Question: Hand feeding long term-is it a good idea?

[Mkhenderson17]

Hi everyone! I have three axolotls who are just a few days shy of being 4 months old. I currently feed live worms. They are either smaller earth worms I find on my moms farm when I go to visit or cut up Night Crawlers I get at the store. Anyways, I started hand feeding because they were only used to eating blood worms and I wanted to get them on worms. I have them housed together with no problems, in part because I keep them well fed and I feed them in different locations in the tank. Everyone knows which location is theirs too lol. Anyways, is it ok to continue hand feeding them or should I attempt to train them to look for the food on the ground? As soon as they see my hand they start looking for food. The one will nip at my hands sometimes if I drop the worm and I am trying to grab it. If I leave it be they will keep trying to find me no the worm. I have no problem hand feeding them, I just didn't know if it would be bad long term or if it is perfectly OK. Thanks in advance!!!:happy:

 

[Otterwoman]

I hand feed many of my salamanders. It's fine. It's not like he's going to get out and have to learn to fend for himself.

 

[Purpletotodile]

As long as your hands don't have any chemicals on them it should be fine. I do a lot of work with aerosol sprays, and if it's feeding day I thoroughly clean my hands off and wait about an hour. Basically the main rules are to not have anything on your hands such as lotion, soap, or any aerosol.
Hand feeding is a good way to bond with your axolotls because they start to associate you with food, and as a result they come to the front of the tank more. I love hand feeding my little friends