mistycheri

I read on a link from another post about training fish. The link was about Fish School and training your fish to do tricks. It was really cool. One part was about this guy who could hand feed his fish. I thought, that would be cool. And since my Beta is the only fish I have that's not afraid of me, I thought I'd try it with her. Sure enough, I held a piece of fish pellet between my fingers and she would eat from my hand. I figured she'd be the best candidate cause when it's feeding time, she always comes up to the feeding tray waiting for me to drop it in.

Has anyone else tried this?

chickadee

Please read the betta Section on this forum and you will find that this is the preferred method of feeding Bettas to make sure they are not overeating or undereating. With Bettas it is very important to know what and how much they eat to prevent digestive upsets or constipation.

Rose

ebbandflow

hand feeding also allows you to wait a few seconds between pellets or bloodworms because a betta left to his own devices will gobble first and ask questions later (usually "why cant I poop?) .

chickadee

Yes LOL that says it well LOL.

Thank you I haven't had that good a laugh all day! "why can't I poop?" hehehehehehehehe

BUT very true!

Rose

0morrokh

hehehehehe

About hand feeding, my Guppies and Platys will hand-feed, although I usually don't do it because it takes longer and one or two are always too shy to take the food from me...

jinx_beta

I've never tried hand feeding my betta, because I'm afraid that soap from my skin, or some other sort of poisonous substance might hurt him!
I know I used to make my sea monkeys follow the torch light.

Kristyn 8)

chickadee

If you rinse your hands very well it shouldn't hurt. I have done it for nearly a year and it doesn't seem to have hurt them at all. In fact it is the way I can tell that they are eating what I give them and not ill, and that they are not overeating and becoming constipated which in a Betta is not a laughing matter. Many Bettas have and I suppose will continue to die of constipation due to overeating. The best way to prevent this is to closely monitor what they eat and that means HOW MUCH as well as what. It is also a very nice little time to spend with your Betta just getting some one-on-one time and talking to him, they love it and they love you to pay attention to them.

Rose