My mom's overweight betta...

So my mom has a betta, i don't take credit for him cuz uh.. yeah, and she feeds him entirely way too much. He's become overweight since I mean she's feeding him 5 pellets everytime he eats (twice a day). I keep telling her it's too much and he's overweight, but she's refuses to listen and gets mad at me. I'll attach pictures of him. I'm just not sure what to do at this point to be honest.

 

Hey maddiegrace,

That is a beautiful betta boy!!!

You could maybe explain to your mom that overfeeding can lead to all sorts of issues, including death, if you haven't already done so. I would hate for her to have to experience the heartache of losing her precious boy because of overfeeding. And I do get it....feeding them is fun! Their reactions, the little food dances they do, their excitement, all of it is really fun to watch! But all of that fun is nothing compared to the agony of watching your fin baby die slowly of dropsy symptoms or swim bladder issues that won't go away or bacterial something or other that happen because of inadequate immune system health.

Can you maybe recommend that she feed him some frozen daphnia? It acts like a natural laxative and is 100% pure protein. Also, maybe you could recommend one fast day a week. Wild betta species do not eat every day, and bettas can go as long as 10 days, maybe more, without eating, and still live.

Hope this info helps a little!

 

Hey maddiegrace,

That is a beautiful betta boy!!!

You could maybe explain to your mom that overfeeding can lead to all sorts of issues, including death, if you haven't already done so. I would hate for her to have to experience the heartache of losing her precious boy because of overfeeding. And I do get it....feeding them is fun! Their reactions, the little food dances they do, their excitement, all of it is really fun to watch! But all of that fun is nothing compared to the agony of watching your fin baby die slowly of dropsy symptoms or swim bladder issues that won't go away or bacterial something or other that happen because of inadequate immune system health.

Can you maybe recommend that she feed him some frozen daphnia? It acts like a natural laxative and is 100% pure protein. Also, maybe you could recommend one fast day a week. Wild betta species do not eat every day, and bettas can go as long as 10 days, maybe more, without eating, and still live.

Hope this info helps a little!

This really helped a lot! Thank you so much. I'll mention some of these to her, and yeah lol I love feeding my little Kevin. I just want the best for my mom and her betta because she really loves the little guy.

 

I had a problem like this with my betta. I was feeding her 2 times a day 2 pellets.

What I did was kind of stooped feeding her for a while and eveyr few days I would put one pellet in, that way she was getting some food, but it gave her time to digest.

Betta's are opportunistic feeders if there is food in the water they will eat it, even if they are full they will still eat.

I noticed with stooping the feeding it really helped make her belly not so plump.

I have also heard that you can go to the store buy a pea and boil it take off the shell and the skin of the pea and it will act as a diuretic and get rid of constipation and get rid of all the food if she is constipated.

Hope this helps...

 

I had a problem like this with my betta. I was feeding her 2 times a day 2 pellets.

What I did was kind of stooped feeding her for a while and eveyr few days I would put one pellet in, that way she was getting some food, but it gave her time to digest.

Betta's are opportunistic feeders if there is food in the water they will eat it, even if they are full they will still eat.

I noticed with stooping the feeding it really helped make her belly not so plump.

I have also heard that you can go to the store buy a pea and boil it take off the shell and the skin of the pea and it will act as a diuretic and get rid of constipation and get rid of all the food if she is constipated.

Hope this helps...

Thank you so much! I'll tell my mom this and even take some of the advice for Mymensingh own fish since I don't want him to end up overweight either. I'm feeding him three pellets twice a day, probably too much. He's so tiny and cute, I want him to stay that way. I don't want a little chubs on my hands haha

 

Some other thoughts on the matter, for what it's worth...

When bettas are younger (juveniles), they can need more food than older bettas. They move around more, so they burn more calories and use up more energy. (Females are going to be stockier than males so will look thicker and more plump.) There's no hard fast rule about feeding other than try not to overfeed, and make sure that what you are feeding is good and soft (soaking food in water so the hard pellets don't expand in the betta's tummy or scratch the insides of betta's mouths, etc,) . Each betta is different, and I have seen more than one person deprive their betta of the necessary food needed to stay healthy because they were too afraid of overfeeding. Pellets are different sizes, and food varies. The best thing is to provide the best high protein, low filler food that you can. The shelled green peas can work if the betta eats them, but peas are vegetable matter and bettas may have some problems with digesting them. Bettas are carnivores, so that is why I recommend frozen daphnia, which is pure protein, and has the same affect and is more suited to the betta's digestive track. If you can feed twice a day with at least 8 hours apart, then that is good. What you might want to avoid is being so afraid of overfeeding that you don't feed enough, and the betta becomes stressed and sick. So there's a happy medium in there somewhere. In my experience, I have found that it is best to feed 60 to 70% frozen foods, and 40 to 30% pellets/bug bites/crushed flakes, etc.

 

Some other thoughts on the matter, for what it's worth...

When bettas are younger (juveniles), they can need more food than older bettas. They move around more, so they burn more calories and use up more energy. (Females are going to be stockier than males so will look thicker and more plump.) There's no hard fast rule about feeding other than try not to overfeed, and make sure that what you are feeding is good and soft (soaking food in water so the hard pellets don't expand in the betta's tummy or scratch the insides of betta's mouths, etc,) . Each betta is different, and I have seen more than one person deprive their betta of the necessary food needed to stay healthy because they were too afraid of overfeeding. Pellets are different sizes, and food varies. The best thing is to provide the best high protein, low filler food that you can. The shelled green peas can work if the betta eats them, but peas are vegetable matter and bettas may have some problems with digesting them. Bettas are carnivores, so that is why I recommend frozen daphnia, which is pure protein, and has the same affect and is more suited to the betta's digestive track. If you can feed twice a day with at least 8 hours apart, then that is good. What you might want to avoid is being so afraid of overfeeding that you don't feed enough, and the betta becomes stressed and sick. So there's a happy medium in there somewhere. In my experience, I have found that it is best to feed 60 to 70% frozen foods, and 40 to 30% pellets/bug bites/crushed flakes, etc.

Thank you so much! I'll definitely keep that in mind. I've actually been looking into a more varied diet for the bettas, so this helps a lot to be honest! I really appreciate this

 

Hello maddiegrace,
Your mom's betta is very pretty! This may have already been said, but overfeeding can lead to dropsy, constipation, etc. In these cases, it's always good to have kanaplex on hand. I did have a rescue betta in who was severely swollen from constipation. I fixed him up good with some kanaplex and frozen peas (peas work great)!
Your situation is a sign that it's time for a betta diet. As said earlier, frozen and live food should make up around 70% of a betta diet. I feed my bettas a single frozen blood worm in the morning, and two "soggy" high protein pellets before bed. They also get occasional live food such as mosquito larvae and fruit fly larvae (both home grown)!
Whenever one of my bettas ends up constipated, which only happens in a pet sitters hands, I just feed them peas and a pellet with occasional scip days. This normally works, and they go right back to the average diet after being fixed up.
All my luck, hope this could help!

 

Hello maddiegrace,
Your mom's betta is very pretty! This may have already been said, but overfeeding can lead to dropsy, constipation, etc. In these cases, it's always good to have kanaplex on hand. I did have a rescue betta in who was severely swollen from constipation. I fixed him up good with some kanaplex and frozen peas (peas work great)!
Your situation is a sign that it's time for a betta diet. As said earlier, frozen and live food should make up around 70% of a betta diet. I feed my bettas a single frozen blood worm in the morning, and two "soggy" high protein pellets before bed. They also get occasional live food such as mosquito larvae and fruit fly larvae (both home grown)!
Whenever one of my bettas ends up constipated, which only happens in a pet sitters hands, I just feed them peas and a pellet with occasional scip days. This normally works, and they go right back to the average diet after being fixed up.
All my luck, hope this could help!

This helps a lot! I really appreciate it. I didn't expect this much help from everyone on this post, but I've certainly got a lot of great advice! Thank you soooo much!