# Food Stuck in Female's Mouth :(



## watertiger21 (Apr 15, 2013)

My female betta has a piece of food stuck in her mouth. She's tried to swallow it and she's tried to spit it out, but it's stuck in her jaw and she can't dislodge it. What do I do? 

How do I get her to hold still so that I can attempt to remove the food?


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

What kind of food is it? if it is a pellet, it should become water soaked and soft enough for her to swallow or spit out. If it is a freeze dried bloodworm then that might have a hard part that won't get soft.


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## watertiger21 (Apr 15, 2013)

It's a pellet. I'm just super worried about how long it'll take before she starts having problems breathing. One thing's for sure, for now on I will _always_ crush the food first!

I guess I'll just keep checking on her, and if there's no improvement in awhile, this is my plan: I have a super shallow bowl with a tiny bit of tank water in it to put her in, so she'll be lying on her side but still in water. Then I'll use fine-tipped tweezers to try and break up the pellet a bit.


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

My girl is pretty small, and I always soak her pellets In a couple of drops of tank water before feeding them to her. Your betta will probably be okay.

Also, I have noticed that if I look into my bettas mouth, it is pellet colored, but she doesn't have a pellet stuck there.


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## watertiger21 (Apr 15, 2013)

There was definitely a pellet stuck in her mouth, but I've been watching her and she just swallowed it. I am soooo relieved!!!

Goldberry is my favorite betta (shhhhh, don't tell the others) so I was probably over reacting a bit. Thank you for talking me through the process and for your help! :thumbsup:


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

Sure, no problem, I'm glad I could be reassuring!


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## Kumo (Oct 26, 2013)

You might want to move away from pellets and try different foods to avoid this again. All of the bettas I've ever owned (I've owned 5), hated pellets with a passion :/ All my fish go NUTS for tubifex worms though.


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

I don't agree, pellets are the best food for bettas, nutritionally balanced and not messy like flakes are.


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## UpNorthChickadee (Aug 20, 2014)

That happened to my boy last week. I was really worried too, and he finally swallowed it.


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## spaceyJC (Aug 9, 2014)

I had a similar experience except it seemed like my betta was choking on his pellet. I've been crushing his food ever since.


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## VivianKJean (Aug 20, 2013)

I agree that pellets are the best choice of food. You can feed frozen foods as treats occasionally. 

Every once in a while my female will have trouble swallowing pellets, nothing to worry about usually.


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

I ended up buying very small pellets for my smaller OHMPK and my neons. 

http://www.amazon.com/NLS-THERA-05M...d=1409465807&sr=8-2&keywords=nls+thera+A+.5mm
That's generally what I feed them


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