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lollypop lollypop
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  • Posted on: 12/2/2008 20:55
axolotl feeding #1
calling all knolageable person's
my little bubba is a fussy bug*r he likes fish and prawns. wont eat worms and will only hand feed (will eat chicken)
now is this enuf or do i need to supliment or hold out for him to eat other food's (he likes prawn's but i'm not sure wether to give cooked pink ones or raw one's)
all help greatley apreciated,
or alternatives.


lolly
today i am lime flavor.
longhairedgit longhairedgit
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  • Posted on: 12/2/2008 22:47
Re: axolotl feeding #2
If hes eating nothing but fish make sure he gets whole fish, not just fishmeat.You can buy packs at your lfs. Obviously he wont eat them whole until he grows large you just halve them up etc. If he likes shrimp you could go to a shop that stocks feeder shrimp for marines. Meats for axos should generally be raw.

What worms have you tried so far? you can use tubifex, bloodworm, whiteworm, glassworm, and earthworms. Moulted mealworms too. Lots of reptiles and amphibians are just like fussy children you have to persist with foods they dont like until they get used to them, so always try foods hes not keen on occassionally. "Just bloody eat it you" lol.

Takes ages for an axo to starve, but nutritional deficiencies can rear their heads quickly, so you have to show some real patience with these guys. They will train you into giving them nothing but rich fatty tasty foods if they can, and if the diet contains too much muscle meat you can end up with a very fat axo. They put on the lard in a way that can make a fatted beef calf look healthy.
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lollypop lollypop
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  • Posted on: 12/2/2008 22:52
Re: axolotl feeding #3
mainly blood worm at the mo. my lfs only had those. i think if i went live then he would probs eat it, was just tring to keep to dead stuff, (kids and worms dont mix well, a bit like magot's) where we got him they was feeding bits of fish etc. like lumps of mackrel.
i have tried the frozen and dried (althogh i know dried are a bit of a dud) not sure how old he is and i know you cant tell by size, but he's about 8in long.
so we been trying to give him oily fish, but not sure its enuf. i know a lot of places (abrod)give live feeder fish.

i think thats a bit of a ramble, but hopefully you can get what im saying,

lolly
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eonchao eonchao
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  • Posted on: 23/2/2008 16:16
Re: axolotl feeding #4
I've got to Axie's and the aquarium at the University I go to has around 50 all of varying sizes. We feed them on bits of squid. To Prepare gut the squid removing everything apart from the mantle then cut the squid into squares. Obviously not even a fully grown axie will eat an entire squid so we freeze any spare bits we have and just give them around a 1cm square each a day for ones below 10cm and for ones above as big as they can comfortably swallow. Ours always seem healthy enough although their gills don't grow out as much as some due to crowded conditions in the lab (although mine in a tank of two seem to grow them to a proper length fine). I suppliment by dropping some trout pellets in the bottom of the tank which i'm fairly certain the Axies eat (as the two of them don't share a tank with anything). Just wave the piece of squid in front of them and they'll grab it. You can even tug them along and make them fight for it which gives them some exercise.

Other than that if you want live food the best sugestion I've heard is to set up a breeding colony of Guppies in a seperate tank and alternate squid with a couple of live Guppies. Just let them go into the tank and the Axie should hunt them down. I say establish your own though as Guppies are easy to breed and it removes the risk of parasites if you've got a properly quarrantined (sp?) population.
longhairedgit longhairedgit
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  • Posted on: 23/2/2008 19:28
Re: axolotl feeding #5
Just a reminder in regard to live feeders.

"Under the 1911 Act it is not illegal to feed a live vertebrate to another unless you cause it unnecessary suffering, so that would have to be the result of a court case and the judge would have to make a decision."

Generally the RSPCA and consulting vets in such court cases define , by common incidence of conviction, it is usually concluded that it is not advised to offer a live prey animal to a predator, for periods in excess of one hour out of every 24, and the needs of the prey species must be correctly catered for, inclusive of humane enclosure space, free of fear and intimidation by the predator, proper environmental care, and nutrition outside of offerring times.

Im generally against unecessary live feeding, the only prerequisite for feeding an axolotl is that the prey is whole, and of sufficient nutritive quality and that does not have to translate as whole, and alive.

I guess live feeding is generally discouraged because the use of them is rarely dispassionate, and it tends to attract the sickos who keep certain species purely on their ability to dispatch other creatures. Im not arguing against the legitimacy of live feeder animals, some species must indeed have them, its just that axolotls happen not to be one of those species.

If its not needed, its not needed. People leaving prey animals in a predators enclosure for too long , or not dispatching injured animals quickly and humanely that havent been finished off by the predator, could find themselves falling foul of the law, likewise offerring feeder animals over which the predator does not have a correct size advantage, and an easy method of diaspatch for, could again fall foul of the law. An oscar for example, eating a guppy down in a gulp would be deemed acceptable, having one chase an angelfish round the tank , slowly injuring it with multiple bites,for several minutes could get you prosecuted. Anything that can be deemed as encouraging a baiting or fighting situation to occur can be percieved as animal abuse, even if the outcome is rather once sided. People keeping guppies etc and just keeping them in a holding container under suboptimal conditions instead of a proper aquarium could also fall foul of the law. Much of it is discretionary based on veterinary advice.

Not having a whinge, in rescue and zoo work ive used live feeders out of necessity,at home I choose not to. Im not here to tell people to use them, or not to, but you should be aware of the lay of the land before you start, and you should always double and triple check that its absolutely necessary.

Just about every animal ive ever known of, with the exception of a few specialised snakes, can be trained to take dead foods. Most people who say their pet wont take dead foods generally hasnt tried too hard to get them onto dead foods, and we know it. Most invertabrates and insects are of course exceptions, unless of a protected species they dont have any legal rights. Basically anything with a spine has some protection under the law against cruelty.
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furiousferret furiousferret
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  • Posted on: 23/2/2008 19:46
Re: axolotl feeding #6
just a quick question not really related to post - how do you pronounce axolotl? always wondered.
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CountViffer CountViffer
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  • Posted on: 23/2/2008 21:44
Re: axolotl feeding #7
So where would you stand on dealing with unplanned broods? A lot of the time LFS won't take them, you can't necessarily keep them for overstocking reasons, so what then?

Not a position I am in or intend to get in, although I am seriously considering trying to breed some Rams if I can get mine healthy, cut out some of the shite in the shops.

What about keeping a tank full of Guppys and Tetras etc, what about the fry then? Do you remove and euthanise to then use as feed when necessary, or remove and utilise the food source live for naturally predatory fish, or do you have an alternative?

Not having a pop, just interested as to where you stand on this.
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eonchao eonchao
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  • Posted on: 24/2/2008 12:23
Re: axolotl feeding #8
Thing is there are problems with live invertebrates and Axolotl. Firstly if you're feeding them worms and they can't get the worm in their mouth I tend to find mine abandon it rather quickly. Secondly Arthropods present two general problems, 1. Their mouth parts can do serious damage to an amphibian's mouth, 2. They're mostly Chitin which Axolotl don't digest meaning they're nutritionally poor. Some venomous Arthropods (in particular Argyroneta aquatica, the European Water Spider) apprently can cause paralysis and death in Axolotl. The only Invertebrates really worth feeding to an Axie tend to be Worms and then you usually have to cut them into pieces an axie can manage.

As far as live food goes guppies aren't dangerous to Axolotl (some fish have spines which stick in their throat), they tend to be small enough that you don't need a massive setup to keep them happy, young guppy are easilly big enough for a 6 month axie to swallow whole and adult axie could probably manage an adult guppy. Although I agree with Longhairedgit that most shouldn't be left in too long.

Also we always used to become swamped with young guppies in the lab and aren't allowed to feed them to anything so we stopped using seperate breeding tanks unless we needed more and the population keeps itself in check. They should mostly only be used if you're getting to many guppies and only to spice things up. Most Axolotl respond well to hand feeding anyway and its not as if it takes much effort to get them to bite it. As stated above use Squid as its rather balanced for them. Guppies if you want some live food for now and then although you'd have to explain to your kids why you're letting your Axie eat your pet fish.

Axolotl is pronounced Axe-o-lot-el.
MissMagic MissMagic
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  • Posted on: 29/4/2008 21:36
Re: axolotl feeding #9
Hmmm, maybe I'll try Tia on some squid. I never thought of that! Usually I feed earth worms (which she sucks up like spaghetti) and liver or whole fish as a treat.

I wonder, do you think shelled raw prawns of the variety that we would eat would go down well? I'm guessing the shell wouldn't be good for them.
lollypop lollypop
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  • Posted on: 29/4/2008 21:40
Re: axolotl feeding #10
my two love prawns. raw and shelled. i give it as an occasional treat.
they also like the worms (definatley like spagetti )
and bits of raw fish. (whole ones if i can get them) apart from the worms i tend to stick to a "seafood" diet.

i have heard that too much land type meat is not good so they dont get that.

one of mine likes blood worm and the other wont touch it. still havent tried the squid tho.

althogh i have heard that its not that nutritus (sp) in the long term

(as you can tell they have come a long way since i started with them)

lolly
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