Weird axolotl eating habits?

[Lyv3wyr3]

Okay so. I have a copper axanthic axolotl and they (they're only like 6 months old) have been giving me a lot of trouble eating. They eat pellets really well, but where I like it's easier to feed the worms. They eat black worms fine, and blood worms too, but when I give them an earthworm (They are probably 2 1/2 mm thick and 3cm long and I always cut their head off about an hour before I feed them. I'll explain why in a minute) they always chomp on it then spit it out and chomp again. They do this with all their food, dead or alive. At first, I was feeding live worms, and I thought that the reason they did this was that the worms fought too much, so I started killing the worms first. But they still are having this problem of spitting food out.

I do water changes once to twice a week, and I tested their water out today and it's the standard 0ppm, 0ppm, 6ppm, there's not a lot of water flow, and I've even tried feeding in a separate tub. Because of how they eat they rarely eat a healthy amount (then again I may just be so used to my big boy having a really big appetite). they're not skinny, but they're not exactly fat either and I just love them so much and I'm so worried because their gills aren't super frilly.

 

[Frekl’s Mom]

Okay so. I have a copper axanthic axolotl and they (they're only like 6 months old) have been giving me a lot of trouble eating. They eat pellets really well, but where I like it's easier to feed the worms. They eat black worms fine, and blood worms too, but when I give them an earthworm (They are probably 2 1/2 mm thick and 3cm long and I always cut their head off about an hour before I feed them. I'll explain why in a minute) they always chomp on it then spit it out and chomp again. They do this with all their food, dead or alive. At first, I was feeding live worms, and I thought that the reason they did this was that the worms fought too much, so I started killing the worms first. But they still are having this problem of spitting food out.

I do water changes once to twice a week, and I tested their water out today and it's the standard 0ppm, 0ppm, 6ppm, there's not a lot of water flow, and I've even tried feeding in a separate tub. Because of how they eat they rarely eat a healthy amount (then again I may just be so used to my big boy having a really big appetite). they're not skinny, but they're not exactly fat either and I just love them so much and I'm so worried because their gills aren't super frilly.

When mines were that age and size, I had to cut earthworms into 4 to 6 pieces in order for them to eat. If the pieces were too thick, they’d spit it out. Eventually, they were able to take a third, then a half, and now they can do a whole earthworm…I’m sure they’re fine.

 

[Lyv3wyr3]

When mines were that age and size, I had to cut earthworms into 4 to 6 pieces in order for them to eat. If the pieces were too thick, they’d spit it out. Eventually, they were able to take a third, then a half, and now they can do a whole earthworm…I’m sure they’re fine.

Okay. Cool. I've cut them up before but they still just spit them out. But whatever. Maybe Honeypie is just dramatic XD