Feeding and Nutrition :: Am I feeding my turtles ok?

[nariangel]

My 2 turtles are 3.5 inches and every morning they eat 3 regular size reptomin pellets with 2-3 red leaf lettuces on veggie clip. For dinner they eat more veggies or carrots. Am I feeding too little? Also when they poop its pretty much a solid piece but they like to smash the poop and pieces of lettuce from the poop float to the top. I have to constantly scoop up the floating brown poop lettuce. Are they eating too much veggies?

[kerby]

A good rule of thumb is only feed them what would fit inside there head once a day. I would just cut back the feeding to once a day.

[steve]

How are their growth rates? I would imagine a little more pellets wouldn't hurt.

[nariangel]

Hmm I havent really charted their growth rate. Ive had them for 7 months since they were a lil bigger than a quarter and now they are 3.5 inches. I will chart their growth from now on. Thanks Steve and Kerby

[steve]

What are else are they eating?

[nariangel]

I over fed them the first 3 months on pellets and shrimps. Thats probably why they grew fast. Now they just eat the 3 pellets every morning with red leaf lettuce and for dinner more veggies. Thats what they eat every day. I guess they arent starving because they live peacefully with 10 tiger barbs who love to nip at the turtles all the time.

[Brokensky]

I need help!

I have two red eared slider turtles which they just turned one year old yesterday. Mertyle is approx: 4-6 inches width and Koopa is about 4-4.5 inches width. Anyways, the water temperature always remains between 80 F to 81.5 F. We have two cork basking spots which the temperature on both is at 90 F. Everyday, both of the turtles received a serving of pellets twice a day; Nutrafin Max, Tetra Repto Min and Zoo Med Repti sticks (I give them different brand everyday). Once every two-3rd week, they get about a dozen of live minnows. I also give them veggies: carrots, red romaine lettuce, zucchinis at least twice a week and mealworms once a week. I was wondering if I should change their diets? am I doing ok? I am trying to provide them with a more variety diet but I don't know if I should change it immediately or would that cause harm to them? Pleas help!

[ljapa]

You are probably feeding them too much. By the time a turtle hits 4 inches, it's not really a juvenile any more.

In the wild, the diet of a young turtle is mostly protein from tadpoles, crayfish, snails, etc... There have been scientific studies which show that as a RES ages it becomes more and more vegetarian--to the point where a very old turtle may get less than 10% of it's diet from animal sources.

When a turtle is young, less than 4 inches, the recommendation here is enough pellets to fill its head once a day, with the gradual introduction of more vegetable matter. By the time it hits 4 inches, the recommendation is vegetables every day and pellets every other day or even less.

The nutritional section of the main site has lots more information:

http://www.redearslider.com/nutritional_content.html

In particular, look at the sections on pellets and fresh plants. The Pyramiding section of

http://www.redearslider.com/shell_conditions.html

talks about some of the dangers of overfeeding.

Can you post pictures of your turtles?

[steve]

I agree, you're feeding too much. You can also bring down the water temperature a little.