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Some tips…
Feed your juvenile axolotl (3-7″) 2x daily.
Feed your older axolotl 1x daily, or every other day.
Provide as much food as they can eat during the feeding time, which is typically 5-10 minutes.
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 around 55% protein (we usually don’t feed indian blues, more commonly nightcrawlers and rarely red wigglers) and have a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2:1.
Check out an article I wrote once upon a time about axolotl diets, below.
Axolotl Central’s “All About Worms”
Nightcrawlers can be stored in a small gallon bucket with either mesh cover, no 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 wander if the substrate is moist or when the lights are out, but keep them happy and they will stay put!
What Not To Feed
Axolotls put anything into their mouths that could possibly fit, and that 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.
