Best Food For A Betta!

[manutd4life]

I have a siamese fighting fish but he doesnt seem to eat the flakes or floating pellets i put in!

what could i feed him and how often?

thanks

 

[Jenste]

i had a picky betta once.
you can either go broke trying a dozen different types of food, or you can be firm with him. think of him as a spoiled little kid refusing to eat his veggies. just keep putting them in front of him...no dessert until he eats the veggies!

the more you tempt him with other types of food, the more picky he will be.

choose one type of pellet, and keep trying 1 pellet a day - when he gets hungry he will eat! when he does eat, remember that their stomachs are only as big as one eye, so feed accordingly. you don't want a bloated betta.

do not feed yummy foods like bloodworms and brineshrimp until he is good about eating for you. and even then only use them as a treat.

i also advise to feed a boiled mushed up pea (taken out of its shell) once a week to ward off constipation and give him more veggie matter as his diet requires.

 

[manutd4life]

i had a picky betta once.
you can either go broke trying a dozen different types of food, or you can be firm with him. think of him as a spoiled little kid refusing to eat his veggies. just keep putting them in front of him...no dessert until he eats the veggies!

the more you tempt him with other types of food, the more picky he will be.

choose one type of pellet, and keep trying 1 pellet a day - when he gets hungry he will eat! when he does eat, remember that their stomachs are only as big as one eye, so feed accordingly. you don't want a bloated betta.

do not feed yummy foods like bloodworms and brineshrimp until he is good about eating for you. and even then only use them as a treat.

i also advise to feed a boiled mushed up pea (taken out of its shell) once a week to ward off constipation and give him more veggie matter as his diet requires.

thanks

so you think pellets are better than flakes then?

ill keep the yummy foods out of the feeding process for now until hes eating properly.

when you say add a mushed up pea out of its shell, obv i take out the shell before i mush it but then do i just mush it with a fork or back of the spoon then sprinkle it into the water? and is that with the normal food i give him or just the pea on its own as a meal?

you say give him more veggie matter as his diet requires, how will i know? and do you mean like soft carrots?

thanks again

can i a chunk of cucumber in the tank for it to nibble on? and take it out after a day?

 

[catxx]

I wouldn't fill his diet with veg, it (pref mushed pea) should only be used once a week or so, as Jenste said, to avoid constipation which is rife in Bettas. And brine shrimp can cause problems too, live/frozen food like bloodworm, daphnia and cyclops are better!

With pellets, some can be very fussy, never had a single Betta turn down Attison Betta Pro pellets though. Can't buy the bleeding stuff in the UK any more though!

 

[loraxchick]

i once had a VERY fussy eater. what i did was to feed him bloodworms to start (what betta can refuse right?) using a chopstick. the fish associates the stick with food. once this is accomplished, i used flake food to start him on as staple. just push it around with the chopstick and he will get the idea (chopstick=food..i eat whats on the stick). after a while (a few weeks actually) he was eating flake all by himslef andi weened him off of his bloodworm diet and reserved them for once-in-a-while treats.
flakes are a perfectly acceptable staple food for a betta. all mine get flake as staple as it generally causes much less problems for them in the health side of things. pellets are fine, but we tend to overfeed. they swell up pretty big when saturated (just leave one in a cup for half an hour and see how large they become) and bettas tummies are really tiny (the size of one of their eyeballs). flakes dont swell as such and you can gauge their food intake much more accurately.
on a side note, you can also use cooked broccoli tips (the little green balls on the end) if you cant get peas. works just fine and they eat them the same as peas. mine go CRAZY on veggie day!
cheers

 

[aly_starh]

What brand is the pellets you are using?

You want some pellets ideally made by Hikari or Atisons.

Here are the links, i know that all my 15+ bettas have never refused either.

Hikari Betta Bio-Gold Pellets Atisons Betta Pellets

So, id feed the betta twice aday, say around 6 pellets in the morning then 6 in the evening. Feed him live food also once a week and also fast him. Then follow this with a de-shelled pea.

Hope that helps

 

[manutd4life]

I wouldn't fill his diet with veg, it (pref mushed pea) should only be used once a week or so, as Jenste said, to avoid constipation which is rife in Bettas. And brine shrimp can cause problems too, live/frozen food like bloodworm, daphnia and cyclops are better!

With pellets, some can be very fussy, never had a single Betta turn down Attison Betta Pro pellets though. Can't buy the bleeding stuff in the UK any more though!

ill just give hi9m a mushy pea once a week as suggested, but is that with his usual food or as a substitute? as for the bllodworm and the rest, just do once a week? and do i need to defrost them first?

thanks

i once had a VERY fussy eater. what i did was to feed him bloodworms to start (what betta can refuse right?) using a chopstick. the fish associates the stick with food. once this is accomplished, i used flake food to start him on as staple. just push it around with the chopstick and he will get the idea (chopstick=food..i eat whats on the stick). after a while (a few weeks actually) he was eating flake all by himslef andi weened him off of his bloodworm diet and reserved them for once-in-a-while treats.
flakes are a perfectly acceptable staple food for a betta. all mine get flake as staple as it generally causes much less problems for them in the health side of things. pellets are fine, but we tend to overfeed. they swell up pretty big when saturated (just leave one in a cup for half an hour and see how large they become) and bettas tummies are really tiny (the size of one of their eyeballs). flakes dont swell as such and you can gauge their food intake much more accurately.
on a side note, you can also use cooked broccoli tips (the little green balls on the end) if you cant get peas. works just fine and they eat them the same as peas. mine go CRAZY on veggie day!
cheers

may try this way as a last resort, im gonna show him he has them or nothing for a few days first lol

how long can they go without food?

thanks

What brand is the pellets you are using?

You want some pellets ideally made by Hikari or Atisons.

Here are the links, i know that all my 15+ bettas have never refused either.

Hikari Betta Bio-Gold Pellets Atisons Betta Pellets

So, id feed the betta twice aday, say around 6 pellets in the morning then 6 in the evening. Feed him live food also once a week and also fast him. Then follow this with a de-shelled pea.

Hope that helps

ive tried the hikari micro pellets, are they the right kind?

ive also tried the flake but he just seems to not realise the food is there.

i put a pea in before but he only ate a bit the floated past him, the rest of the pea is there but he doesnt seem to be able to see it! unless hes stressed and not eating?

thanks

 

[aly_starh]

hi, a betta can go around 10 days with out food.

Yes Hikari micro pellets are the same type of thing. Bettas take 2 weeks to settle, so he is probarly just trying to get used to his surroundings. Just give him time, he should start eating soon.

Regarding Bloodworm, yep you have to de-frost it, although some people give it just like that. I wouldnt take the chance though as its Ice. I highly doubt he will eat all the bloodworm, so Id break 1 cube in half and feed that. All leftovers should be removed from the tank ASAP as it will cause Ammonia build up. Same goes for peas.
Peas should be de-shelled and crumbled. But feed 1 bit at a time, if it falls to the floor it wont eat it.

hope that helps

 

[BethK]

Don't be fussy with your betta, he'll soon eat pellets/flakes,when he is hungry

 

[LaVidaBoring]

Mine would spit out any pellets I tried to feed him (tried three brands). So I gave up. Many betta keepers online disdain pellets and flakes anyway.

Now I just feed him the frozen bloodworms and occasionally frozen daphnia. And the mashed pea thing every so often. He's doing great on that diet. I chip off a teeny tiny part (about 2-3 mm cube) off of the main frozen food cube, pick it up with tweezers, blow on it to thaw it, and put the end of the tweezers at the top of the tank. He picks the worms/daphnia off of the tweezers.

 

[Oscar Betta]

When they're new soetimes it will take a while to get them to eat. That's what my betta did at first but then he started eating them.