The Hunger Strike

[Ariel]

I usually feed my 5 inch Axolotl a couple 3mm sized pellets twice a day, and he seems to be healthy, although being my first, I have nothing to compare him to. He poops a large pudding like dollop every other day and his waist is just the tiniest bit thinner than the width of his head. That being said, he is healthy (as far as I am able to tell) and so I am not too worried about him starving during his hunger strikes which can last 1-5 days.

They don't happen without reason, and are clearly motivated by a change in the environment. When I move something around in the tank or change any furnishings he will temporarily refuse food, refusing it for longer periods of time for larger changes. When I put him in a new tank he didn't eat for almost 5 days.

Other than a sudden disinterest in food, all the other behaviors are normal, and he is not showing signs of stress. He is not hiding, no curled gills, still slowly crawling and swimming around investigating things as normal. I don't believe it is stress, but it could be... If I am really persistent with the food I can get him to snap at it out of my finders, but he won't swallow, just spit it back out and walk away.

Have your axolotls ever gone on hunger strikes? Where you able to tell what they were reacting to? What did you do about it?

 

[auntiejude]

My big wildtype male doesn't like warm weather. He didn't eat on and off for several weeks last summer, but eventually decided blanched worms were OK about every 4 days.

All you can do is keep offering food - have you tried worms?

They eat eventually, sometime you just have to treat them like fussy kids and wait until they are REALLY hungry, or offer them something different.

 

[Petersgirl]

Auntiejude's right - they do sometimes sulk after water changes or changes to their tank. My worst hunger striker is Toothless - he's an adult male and if he doesn't feel like eating, he just won't. Sometimes for days on end.
I just do what Auntiejude suggested - keep offering until he bites. If it got really bad (striking for a week or more) I would probably start trying other foods or removing him to his own tank in case it's illness that's causing him to fast, but touch wood, that's never happened.

I think it's 'sulking' rather than stress because he's not displaying stressed behaviours - I no longer remove my axolotls for water changes, and they've still been known to 'sulk' after their weekly water change! They don't like tinkering with their environment but we have to to maintain their water quality, so it's one of those compromises we just have to reach with them.

 

[Sweetie]

I no longer remove my axolotls for water changes, and they've still been known to 'sulk' after their weekly water change!

I leave Boris in his tank during his daily water changes (the tank has been cycling), and based on the info that axies respond well to basic conditioning, I thought in order to prevent sulking, I would always reward him after a water change with a juicy worm or two so he'd learn to associate his water change with food. This has worked amazingly well and he seems to not mind my messing around in his tank at all. He investigates the siphon (tries to eat it if it gets too close) and nudges my hand with his nose (his gesture of affection) and generally gives the impression of not being stressed one bit.