Helios is spitting out his food!

[newfiedragon]

I'm having a problem feeding one of my bettas. He can't seem to keep pellets down! He wants to eat them, and he usually manages to eat one, but after that he starts to spit them out. He eats the pellets, seems to have trouble swallowing, and then spits it out. I'm currently feeding him the nutrafin pellets, but I'm wondering if there's any smaller type of pellet that's available.

Thankfully, he's still eating freeze dried bloodworms, but I don't want to always feed him those. I want to give him some variety.

[shinybetta]

My female wouldn't eat ANYTHING! I couldn't get her to eat for 2 1/2 weeks. She just started eating today. He may be picky, I think my female was. Don't feed him for 2-3 days, then try the pellets. Or soak them in garlic juice.

[Malvolti]

I use Aqueon Betta food pellets which are relatively small. Hikari also makes something they call Micro pellets which should be good.

You can also try cutting your pellets, try using a pill cutter so you don't hurt yourself. OR you can soak the pellets in a bit of tank water for a few minutes to soften them up.

[crowntail lover]

Yes. You should go with the Micro pellets (found at Petsmart) and then make your way up to the normal size pellets

[ashleyy]

He may just not like them. I have a new betta from Petco and I'm trying to feed him soaked New Life Spectrum pellets (they are super tiny) and Hikari's pellets, he puts them in his mouth and spits them right back out. He sorta does the same with flake food.

I gave him a crumbled up sun dried baby shrimp and he loved it. GRrr! I didn't really want him to eat it, but I want to see if he would eat something. And also, he eats frozen blood worms. So beats me. I suppose he is super picky. But it's something he needs to get over fast! lol!

[sayurasem]

live blackwroms always work! only 1 buck 50. last me for almost 3 weeks now. as long you change the water daily.

[scootshoot]

Usually means the pellet is too large for him to chew and keep down. Mine did same thing. I switched over to the Hikari Bio Gold Betta pellets. The Hikari brand pellets is much smaller in diameter then most of the other brands I have noticed.

[DormDrax]

Originally Posted by scootshoot

Usually means the pellet is too large for him to chew and keep down. Mine did same thing. I switched over to the Hikari Bio Gold Betta pellets. The Hikari brand pellets is much smaller in diameter then most of the other brands I have noticed.

Thats what I noticed about Drax and flakes. He's spit them out, re-eat then spit out as if trying to shred it. So now I just give him much smaller pieces and now he doesn't spit anything out.