Axolotls with shovel-like mouths can grab and consume anything that moves close to their mouth. They gladly suck insects, small fishes, mollusks, and crustaceans as long as they are sizeable in their mouth.
Krill are shrimp-like crustaceans that are good protein sources, rich in omega-3 fatty acids,s and low in fat. Aquatic animals feed on them in the aquatic habitat. Just like other aquatic animals, can axolotls feed on krill?
Yes, axolotls eat krill; they feed on them in their natural environment; feeding your pet axolotls is not bad. Krill are rich in nutrients needed by your axolotl’s growth and development alongside good health.
However, it should not be fed to them excessively; you may want to ask, why? Because krill have high-quality protein and other essential nutrients, which might become problematic if the intake is high. And also, you need to know to feed krill to your axolotls. Let us further discuss that.
How Should You Feed Krill to Your Axolotls?
To feed krill to your axolotls, you must know that dry krill are not perfect for your axolotls. This is because when krill are dried, they tend to have a hard shell capable of causing impaction to your axolotls. So which is the best to feed your axolotls? A frozen krill would be better because its shell would be soft. So let’s talk about feeding frozen krill to your axolotls.
- A frozen krill is okay, but it should be fed to axolotls when frozen. It would be best to unfreeze krill once you buy them from the pet store since cold foods are unhealthy for axolotls.
- After waiting for some time for the krill to be defrosted, another to do is to deshell the krill though the shells are not as hard as the dried krill. Deshelling will enhance easy digestion, and it also helps to avoid the risk of impaction.
- Now that you have removed the shells, you can feed them to youtube axolotls.
Note that krill may have some disease that can harm your axolotls, so ensure krill are free from disease; you do that by vetting krill. Let’s also talk about the health of krill to your axolotls.
What Are The Health Benefits of Feeding Krill to Axolotls?
Krill contains protein and other nutrients that axolotls require. And all these nutrient benefits include:
- Boosting the immune system of axolotls. Axolotls, especially the younger one’s immune system, is tender and are highly prone to things that damage them easily. So they need proteinous food to help boost their immune system. Krill happens to be a good option.
- Krill digest easily. Removal of krill shells makes it soft and easy for axolotls to digest them. That is why removing krill shells before feeding them to axolotls is advisable.
- Krill have a palatable taste, making it a good option for axolotls with no appetite for food.
How Frequently Should You Feed Krill to Your Axolotls?
As we have established above, the nutrient element in krill is very advantageous to axolotls. But should you then feed krill to your axolotls frequently? Well, despite the great health benefits of krill to axolotls, you should remember that the protein content of krill can cause your axolotls to be obsessed when fed to them in excess.
Feeding your axolotls with krill once or twice per week is appropriate. This is to avoid overfeeding, which may lead to obesity and other health problem. You wouldn’t want your axolotl’s health to be challenged, so feed them with krill moderately.
Will It Be Okay for Me to Feed Freeze Dried Krill to My Axolotls?
No. Though we earlier said frozen krill could be fed to your axolotls, frozen, dried krill shouldn’t be fed to your axolotls. Krill shells can cause impaction there, leading to other potential health problems.
When you buy a freeze-dried krill, removal of the shell may not be done appropriately, and when consumed by your axolotls, it might not digest because the shells are hard. Improper digestion in axolotls results in serious problems.
What Food Is Not Save to Feed My Axolotls?
Generally, axolotls are known to eat anything that comes close to their mouth in their aquarium tank. It would be best if you were of what you give to your pet axolotls as some food is unhealthy for them. So you need to know what to feed to your axolotls. Briefly, let’s look at unhealthy food, which includes:
1. Processed Food
Preservatives are added to processed food to keep them for a longer period. These chemicals in processed food added can harm axolotls when fed with processed food. Avoid feeding processed food to axolotls to keep them healthy.
2. Pallet Food
You can feed pallet food to your pet axolotls but ensure they are proteinous and not hard as some pallet food can be hard.
3. Mealworm
Mealworms normally have hard exoskeletons that will be impossible for axolotls to digest. You should not serve them to axolotls to consume.
Do not feed any creature that has a hard shell your axolotls as they can challenge in digesting.
Do Axolotls Chew Their Food?
No. Axolotls are known to have teeth in their lower and upper jaw, but they can not use them to chew food as the tiny teeth are not fully developed.
Axolotls rather swallow their food whole food instead of chewing. This is why you shouldn’t dish large particles of food to them to enable them to swallow without challenge.
Conclusion
Feeding krill to your pet axolotls is okay as they contain the required nutrients that axolotls need for growth. Krill are highly proteinous, which is a good option to feed baby axolotls as it improves their growth and development and keeps them healthy.
While krill benefit axolotls, you should limit the rate you feed them; one to two times a week will do. This is because a high intake of krill can cause obesity and other health problems.
Impaction can take place if you do not remove the shell of the krill for your axolotls, so it makes you remove the shell before you give it to axolotls to consume. Avoid giving others harder food as well.
