Whole Load Of Axolotl Questions

[CherryDanio]

Hi folks, hope i'm in the right bit. I have recently bought a new baby. She (I'm guessing, 'She' is too young to be sexed) is a wild type axolotl approx 15cm long age unknown named Maslow. She is in a 95L approx 2.5foot tank (fully cycled) and appears to be settling in well. Despite extensive research I still have a few remaining questions. I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

1. Food I currently have in is frozen blood worm, brine shrimp, daphnia and a frozen aquatic reptile mix containing veg, beef heart amongst other things. I would like to add earth worms to this mix. Is this diet varied enough, is anything missing and in what proportion should I be feeding everything?

2. Earthworms: I have no garden and I live inner city so catching my own is not an option. I was considering ordering some from exotic-pets.co.uk and attempting to breed them. Is this possible? And if it is, is it worth it?

3. Are axolotl pellets a good idea? Again I found them at exotic pets, they are advertised as being better used occasionally rather than as a staple but it seems to me it might be a good idea to have in just in case I run out of frozen. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Many thanks for any help and sorry for the long post!

 

[furry catfish]

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[furry catfish]

Hi folks, hope i'm in the right bit. I have recently bought a new baby. She (I'm guessing, 'She' is too young to be sexed) is a wild type axolotl approx 15cm long age unknown named Maslow. She is in a 95L approx 2.5foot tank (fully cycled) and appears to be settling in well. Despite extensive research I still have a few remaining questions. I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

1. Food I currently have in is frozen blood worm, brine shrimp, daphnia and a frozen aquatic reptile mix containing veg, beef heart amongst other things. I would like to add earth worms to this mix. Is this diet varied enough, is anything missing and in what proportion should I be feeding everything?

2. Earthworms: I have no garden and I live inner city so catching my own is not an option. I was considering ordering some from exotic-pets.co.uk and attempting to breed them. Is this possible? And if it is, is it worth it?

3. Are axolotl pellets a good idea? Again I found them at exotic pets, they are advertised as being better used occasionally rather than as a staple but it seems to me it might be a good idea to have in just in case I run out of frozen. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Many thanks for any help and sorry for the long post!

Hi

1.sounds good to me,except the beef heart is quite fattening,feed it beef heart sparingly

2.It is worth it because axolotls love worms,just buy some worms,get a container from a pound store.shred news paper,spray it a little with water,add dirt, put in worms and feed them every week with veg,tea bags,fruit and bread.Change the bedding from time to time and you have a worm culture

3.I have expierience with turtle pellets and they are fine,and agood way to feed when you run out of frozen food

 

[CherryDanio]

Super, thanks for the reply. One more question. I have read that they have a life span of 15 years + however having trawled the internet for information I have only found one example of one livin up to that age. It could of course be that lots of axolotls are living to ripe old ages and no one feels the need to shout about it but people did seem overly impressed by that one example. What have peoples real life experiences ben with axolotl longevity?

 

[furry catfish]

Super, thanks for the reply. One more question. I have read that they have a life span of 15 years + however having trawled the internet for information I have only found one example of one livin up to that age. It could of course be that lots of axolotls are living to ripe old ages and no one feels the need to shout about it but people did seem overly impressed by that one example. What have peoples real life experiences ben with axolotl longevity?

I can't answer that because I have only had maxolotl for year now but there is a website all about herps,heres the link

 

[Xenon Junkie]

Hi folks, hope i'm in the right bit. I have recently bought a new baby. She (I'm guessing, 'She' is too young to be sexed) is a wild type axolotl approx 15cm long age unknown named Maslow. She is in a 95L approx 2.5foot tank (fully cycled) and appears to be settling in well. Despite extensive research I still have a few remaining questions. I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

1. Food I currently have in is frozen blood worm, brine shrimp, daphnia and a frozen aquatic reptile mix containing veg, beef heart amongst other things. I would like to add earth worms to this mix. Is this diet varied enough, is anything missing and in what proportion should I be feeding everything?

2. Earthworms: I have no garden and I live inner city so catching my own is not an option. I was considering ordering some from exotic-pets.co.uk and attempting to breed them. Is this possible? And if it is, is it worth it?

3. Are axolotl pellets a good idea? Again I found them at exotic pets, they are advertised as being better used occasionally rather than as a staple but it seems to me it might be a good idea to have in just in case I run out of frozen. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Many thanks for any help and sorry for the long post!

First of all ive been keeping axolotls for a fair few years and i have a great guide on keeping them on this forum. Here is the link HERE

i'll quickly answer your questions too

First of all your diet seems fine,
My Axolotls get fed on a staple mix of: Daphnia, Artemia, Mysis & Mosquito Larave (blood worm)
As well as a healthy dosage of pellet food to make sure they're getting all the essentials.
I feed mine every 1-2 days. Earthworms are a lovely choice, mine love em!
Its just getting hold of them. as for proportion, my male easily takes a cube by himself and i'll drop a few pellets. THat'll be all. I try to alternate the food just to give him variety.
I cant order earthworms myself, but i just garden them or ask my mates to collect me some.
Other than that i use them more as an occasional treat due to the scarcity of them in my garden.
Pellet food ive had no problem with, i just use it as a suppliment. At the moment i use Hikari Carnivore pellets. THey give them a little more to eat and arnt too harmful to them.

I hope this and the link helps

edit:

as for life span, i and other keepers found it can vary between animals. a friend of mine kept his to 6 years old. Whilst his mate lived till it was 10. 15 is a nice age, but most of my data and experiences says about 10-11years is more common lifespan.
But that doesnt change that it could live for 15 years

 

[nmonks]

I'm not sure why people are finding beefheart fatty; by definition, cardiac muscle lacks fat, which is precisely why it's used to feed fish (the fat gels inside cold blooded animals, causing blockages). In any case, it shouldn't be used too often. A once a week treat maybe. The problem is that it lacks fibre, minerals and water-soluble vitamins, so while a reasonable source of protein, that's about it.

Axolotls need a fairly robust diet, and in labs are normally hand fed (using forceps) so that the keeper can keep tabs on precisely what the animal eats. Earthworms are a superb food item, and you can buy them from bait stores among other places. Breeding them outdoors in a wormery is easy enough (some local councils will sell composters cheaply, and they're good too). But breeding earthworms indoors requires a lot of space, usually a basement given the need for coldness and humidity. Not really practical otherwise.

Other good food items include lancefish, strips of tilapia and squid, prawns, and, for big specimens, pinkies, all of which can be bought frozen. These whole animals are essential sources of calcium, among other things. Small foods like bloodworms are fine for baby Axolotls, but aren't much good for the adults. Review which foods contain thiaminase, and use these sparingly. Prawns for example contain too much thiaminase to be used as a staple, but are fine once a week.

I've not come across any Axolotl that was enthusiastic for pellets. The big problem with pellet foods is that even when animals eat them, reptiles and amphibians (and indeed fish) become prone to constipation. Fine as a treat, bad as a staple.

Cheers, Neale