Cuttlefish: train to eat frozen food

[mwexler501]

I've heard talk of 'training' a cuttle to each frozen (thawed) food. How is this accomplished?

 

[Besty]

Last time i kept a cuttle was 20 years ago,,and living a 2 hour drive away from the coast i was unable to collect much live food, so frozen (thawed ) it had to be. I started off with dancing about a thawed out prawn on a piece of very fine fishing line, tied on very losely. I think perhaps hunger got the better of him after all the live food had gone, but it didnt take long for him to learn that even though it may not have looked as natural, it was still as edible. Three or four days after first dancing prawns about, he was feeding from my hand. Hope it works for others. Tim

 

[Colin]

well, depending on species its trial and error... after a certain size of about 2" or so, Sepia officinalis starts to experiment with different foods... you can try offering food on a string/stick and wiggling it like live food.

Generally, they want to see it move before they strike, but i never have had a problem convincing them

 

[joel_ang]

If I'm not wrong cuttlefish eyes are sensitive to movement so moving around frozen food helps. You can drop food into the tank then use a stick to move it about after that. They don't take long to accept frosen food. If you want to feed live food, you can buy saltwater guppies from octopets.

 

[jon_bondy]

training cuttles to eat frozen food

Jim at OctoPets made a great suggestion to me: you have to start out by actually gently pressing the food right up to the tentacles of the cuttle (being careful not to scare it!). It is only after they taste the food, and realize what it is, that they begin to eat it. All three of mine eat readily now, grabbing the food off of the end of a plastic feeding rod.



Jon