Feeding and Nutrition :: Flies

[tarasee]

Also, on this topic I was wondering if any of you people had a turtle with a weird staring habit. Whenever my turtle wants food he stares at me. He stops whatever he is doing and stares at me.

I'm happy my turtle is a great starer but its starting to creep me out a bit and I was wondering if this staring habit is natural to RES.

[theartbook35]

Turtles like to stare, for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes they stare at each other, like the way cats do, or they will stare at the bringer of the food. I see mine sometimes staring at inanimate objects, too.

[marisa]

Actually, years ago, when hatchling RES were being sold legally (before they were banned for sale in the 70's), one of the things they were sold with was food, which consisted of a container of dried flies. A very poor diet, to be sure. The combination of that very poor diet, the enclosures they were kept in (now called death bowls) and a total lack of UVB rays caused the early demise of countless RES hatchlings.

A few years ago I was surprised to see that Wardley's was actually selling dried flies (whether they were fortified, I don't know). There is also something called Raffi that contains them in the mix (I think).

tarasee, if you're catching flies and feeding them to your turtle, I'd stop. You don't know where they've been and nutritionally they're not worth it. If you've bought them commercially (Wardley's, for example), I'd give a few only occasionally, and concentrate on feeding healthier items; when the container is empty, I wouldn't buy them again. If a fly or two happens to fall in the tank and your turtle eats it/them, it's not going to hurt (unless perhaps you've been using some kind of insecticide to get rid of them, in which case I'd net them out of the tank if you see any in it).

I agree with untsmurf about the habitat---not only can one make a habitat as natural "as possible," one should try to do so (easier with larger enclosures).

And I'm also curious about the research that's the basis for the comment about longevity. I will say that the majority of what I've read tends to give longer life spans to turtles in captivity (some other creatures as well), but I've also seen some turtles in the wild that are obviously older than 10 years and are doing just fine.

[turtletex]

I fed my softshell a rollie pollie the other day. He wanted a second one but i couldnt find one at the time. Just introduced the turt clan to earth worms. They love them, as do the goldfish!!

[nickyds23]

One time a big moth fell in the turtle tank and they ate that poor moth right up.