Today I want to talk about the dangers of feeding Axolotls with tongs...

     While it is safe and fine to feed lizards with tongs, and perhaps saves your fingers from being bitten, it can be very unsafe and damaging to an Axolotl.

     Axolotls have very different skin structure than lizards. In fact, they are not lizards at all. Axolotls are amphibians. Axolotls are a bit different than the typical amphibian. Typically, an amphibian goes through a metamorphosis and changes over to become a land creature. This makes their skin a bit different when this happens. Axolotls stay in the Juvenile state and keep their slime coat.

     Because Axolotls are different, they need to be treated differently as well. Since their skin is different from other creatures it makes them more sensitive. Lizards have thick scaly skin that can handle a bit rougher things. They also have teeth, while Axolotls do not.

     Feeding an Axolotl with tongs can cause damage to their mouth if they happen to accidentally snatch the tongs. So why risk it? I learned this a long time ago when I first got my Axolotls. Thankfully I stopped using tongs before I had this happen.

     I had an adult from another person who suffered from a damaged mouth from tong feeding once. It could never close its mouth all the way and looked puffier around the mouth like the pictures I found and shared from the Internet, not my pictures, but a perfect example of what my boy looked like.

     I have seen many other people post pictures of their Axolotls with damaged mouths from tong feeding as well. I have also seen many people showing cute posts of them feeding their Axolotls with tongs. This gives people the wrong idea! Why risk damaging our precious Axolotls mouths and put their health at risk.

     It is not hard to feed our Axolotls by hand. They will not hurt you!!! As I already stated, they don't have teeth. You can even let them do what they naturally do, hunt their own food. All my Axolotls in tanks get mostly European Nightcrawlers or pellets that I sprinkle over the top of the tank and let them drop to the floor for them to hunt unless they snatch it while it drops.

Play it safe. Don't tong feed!!