want to give my betta some variety in food to avoid constipation, how should I do this?

Question

I went to the pet store today thinking of getting my betta Omega One Beta food they had dried blood worms, and dried brine shrimp. Right now I'm feeding him betta bites (HBH brand) and I thought it would prevent him from constipation and maybe keep him healthy to change his food around.

Is this necessary?

If I do buy the food, which one's better? Bloodworms or brine shrimps?

How should I feed it to him? like 1 pallet of betta bite, 2 bloodworms...or just bloodworms today and pallets tomorrow?

Long question I know...just want the best for my fish~

Thx~

Answer 1

Betta pellets (like your "Betta Bites") are fine to be fed on a regular basis, but you are right that adding variety to his diet is even better.

Personally, I feed all my bettas a combination of pellets (2 pellets twice a day), and once every few days I replace a meal with one freezedried bloodworm.

The thing you have to keep in mind with bloodworms is that they are like candy for bettas. They don't contain the balanced nutrition that the pellets provide. Feed bloodworms sparingly as treats, as they are also notorious for CAUSING constipation.

Your best bet for preventing constipation is to fast (don't feed) your fish for 24 hours every week or so. This ensures that the food in his system is making its way through.

Answer 2

I don't recommend pellets for bettas at all. When I worked in a retail pet store, they fed the bettas nothing but pellets. There were many that died from bloat/constipation. I believe the pellets are sometimes too hard and don't soften up enough before getting to the intestines and causing a blockage. Just my opinion, though.

I feed mine a high protein red flake by Tetra called BettaMin. It is 48% protein and easily digestible. They also get frozen adult brine shrimp and blood worms on different days twice a week. None has ever had a digestive problem.

Answer 3

Good going and good thinking, bettas do need a varied diet to do their best. Personally, I prefer frozen foods to freeze dried so if those are available I would suggest you go with frozen. (Live is EVEN better and with spring around the corner it's easy to feed mosquito larvae, but that's another story)

I would suggest you do this: Get 2,3,4 whatever number they have of good frozen foods for your betta. bloodworms, daphnia, brine shrimp, mosquito larvae all are good. Feed him pellets in the morning and then in the evening feed him a small pinch of one of these various frozen foods. Only what he will eat in 3-4 minutes and remove any left overs. Mix up the offerings from one day to the next. This will give him excellent nutrition and no worries at all about constipation.

MM

Answer 4

just feed him different foods