Spitting out all food

[Noah_411]

Hey there! I’ve had my axolotl for two years now. She has been healthy the entire time I’ve had her and has always been a VERY good eater.
Probably around two or three months ago, maybe a little bit longer she started spitting out all her food! I have no idea what changed. I used to feed her Hikari’s sinking pellets and she always loved them. After about a month of this I switched to red wrigglers. At first she ate them good, and now for the past couple weeks she started spitting them out again! It’s been very frustrating to say the least.
I tested her water levels when it first happened and her ammonia levels were slightly abnormal so I started water changes and that fixed that problem. However it didn’t change her eating habits and she kept spitting out food.
At first she was still pooping occasionally so I wasn’t too worried about it. I figured she might be coming back and eating some of the food she ate later. Now I haven’t seen any poop in several weeks so I’m getting very worried. She is still quite active and I honestly don’t think she’s lost any weight.
I’m just a little unsure of what to try from here in out. I thought about trying to find night crawlers in my area or tubbing her for the time being to see if that would help…
What are your thoughts? Does she sound sick? I read in another thread that sometimes axolotls just go on food strikes for no reason and that it will probably pass, but I’m starting to get nervous.

 

[Autistic Catholic]

It's been discussed on these forums before. Axolotls can be very finnicky with worms sometimes as it's not actually their natural food. It just happens to be most nutritious. What you can do: try cutting up the worms. If they're too big, she'll spit them out. Try blanching the worms. It might be they are giving out a foul odor from stress. If all fails, then you might have to go back to pellets.

 

[michael]

It's not unusually for axolotls to reject Eisenia fetida. Fetid is right in the scientific name. Fetid means bitter or bad tasting. European nightcrawlers or soft moist salmon pellets might be better accepted.

 

[Ya_Boi_Eon]

Yea, I don’t think an axolotl does not taste bitter or sour.

 

[wolfen]

they did test on axolotls years ago and found that they don't like bitter food but 100% of food soaked in glucose was eaten so they do have a sweet tooth.

 

[Noah_411]

they did test on axolotls years ago and found that they don't like bitter food but 100% of food soaked in glucose was eaten so they do have a sweet tooth.

I’ll have to to try that! I still can’t get her to eat. This hunger strike has been a couple months now and she’s only eaten probably twice. I did read that sometimes in winter they can enter a hibernative state - her tank is usually around 62 degrees so idk if that has anything to do with it. Her water levels are normal. I’ve tried her old pellets, new pellets, red wrigglers, and nightcrawlers. She attacks like she is interested, jerks her head violently, then won’t touch them again.
She is still pretty active and doesn’t look thin. Maybe she’s just in “hibernation mode”. I am interested to see if she would eat blood worms. I know they aren’t nutritious enough to sustain her, but I’m curious to see if she would eat them at all. I haven’t fed them to her since she was small but she used to be ferocious with them.
This just has me so worried. She used to be an excellent eater and now to see her change the last couple months is distressing.