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Female wants to eat but cant

828 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  dramaqueen 
#1 ·
Alright lets first start this off on a good note, after little Snowflake (male) hadwhat I thought too be SBD, he has now recovered fully, can eat all his food (2 pellets twice a day),and has even started the whole beg for food thing that is so cute. He recognizes me as his feeder as soon as I come in the room and runs to beg at the front of the tank.

But my female that I got a few days ago is having a bit more trouble. When its feeding time she swims to the front a looks at the top waiting for food,almost to the point of begging but a little more subtle. Then when I drop her food in she hurridly gulps it up like most bettas do. But then a second later she spits it back out. Sometimes she leaves it and sometimes she tries again. You can tell she wants to eat it but doesnt seem to be able to. I was originally giving her normal "Wardley" betta food which is pretty big so I thought it was the size. So i tried giving her some "Bio-Gold" that are apparently "baby-size" made for smaller bettas but she still spits it up. She even spat up chunks of freeze-dried blood worms.

Ive seen her swallow and hold her food a few times so Im not too worried. And she still looks very healthy and active. Im just wondering if its an easy fix or a common overlook or something.

I also have this powder stuff that is made for fry and very young fish I could try but I dont know if she'dbe interested/].
 
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#3 ·
If you could have asked what they feed where you bought her.,
Shes looking for a familiar food shes use to getting,

She will come around after she realizes, this is it butter cup, eat up..
Betta's get spoiled easy to some foods
 
#4 ·
Ditto what Chicklet said. When I first got Skark as a rescue project, I tried to switch his diet over to betta pellets (since he'd been on normal flake food). I went around with him on the matter for about two weeks before he would finally eat the pellets and quit spitting them immediately and going back to the corner of the tank to get fed something else. He finally realized he wasn't getting the flakes anymore and he now happily takes pellets like the rest of my bettas.
You might also try pre-soaking the pellets, and mushing them a little bit. I found with Skark that he never really 'chewed' when he ate before, since the flakes didn't need it, so I don't think he understood the pellets for a while as 'food' because it didn't always work as soon as he went 'chomp!' If you get the consistency a bit closer to the flakes, some bettas will go for it a bit easier.
 
#6 ·
Well since this thread she has actually eaten all her pellets. I figure if it comes down to it she could steal some of the neons' flakes that I feed to them, but she doing pretty well with the tiny pellets now.
 
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