Food training

[Mrw3ss]

so I'm trying to train my little guy to eat fresh fish instead of live foods.

I'm going about this by soaking red worms in seachem garlic, and then throwing in a couple pieces of finely cut shrimp also soaked in garlic. Right now I'm using some tilapia filets that I bought from the store and am storing in my freezer.

He eats the worms, and looks like he's going to eat the fish, but then swims off leaving it behind.

Is this a case where I need to just have patience, try a different technique, or maybe try a different style fish?

 

[wednesday13]

Persistence....and patience are key. It can be hard to break some rays. May even take you a year. But itell all pay off in the end. Best advice i can give is keep trying until you want to give up...then try some more lol... They need to get farmiliar with the new food ur presenting so offering it every day helps. always remove anything uneaten after a cple hrs. Sometimes the size of food can make all the difference. What size is ur ray? if its pup size the pieces of fish u have shown are too large. I use scissors to cut up tilapia into 1/4"x1/8" or smaller pieces for pups. almost shaving it off into tiny bits. ive also cut tilapia into worm like/size strips for a picky w/c ray. Once they know its food and try a bit the size of cut fish doesnt matter as much.
Ive never used or tried garlic before but if ur ray is currently on red worms you need to soak whatever new food ur offering in a bowl of cut up red worms guts/blood and all. let it soak for atleast an hr then try and feed... A good friend of mine dubbed this term "ray soup" lol... fitting for the process. Since ur at it id mix in pellets, finely cut tilapia and finely cut red worms all at once. This is the part that becomes daunting to repeat every day. sometimes multiple times a day. offering ur ray soup, then removing anything uneaten after.
As this process continues, start removing items from the mixture. first the worms after uve soaked everything in it try without. if he doesnt bite repeat with the worms when he starts getting skinny again.
A bit of tough love and starvation come into play also during the process. start with 1 day no food. offer ur soup soaked in worm juice. 2 days no food, 3 days and so on until they finally give in and bite. I wouldnt go longer than 4-5 days to a week depending on how fat they are on the worms to begin with before giving in and fattening them up then starting the process all over again.
Another trick/tip i can offer is during this process offer the new food alone 1st after a day or 2 of starvation. Most the time theyll take to it. If not go back to the ray soup and or worms to re fatten....then repeat. ull usually break before they do lol...hang in there and keep trying. u gotta work for it.

 

[Mrw3ss]

This is him a couple days ago. I've been feeding him quite a bit so hopefully he's ready for the soup diet, ha.

I'll definitely cut everything into smaller bits and I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt to soak the whole bit in some garlic too since that's how he currently finds he worms?

 

[wednesday13]

This is him a couple days ago. I've been feeding him quite a bit so hopefully he's ready for the soup diet, ha.

I'll definitely cut everything into smaller bits and I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt to soak the whole bit in some garlic too since that's how he currently finds he worms?

View attachment 1274083

yup, since ur already using the garlic id say it cant hurt and may speed up the process a bit. In my opinion a rays back should be filled to above their eyes. Should be the highest point on their bodies. He doesn't look too skinny by any means but pack him full of worms 2-3 times a day before you start with the soup diet and or starvation. wee ones/pups like this are harder to keep full as they have a very fast metabolism so they need food once every day at the least. unless ur taking 1- 2 days off to starve after hes been filled to the max lol... when I say feed 2-3 times a day....this can be done every 2-4 hrs. they can only pack themselves so full in one sitting but will keep eating/ packing it in when offered food again a few hrs later. Once hes around 7-8" his back will stay fuller longer and you can get away with once a day or once every other day to digest. They really are still "babies" at this size so some TLC is needed to keep and eye on them and ensure they're staying full with a nice "fat pack". At work right now lol... but ill get u a pic of my smallest pup in house at the moment and a general idea of what they should look like after a big feeding. You might get lucky just cutting up the fish smaller. I recently just went through the same thing with a new pup. he just needed smaller bits to get down.

 

[Just Toby]

Don't feed for 2 days then try a new food, the owner generally gives up before they do.

 

[Mrw3ss]

Great stuff. I'll pack him full of worms and keep trying the small bits of fish at least once a day for the heck of it.

One other question. Is there a possibility that he just doesn't like that perticular fish? Should I get a different type of fish just to be safe and work it into the routine?