Squishy not eating properly

[Raziela]

For around 4 weeks, my bf's axolotl Squishy hasn't been eating properly. She refuses to "snap" at anything offered, live food or otherwise and witll only eat bits of king prawn if dropped directly on her face every other day. Got her in the smaller "recovery tank" so we can observe her eating habits properly, tried fridging her as we thought she was constipated at first, but it seems like she's just "gone off" eating earthworms. Is this normal? Asking here before re-calling the vets who said she's likely just constipated and needs a few days in the fridge (2 weeks ago)...

All tank perameters are normal as that was the first thing we checked, and she's not lost any weight, she just doesn't seem interested in eating anymore

 

[Jen10s]

Just wondering what the tank temperature is like ? Any chance you can post a photo of the tank and the Axie ? How old is he or what size ?

Could be a number of factors but maybe you could get some live black worms to try to tempt him or maybe some live blood worms ?

 

[Raziela]

Tank is a constant 18 degrees (most of the time, obviously spikes up a little if the weather decides to be "nice" in the UK lol) her tank pretty much looks like the one in the pic (which is mine - waiting on new plants - hers has some java fern and a java moss ball) she's never been kept on gravel or stones of any kind so I'm 99.9% sure its not from eating something she's not supposed to.

She is easily around 2.5 years of age, but quite small for her age (only about 6.5inches in length) as she was seriously underfed when I got her a year ago, (took me a month or so to get her eating properly this time last year) and has had all her legs bit off and regrown at some point before I got her too poor thing

The picture of the axolotl is Squishy just after I'd got her eating properly for the first time, so it's almost a year old, but she's not changed much apart from putting a little weight on, which she hasn't actually lost from not eating, thats the part that has me a little confused.

 

[Jen10s]

Temp seems OK as long as it doesn't go over say 24 degrees that should be fine. Do you do your own testing or do you get the pet store to do it ? If you do your own, any chance you can put up some readings for PH, Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate ?

Could just be age, once they become adults, they need feeding less often - every 2 or 3 days. I would probably persevere with the earthworms (make sure you rinse them in tank water, cause some smell/taste foul) as they are the best nutrition wise but as I said, you might tempt him with the black worms, blood worms and I've heard that small crickets can tempt a fussy eater. Again, good luck and hope some nice spring weather is on it's way for you over there :happy:

 

[Raziela]

I do my own testing for pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrites, all of which come out in the "good" range every time (I test my own tank every Thursday and Squishy's on Fridays), my OH says she's just being "a fussy little madam only wanting prawns coz they're more expensive" which I did find funny at first, but 4 weeks later she's not responding to any live food at all, gonna try to get live black/bloodworms but might be a while coz no-where local to me sells them so gotta go online for them...