Slugs can become one of the most important foods you will feed to your axolotls. Because they have high contents of protein and other nutrients that will help axolotls grow, you should definitely consider slugs as the right source of food for your axies.
However, there are some very important things to consider when you do that. Not all types of slugs can be a good source of food for your axolotls. Some slugs can actually carry harmful chemicals as well as toxins that will harm your axie and hurt them potentially, so you need to be picky about what types of slugs you choose to feed to your axolotls.
Also, you’ll want to feed slugs that are small enough for axolotls to consume. Because slugs can be too big, the axolotl might struggle to consume the slug which can actually cause serious problems such as impaction, and they might struggle to eat them at all.
Considering all that, we’ve prepared this nice little guide for you that will help you learn how to feed slugs to axolotls, what types of slugs to feed, and how often to feed them. You’ll know everything after reading this article.
Here are some main things to consider when you feed slugs to axies.
Slugs Can Carry Harmful Chemicals
As we’ve already mentioned, not all types of slugs are appropriate for feeding to axolotls. Most importantly, if you’re about to gather slugs on your own and collect them in your own garden, then you might want to reconsider this.
Because the slugs that you collect in your own garden might carry harmful pesticides that you might have used. Also, they might carry other chemicals even if you didn’t use pesticides, such as copper and lead, which can happen naturally when there are those types of iron nearby. So before you go and pick them up in your garden, make absolutely sure there’s no such stuff around.
Secondly, some slugs will carry these toxins naturally, so they are immediately not the right choice for axolotls. Because of that, these axies that contain toxins are actually harmful to your axolotls in many ways. They might poison them, which can lead to severe health problems. In severe cases, it might even cause death.
So before you do that, make absolutely sure that the slugs you are about to feed to axolotls contain no harmful chemicals or other types of ingredients that will harm your axolotls.
Slugs Can Carry Diseases and Parasites
Another thing that you need to know is that some slugs will carry diseases and parasites that can transfer over to your axolotls if you feed them. There is not much you can do in some cases, but to vet the snails you are about to feed to your axolotls. You need to make sure you’re getting them from reputable sellers that make absolutely sure they have no such parasites.
One of the most common problems or parasites that stem from snails include the lungworm parasite. This is a common disease that comes from snails, and it affects all animals. And when it does, it can cause serious problems and if not treated, even death.
But there are various types of snail borne diseases that can get transferred to your animals (in this case axolotls) if you’re not careful. So you will need to make absolutely sure that the snails you have are free of any parasites or potential diseases that can spread to your axolotl.
How? By buying snails from reputable sellers that make 100% sure these snails are free of parasites and diseases.
How to Feed Slugs to Axolotls?
So now that you’ve made sure that snails don’t have any diseases or parasites, you need to start finding ways how to feed them to your axolotl.
The most important thing here to consider is that you need to make sure these slugs are small enough for the axies to consume them. You have to choose small slugs when you buy them, which will make them easier to consume by the axolotl.
If you get too big snails, that can cause all sorts of problems for the axolotl. They can cause choking, which can result in death. It can also cause impaction and all sorts of digestion problems, so make sure the snails are small enough to feed.
You can simply place the slugs inside the tank, and the axolotl will take care of the rest. They actually do that in the wild, so it will also provide them with some entertainment that will help them get the food.
How Often to Feed Slugs to Axolotls?
You can feed slugs to axolotls every day, provided you’ve taken care of other types of food and that you’ve not fed them too much other food already.
Because you can quickly overfeed them this way, so you need to make sure you’re feeding them just enough to digest everything properly.
How To Culture Slugs for Your Axolotls?
The best thing about snails is that you can culture them at home so you don’t even have to buy them from the store.
You will be sure these snails are quality and free of parasites, and you won’t even have to pay a dime to get them. It’s a good idea to culture earthworms and slugs together, two types of food axolotls just love.
This way, these two animals will live and thrive together in the same environment. Plus, you’ll have a steady stream of food for your axies.
A pile of compost should provide a good living ground for these two types of animals. You can breed them there, and make sure they don’t spread too much because quite quickly, you might find yourself with the problem of overpopulation!
Conclusion
Slugs can be considered as a type of food for your axolotl. They have all the nutrients you need that will help your axolotls grow and be healthy, and they’re also easy to breed at home.
