Some tips…
Feed your juvenile axolotl (3-7″) 2x daily.
Feed your older axolotl 1x daily.
Provide as much food as they can eat during the feeding time, which is typically 5-10 minutes. This might mean several worms.
Now, what do they eat, and why?
The Most Important Meal Of The Day
When I say axolotls love worms, I mean the wiggly, soil dwelling friends we know and love: earthworms! The varieties we feed are called nightcrawlers, and they contain around 75% protein, and have a calcium to phosphorus ratio of over 1:1. If you want to know why we feed nightcrawlers instead of red wigglers, feel free to check out my new article, Earthworm Informational, below.
Nightcrawlers can be stored in a small gallon bucket with either mesh cover, or without a lid, or a lid with holes drilled in. Some slightly damp cardboard is a great addition from time to time, but do not over-hydrate the substrate. They are escape artists, and they will wander if the substrate is moist or when the lights are out, but if you keep them happy, they will stay put! I generally maintain ambient lighting over my bin with a small lamp.
What Not To Feed
Axolotls put anything into their mouths that could possibly fit, and it is such an issue that a good many of the non-parameter related injuries axolotls receive are related to axolotls being bitten by another axolotl, or eating something that they shouldn’t.
Why is this such a huge problem? Well, just as the fact that axolotls even eat their substrate (all kinds, no matter the kind, if it fits in their mouth, they swallow it) they also cannot resist chomping on most moving targets.
This means that snails, plecos, and most fish actually pose an bowel impaction risk, in addition to causing terrified tank-mates who may attempt to bite back (or, will just nibble on the axolotl in general).
What about variety?
Earthworms, such as nightcrawler types, are a nutritionally complete diet for axolotls!
Pellets, although much enjoyed by axolotls, are generally not made with insects or other small invertebrates, but instead made with fish-meal and grains. In my personal experience, I have had an axolotl self-fast for almost a month due to pellet-induced blockages – requiring a vegetable glycerin flush as recommended by an exotic vet.
If someone is intent on feeding something other than the ideal earthworms, I typically recommend Arcadia’s Amphibigold Pellets. The ingredients in these are more suited to an axolotl’s natural diet, however they contain a lot of salmon, so feed at your own discretion.
Bloodworms, mealworms, crickets… none of them hold a candle to nightcrawlers in their nutritional capacity, with frozen/freeze dried bloodworms being the worst of the worse, and many of these alternative food sources may contain too much chitin for your axolotl to digest at a given time.
In the wild, axolotls usually consumed insect larvae (generally not the adult insects), and worms. It really is best to keep it to that.
Axolotls will eat anything you give them unless if they have gotten ‘hooked’ on a certain food, so it is generally safe to fast your axolotl up to 1-2 weeks to turn them onto earthworms.