouldn't really matter) and plopped the worm in there to rinse off, and (sometimes) even to clear the poop out of their system. I used nightcrawlers, which I quickly discovered were incapable of climbing out of these cups and they don't really drown unless you leave them in there for a long time, so I usually would let them sit for a couple hours. They'd come out pretty clean of dirt and poop. Now though, I'm more impatient, and usually only get the dirt off, lol.

Anyway, for cutting them up, I usually started by chopping the worm in half with a scissors, rinsing the pieces off again really quickly in the cup water, and then dropping them in the tank. There still might be some yuck, but it should be more manageable. If it completely spits out the half worm, you can cut it again in half and repeat. This helps them get used to eating larger things until eventually they can eat whole worms.

The half-spitting is pretty normal, for young axolotls especially, who are still getting used to fitting food into their stomachs. It tends to take a little while for them to eat, but they get faster. I've noticed that mine (as an adult) will still kind of hold the worm in his mouth and move it around to maneuver it the way he wants it to go by letting little bits of it out at a time. Interestingly, he's developed a technique where, even if I feed him the worm butt-first (if you will), he manages to maneuver it around in his mouth so that the tail is hanging out. The worm is still alive, and poops to try to save itself, and thus my axolotl cleverly avoids eating that part, lol.

As for feeding amounts and schedules, at that size, I usually fed my axolotl every day, either with as much of a worm as he would eat (they're usually pretty good at self-regulating, but do keep an eye on their weight) or pellets. I alternated the two as much as possible so he didn't get too used to one or the other. There was one point where I could only give him pellets for a couple weeks and it took him a while to get used to worms again. I personally use the axolotl pellets from Invert Aquatics, which you can buy on Amazon. At the time, I usually gave him about 8, but I was also trying to have him gain a little weight since he came to me underfed and thin. Again, keep an eye on the weight. Pretty soon, you should be able to start switching to feeding every other day or 2-3 times a week.

Thank you! This is helpful! I'll try to "clean" the nightcrawlers that way.