Feeding and Nutrition :: Growth Rate

[parker]

Hi All, I have read through many, many Turtle Talk posts (the best!), and followed nutrition advice and guidelines for my "little" turtle from day one, however Bean (ironic sci-fi character name) continues to grow exponentially. She's almost 1 year old. She has some pyramiding from early feeding months when she got a label's recommendation of pellets each day, but over the past few months she's grown...pudgy. I reduced her pellet intake (one head-full per day) by about half, and continue to offer veggies (from your list). Sometimes she'll eat a few carrot shreds, but for the most part she shoves everything else into the corners of her tank and only eats the Wardley. I've cut it down to just a few pellets per day but it doesn't seem to help. I'm concerned that she's too big for her bad self! Is there anything else (I've lowered the tank temp to about seventy-eight degrees) that might be causing her big-time bulge? I love my little Bean, no matter what her size, but I want her to be healthy. Thank You!!!

[sonyj]

If she is around a year old, cut the pellets back to every other day with veggies on the days you do not feed pellets. Also drop the water temp down to between 72-75F. Both overfeeding and higher water temps can cause fast growth.

Besides these two things, I'm not really sure what else can be done to help even her growth out. It will take some time to see the results but stick with it.

[parker]

Great advice! Thank you! I'll stick with your routine and finally post some pix of my gentle giant!

[DanielRES1180]

You could use some tough love here. Feed nothing but veggies for what length of time it takes for him to recognize the veggies as food, no Wardley for the entire time. Use tips mentioned in Turtle stuck on pellets..... With this turtle it only took two days for him to make veggies part of his diet.

Sonyj is right, you should cut back on pellets at this time, to once every two days with veggies every day.

This just got me thinking, with my recent vacation, the guy watching over my turts was overfeeding them for half the time I wasn't there. Two days before the end of my trip, the A/C broke down. Maybe a combo of overfeeding with skyrocketing water temps over 90 (yeah, it got that bad) made everyone grow about 1/2 an inch.

[parker]

I think little Greedy McPiggerton just threw me a dirty look. She immediately moved her veggies to the corner of the tank and resumed her post, watching my every move for begging ops. Oh my, with this heat wave we'll be in trouble if the a/c goes out! Yikes!