Spitting out night crawlers

[angyles]

For about 2 weeks now, my axy has been spitting out his worms. He'll take it about half way in and then spit it out like it's disgusting. I've tried a couple different batches of worms thinking maybe something was wrong with them, but it hasn't made a difference. He hasn't lost any weight yet, his water quality is good, his gills are good...I'm stumped. He's about 5 years old and his diet is exclusively nightcrawlers. I've never gotten him to eat anything else so I'm not sure what to do at this point. he's always eaten whole worms but this morning I tried giving him half. He took the whole thing in and then spit it back out. There's nothing to cause a blockage in his tank, it's sand with minimal decor.

Any ideas?

 

[Fimbriae]

Sometimes axies will go off of food for seemingly no reason at all. Are your water parameters and temperature all in check? Does he seem bloated and is he still pooping regularly? Sometimes even sand has been known to impact an axolotl, if they hoover up enough of it.

 

[cabbysarus]

The same thing has been happening with one of my little ones. He is acting normal except for not eating... we tried switching to bloodworms (mostly because I was afraid he was going to starve to death and eating "junk food" was better than nothing) and he will eat some of that, but not even a full cube.

 

[Fimbriae]

Haha, starving to death? Isn't that virtually unheard of in captive axies? Not that I know first hand, but adults can go months without food. I guess your "little one" is probably a juvie though . How long has the partial hunger strike gone? My andersoni does this sometimes still, he's 5+ yrs old and acts like he's too lazy to wrestle a worm sometimes.

 

[cabbysarus]

This one is just under a year. The hunger strike lasted for about a week before I gave in and got him blood worms... he is actually eating them... did I just teach him that he can starve for a week before I just let him eat ice cream for every meal?

 

[Fimbriae]

Hah yea I guess that's one way of looking at it. You could try worms again, if he's hungry enough he'll eat it. I wouldn't worry even if it takes him two weeks to take it.

 

[StuStu]

Mine has been raised on nothing but bloodworms.

He gets one cube each evening and i defrost them in a dish then suck them up into a turkey baster. He seems to enjoy them much more when i wave the baster tube around in his face than just dumping a pile of worms in the corner but i wouldn't say that Bloodworms are "junk food"

They still contain a good amount of protein and are easy to clean up with a turkey baster.

 

[Fimbriae]

I agreee, they are high in protein. For an adult there are better staples though that are higher in nutrients and have a more optimal phosphor:calcium and protein ratio.