How to feed axolotl (regarding gravel & feeding dish)

[beech]

It works like this:

Ziggy isn't actually my Axolotl - but I did everything for him.
He has a nice black and dark green layout tank with subdued lighting (phased through the plants) as being leucistic I thought he'd appreciate that.

The problem was this: I had a trouble finding the right substrate. All I could find was 1cm black gravel - so after a good was in it went.
I added elodea and bogwood with some pre-affixed javamoss, and a rather complicated (and expensive!) bit of piping for him to hide/play in. (He loves it - he sometimes kips on the mossy wood)

After fully cycling the tank, he arrived and went in. Being small, I hoped the gravel wouldn't be a problem as I was training him to hand feed.
Then I found my next problem: His owner doesn't like handfeeding him.

So as he happily sat munching on another pebble she managed to feed him - I hit upon an idea.

I grabbed a black coffee lid, and washed it properly. On the way back, I picked up a small chunk of clean quartz. (I use all sorts of gemstones in my tanks - I've done a lot of research into what's safe and what's not.)

Gently nudging him out of the way, I sank it into the gravel, and weighed it down with the rock.
Lo and behold - he had a food bowl!

Now, he gets fed frozen bloodworm or frozen brineshrimp, so I defrosted the amount he needed, and popped it into his new "bowl".

With gentle encouragement in the right direction, he caught on almost instantly. Being as it's in the bowl, all the remains stay put in there - and he has a habit of pooing in the bowl too - which makes it really easy to syphon it all out - no pebbles in the way.
Of course, I still syphon the rest of the tank once a week.

He caught on fast after that, and totally enjoys his stone-free meals - effectively leaping in the bowl when he sees me coming!

All I need to do now is save up a bit more and get my own Axolotl - I've become rather attached to the little guy. (Even the name was my idea - Ziggy Rose. As in Ziggy Stardust aka David Bowie for the big pink hairdo and Ax"olot"l Rose)

 

[steffi]

Amazing how fast they learn where the food comes from isn't it?
My axies used to have a food bowl as well when they were little , which worked fine until they got too big for it. now I just handfeed them, quite funny when they try and eat my finger instead of the food

 

[sharn]

i wouldnt be sure its totally fool proof though, i know mine snap at sand even when theyre not even close to the food! i think its the smell of the food. dont mean to be a downer or anything, just letting ya know incase you see some bumps in his tum and wonder how they got in there

building places sell sand, i have plasterers sand, childrens play sand also works well along with pool filter sand

 

[a]

Wow - I forgot ALL about this!

Well, Ziggy got on VERY well with the system.
However, it appears his owner was feeding him various worms, and he turned poorly VERY quickly.

I'm sad to say he passed away - it looks like it was organ failure - I wasn't notified sooner, so I don't have any more details.

However, his THREE other tankmates are very happy and healthy, using the bowl system very well.

My own axie understands bowl = food too!

 

[jay]

We would just like to say thank you so much, we tried this today, the food bowl, and it worked an absolute treat. We have had our golden axolotl Loki for about a month now and she hasnt been eating too much. We set a a food bowl today and she has eaten alot of te food that was in there. Again thank you and we love this forum!

 

[amber]

You're more than welcome.
It's always worked for any axolotl I've kept.
I'm just glad I put the idea up for people to have a go at.

Good luck with her, and keep us updated!

 

[jacob]

I usually feed my adult axies on floating trout pellets, they learn quickly to swim to the surface to eat them. On the other hand, like Sharn said, sometimes they will just chow down on any substrate (or other random items small enough to swollow) for no apparent reason.