What Do Axolotls Eat? A Simple Guide for Kids

How an axolotl eats (it never chews)

An axolotl's mouth is full of tiny teeth, but they are not for chewing — they exist to grip. When a worm or small fish drifts close, the axolotl snaps its mouth open and the rush of water pulls the prey straight in, a technique called suction feeding. From there the food is swallowed whole and broken down in the stomach.

That is also why everything an axolotl eats is small. At 20–30 cm long and up to about 300 g in weight, an adult axolotl has no way to tear a large animal apart, so it hunts the lake floor for food roughly the width of its own mouth. Their feathery external gills are not involved in eating at all — they are for breathing.

What axolotls eat in the wild

Wild axolotls live in exactly one place on Earth: the canal system of Lake Xochimilco, south of Mexico City. There they patrol the shallow, plant-choked channels for food:

• worms, especially aquatic worms in the soft canal mud,
• insects and insect larvae that fall in or hatch in the water,
• small fish that stray within snapping range, and
• crustaceans such as small freshwater shrimp.

A young axolotl eats smaller versions of the same menu, and it eats more often — a growing salamander hunts almost daily, while a full-grown adult is content with a meal every couple of days. Being permanently underwater, they never need to leave the lake to find a drink.

What pet axolotls eat

Almost all the axolotls in the world — in aquariums, classrooms, and laboratories — eat a simpler menu than their wild cousins. Aquarium keepers usually feed them earthworms or soft sinking pellets, with frozen bloodworms as an occasional treat. Because axolotls swallow whole, food has to be small enough to go down in one or two gulps. If you keep one, the rule of thumb is: worms and pellets, sized to the axolotl, fed a few times a week — and never anything that fights back hard enough to injure the gills.

Why dinner is getting scarce

A carnivore that eats only what lives in its own lake is vulnerable to anything that happens to that lake, and a lot has happened to Xochimilco: draining, pollution, and invasive fish that eat axolotl eggs and compete for the same food. This is why the IUCN lists the axolotl as Critically Endangered — the smiling salamander on millions of aquarium tanks and t-shirts is nearly gone from the one place it evolved to live. Its species page has the full picture, from range to photographs and their photographers.

Curious cousins, next questions

If the axolotl was your first salamander, two relatives make good follow-ups. The tiger salamander is the axolotl's closest look-alike — it shares the wide head and the pond-loving habits, but it usually completes metamorphosis and grows up to walk on land. The olm, a blind cave salamander from Europe, went the opposite way: pale skin, no eyes to speak of, and a life spent in total darkness.

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Keep reading: the 11 rarest animals in our catalog or 20 of the most fascinating animals in the world. Or browse the full catalog — every page comes with three real photographs.