Age sets the interval
The honest answer to "how often" is a schedule that changes as the axolotl does. A juvenile is converting food into length at full speed and should be fed daily — very small youngsters sometimes take two small meals a day. A subadult easing toward full size can move to daily-or-alternate-day feeding, and a healthy adult settles at a meal every two to three days. Axolotls are opportunists that will often snap at food whether or not they need it, so the calendar and the animal's condition have to govern feeding; appetite alone would have most adults eating daily and widening steadily. Skipping a day with an adult is not neglect — it is the correct adult rhythm.
What to build the meals from
Earthworms are the staple everything else rotates around: nutritionally complete for an axolotl in a way few single foods are, and the right texture and size — a whole worm for a full-grown adult, worms cut to manageable pieces for smaller animals. Pellets formulated for axolotls make a sound second pillar on alternate feeds. Bloodworms are better used as a treat or a food for the very young; they are eagerly eaten but do not carry an adult's nutrition on their own. Leave live feeder fish out of the menu — they bring parasite risk and poor nutrition to an animal that does perfectly well without them. Offer food with tongs or drop it just in front of the axolotl's nose; they hunt by smell and suction, and food that lands across the tank often simply goes unfound.
Reading body condition instead of the clock
The gauge for adjusting the interval is the view from above. A healthy axolotl's body is about as wide as its head; that proportion is your reference photograph. A body visibly narrower than the head says the interval is too long or the meals too small — shorten the gap or add an item. A body widening beyond the head says the opposite, and the fix is to stretch the interval a step, not to shrink individual meals into pointlessness. Change one variable at a time and judge it over a few weeks, because an axolotl's shape moves slowly. Females carrying eggs sit rounder for a while and should not be dieted for it; read the trend of the animal you have, not a single day's silhouette.
Temperature, leftovers and the refusal line
Feeding never happens in a vacuum — it happens in water, and water temperature writes part of the schedule. Keep the tank cool, roughly 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit: an axolotl's metabolism slows as the water cools, so appetite naturally dips in a cold snap, while water that runs warm stresses the animal and spoils its appetite for the opposite reason. Remove uneaten food after a short window; pellets in particular dissolve into the water column and foul it quietly. A refusal that lasts a few days in cool water, in an axolotl holding its condition, is usually weather, not illness. Refusal stretching past a week alongside visible thinning, skin changes or gills that look ragged rather than feathery is where patience ends — that combination belongs in front of a vet who treats exotic animals.
Logging the interval in KinsLe's Care Teams with the life stage attached — daily as a juvenile, spaced as an adult — prompts the step-down at the right time instead of letting the baby schedule run on by habit.