Female betta suddenly fat

[Blacklight]

I think we need a guide specifically for talking about what to expect when raising a female betta. This "suddenly fat" thing hit us out of the blue and kind of scared me, considering what I went through with my male that didn't make it.
The only references I ever see to anyone having a female betta is only instructions for how to breed them. There's not really anything about people having females who aren't breeding them.
It would be nice if we could know to expect the female to get fat like this sometimes.

How often do they go through this?

[Luimeril]

aahh, yes. it's always worrying, i know. the dullness of the scales on her belly is totally normal. i've a beautiful dark blue female who's belly gets silvery when she's all eggy. she even lets out her eggs and eats them! o-O not the first gal i had that did that, but it took me by surprise, since my other females just reabsorbs theirs, and i haven't had a gal that does that in over a year. and her previous owner never talked about her doing that. xD

[Blacklight]

How long does it usually take for them to get skinny again?

It's scary because it looks like some kind of "bloat".

[Luimeril]

varies from female to female. i had a gal last year who'd get fat, let out her eggs a day later, be all fat from eating them for another day. then, Fritzy has been all fat for a few days now.