Pinkie Mice - Axoltls

[leandrah]

Hi All,
Can Axolotl's be fed Pinkie Mice?
I have a few frozen in the freezer - with a little hair on them, can the Axolotls digest the fur?

thank you

 

[jAfFa CaKe]

They should be able to digest fur, but I'm not really sure. I think a little hair is fine, I'm guessing this is for a treat? If not then don't use them a lot, they are filled with their mother milk, therefore they are very fattening.

 

[HMontross]

I have heard that pinkies aren't the best option for Ambystoma because of the high fat content.

 

[auntiejude]

Not really. Axies can't digest mammalian meat very well. Stick to invertebrates.

 

[Boomsloth]

I second auntiejude. Axolotls will eat a lot of things that gets waved in front of their faces. They don't have the capabilities of breaking down certain proteins they aren't normally exposed to. Its like a vegetarian trying to eat meat for the first time, it'll just cause sickness. Worms and softshelled crustaceans are the best diet for them

 

[CJ1981]

I know of several people who feed their axies and other salamanders pinkie mice occasionally. They don't make a good staple as they can easily lead to obesity and the concentration of micronutrients in their livers etc could (it has been speculated in previous threads) become too rich/much for your axie. Your axie won't digest the fur perse but it will pass it leading to some interesting poops.

 

[leandrah]

Thanks all of you
It would only be a once a month type thing.

Nothing more regular than that, I love giving them a very varied diet, so they are eating earthworms, crickets, roaches, flying ants (We get them here in SA - they are similar to a termite type thing), tubiflex worms and meal worms,

Another question, we have superworms here - they have a very hard exoskeleton, and they are reasonably high in fat (I would rather use this once a month instead of the Pinkie), would they be able to digest something like this? or would i need to make a little incision in it first?

I have attached a picture of one

 

[FireStar]

I feed my axolotls a freshly shed mealworm as a treat (like you pointed out, they have hard exo-skeletons)
Some people get worried that they bit the axolotl internally, but I find they drown pretty quickly (the white ones that is)

 

[Jan]

Have a look at this article from our Caudata Culture area. When looking to vary a diet, I would choose those foods listed as excellent or good.....certainly not fair or poor:

Caudata Culture Articles - Food Items for Captive Caudates

 

[Jennewt]

Given a choice between an occasional pinkie vs. superworm... I'd vote for the pinkie. The organs, such as the liver, contain vitamins, which are lacking in mealworms and other foods. That said, I don't think there's any need to give an axolotl "treats" at all.

While I agree that mammalian meats aren't a natural diet, I think that there's no evidence to suggest that an axolotl would have any difficulty digesting such meats. Many people have fed them heart and liver. There are long-term nutritional problems with these foods, but they are digested readily.