Possibly Egg Bound or Constipated

Our neighbors with a male watched our female, Hope, for a week about a month ago. They put the two bowls side by side. A day or two before we picked her up his bowl broke and he was dropped in Hope's bowl. He was fine when he was put in her bowl but I believe she chewed him up a bit before he got a new bowl.

She has a 5 L (1.5 G) bowl and I do 100% changes weekly at the most every two weeks. It also has snails and a floating plant to keep a better water balance. I use aquarium salt, betta water conditioner and age the water a couple of days

I believe our neighbors fed Hope the same as their male 4 pellets 2x per day. I feed Hikari Betta Gold. She was a rescue from a closing store, likely a year or older when purchased and we have had her over a year. She is my first female. I had to leave 3 males behind when I moved to Australia. From the time I got her it amazed me how much she eats compared to my males and she has a larger body then any of my males. Prior to leaving her with the neighbors she would eat about 12 pellets or more 2x per day. She would take 3-4 pellets in one bite on a daily basis for the last year and consume all her pellets in under a minute. She has been feeding like this for over a year without issue - our little piggy. When we first got her back from the neighbors, it did seem as though she was eating less and a couple of days ago she quit eating. Her belly enlarged about two weeks ago and it looks like there may be an egg halfway out, round and white where her white spot used to be. I have removed her to her change/hospital bowl to see if she is producing any feces and she is not. We still try giving her food but there is no interest. She does not have any raised scales indicating dropsy. I have made a 1:100 dilution of Melafix and dosed her at 1/2 dose yesterday. Seems to have perked her up a bit.

I read that with egg binding putting her within clear view of male can help or adding a mirror?? I put a mirror next to her and she gill flared for a straight 15 minutes. Took it away thinking she didn't need the stress

How long can she go without eating food to get the eggs to reabsorb if that is the problem? Should I try epsom slat solution to ease or rule out constipation and how do I do that? I tried feeding her cooked pea, she wouldn't take it, after further reading maybe good she didn't.

Appreciate any suggestions or insight.

Sounds like your feeding her way to much. Is she acting like she can't balance and floating to the top? If it is from over eating fast her for about 4-5 days. No food at all. Then try the pea thing with frozen peas that have been thawed and cooked and squeezed out of the shell and crushed up. That being said on the other hand if she is egg bound sometimes they will exspell the eggs themselves or reabsorb them. Melafix won't do anything for either one of these conditions so you can stop giving it to her. Also I never use it because it can be very toxic to Bettas.

Took a month ( not 3-4 days as some other posts I read) but she finally absorbed the eggs, expelled what was left and ate what she expelled. Not eating the whole time.  Then it was another week before she was back to eating after she expelled.  Tough little fish.  Thanks for your help.

I'm glad she's okay. Sounds like she is a tough girl! :)

Good to hear.