Question: Is this worm too big?

[oxhhxo]

Hi.... Well finally got Xochi her earth worms today, and it's not going well, she's about 2yrs old and this is her first attempt at eating earth worms, I was told that as she's 9" long not to bother cutting up the worms, which I don't think I could face, well so far not good, hand fed her a worm which she happily put in her mouth then spat out, then grabbed it again, and spat out again, she tried this like 5 times then walked away from it and now it's burying itself in the sand hiding from her, I'm now feeling really sorry for the worm and want to take it out again lol, is it too big for her, or is it just cus it's something new?

 

[oxhhxo]

Her eating...

 

[HayleyK]

A new food could be a little struggle for her, especially the new sensation of wriggling and fighting going on in her mouth which would put her off. Also worms let off a bitter slime as a defense mechanism which isn't too pleasant.

Keep trying and she will take it, you can also blanch the work with hot water then put it straight into cold water to avoid cooking the worm, although you will kill it (so it won't wiggle and fight against your axolotls attempts).

Also don't let your worm bury in the sand, you'll find it hard it find and it can die, letting off ammonia and muck up your water quality.

 

[oxhhxo]

I know they don't have sharp teeth, but should she be able to pierce through an earthworm, cus she has bit it so many times now and it seems to have done no damage to it whatsoever, she bites it, spits it out then looks at me like "what the hell is this?" lol

 

[HayleyK]

No they don't have teeth, sometimes if you keep holding on to the worm while they thrash the worm kind of breaks.. And I occassionally feel something quite "grippy" in their mouth when they mistake my finger for a worm but definitely no teeth.

You can also try to cut the worm in half to start her off with so it's easier.

 

[oxhhxo]

OMG cut it in half (while squealing like a little girl) and it's still too bloody big and active for her, might just have to leave her a while now, see how she gets on

 

[auntiejude]

An adult axie should be able to take a worm as big as itself, but as a new food a large worm can be a bit daunting.

If cutting up worms is a bit icky try smaller worms to start with, and working up to bigger ones.

 

[oxhhxo]

She's completely lost interest in it now, it's cut in half and dead, tried wiggling it in front of her, but she just staring at me with her mouth clamped shut....

 

[smurfrider]

My adult axies (9 and 10 inches) won't eat whole worms, I've always had to cut the worms into 2 or 3 pieces. It's gross, but you get used to it. They don't seem to like blanched worms either. Not sure if they're just picky or spoiled

I'd wait a few hours or until tomorrow to give her another worm. And like Auntie Jude said, try smaller worms or cutting the worm into bite size pieces to get her used to the wiggling

 

[Smoxolotl]

Yes that worm looked huge to me!

 

[oxhhxo]

Haha I think she's gonna have to be absolutely starving before she manages to keep one of these in, just managed to get her to eat half a worm, but I'm guessing she didn't like the wriggling sensation as she spat it out again, guess we'll just have to keep trying lol

 

[scorpio110684]

Its going to take time for it to adjust to the worm thing. In my case I tried bloodworms, red wigglers, and blackworms none of them seemed to be interested in them. I then tried some canadian nightcrawlers and bingo I opened the magic door, so I've been feeding them chopped up nightcrawlers from then on