Picky Baby

So a few days ago I brought a baby betta (his name is Atlantic) and I tried feeding him three different kinds of food but he kept spitting them out. I usually give my other adult bettas a small piece of ham as a treat once a week, so I thought id try giving Atlantic some ham. Well long story short he'll only eat ham and nothing else. Since he can't live off ham for the rest of his life, does anyone know how I can get him to eat normal food?

 

How big is the normal food you're giving? Babies need really tiny food, since their mouths are so small. Also, baby bettas have gone through so much stress so much earlier in life that they never really recover and it completely messes up their growth, so he'll be odd for awhile until he can mostly recover from his trauma of shipping, temperature fluctuation, new parameters, etc

 

Don't feed ham and offer food once a day til he takes it. That being said, I still have one fish that only eats earthworms, mealworms, and thawed krill. I didn't starve him over to pellets. Maybe this fish can get from ham to thawed brine shrimp and bloodworms at least. Use garlic like garlicguard to stimulate appetite

 

Ham is perhaps the worst treat I've ever heard of feeding a pet fish. Salt, additives and hard-to-digest animal fat are all a no go for most fish species.

Were the foods you tried before all pellets? Perhaps try flakes as most betta pellets are far to big for baby bettas.

I suggest you try frozen brine shrimp. All my bettas love brine shrimp. Another thing to try is live wingless fruit flies, anything that is small and moves will likely end up as food for a betta.

 

I tried to give him special fry good for tropical fish (its just the right size) but he spits it out. I have brine shrimp eggs I can hatch and try to give him but I do not have frozen brine shrimp