Feeding and Nutrition

I threw in a half a leaf of romaine, and my male turtle figured out how to grab it in his lengthy front claws to hold it and he ate the whole thing. The female is ignoring it entirely - but at least she loves carrots (we'll keep trying the lettuce of course).

Yay! fantastic.

She's not too into the lettuce, so far, even with a smaller piece. The male, on the other hand, can't get enough. Not sure what to do about that.

You can sprinkle some krill on it or dip it in tuna water to entice her but either way I'm sure she will come around.

I think she did eat about a 2" square piece and left the other (same sized piece) which is now stuck to the filter's intake nozzle... so I guess it's a start. She can't get enough carrots though and I'm not sure if I should err on giving her more and more or is there some 'daily limit' to go by...

Just with hold some of her pellets and she'll eat the romaine. I just throw a leaf in. I take off the bottom. After they finish the lettuce this week, pick up a different kind next week. My turtles favorite is red leaf lettuce. He also gets green leaf lettuce, romaine and dandelion leaves I pick from the yard. I pick up a different lettuce every week. He loves his veggies. His goldfish eat the lettuce right along side of him.

Oh I forgot, no limit for veggies. They can eat as much as they want. Just watch their stools. If they start getting to watery, limit veggies.

OK. I got it. That's funny about goldfish. My 9" female will eat a dozen fish in about 10 minutes :-)

I'm not sure if they're 'goldfish' per se - are yours specifically goldfish? Are they large in that they are too large for the turtle to eat? I'm afraid to put any fish in the tank that are 'nice' because she WILL try to eat them - and even getting a 'nibble' is enough to kill almost any fish. I wanted to put a big algae eater in there - but I'm pretty sure she'll kill it - am I wrong? My smaller male tends to eat fish more slowly. Six feeder fish will last him like a week or so. I'm not sure why but he's not quite as voracious as the larger female (they're about the same age). I really wish I could put fish in there - their tanks are so bare and boring.

I have the Manzanita wood I want to put back in. I was wondering if I could put in these giant sea shells I have had since we took a trip to the carribean years ago to a small island called Jost Van Dyke. But I'm afraid of what these shells might do to the water in terms of what they give off in terms of minerals and other substances that I'm not knowledgable about. After all, they were from a saltwater environment so they might have some impact on freshwater.... I guess I should post that question in the habitat section????

The clips are helpful when they're reluctant to eat it. I also usually remove the stem from red leaf/green leaf, but I'm not sure if others do the same.

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

This gives you info about how often of what to feed. I think carrots are in the moderate/limited section.

excellent! I will read this in the morning and print it out to keep with the important papers while I learn. Thank you!

Funny my turtle has two goldfish with him he's never eaten. (goldfish are supposed to be bad for them anyway, too fatty.) The goldfish have gotten huge. I put three platies in there from my platie tank and he ate all three within an hour. I guess he doesn't like goldfish sushi. Keeping turtles can be fun. Glad you're back to the fun part of it.

I guess that 'goldfish' then are are specific fish, and the feeder fish they sell to feed to animals like turtles are certainly NOT goldfish - because my turtles can eat endless amounts of them and no sickness... (yes, I know they should actually be limited as a food because even the vet told me that this age turtle is mostly vegetarian and doesn't need that much animal protein - so she said maybe once a month at most to give them 6-12 feeder fish. The 9" female does gobble them up in minutes though! The 7" male could take two weeks to eat the same amount. Go figure. She's still not eating lettuce very much yet - but it's only been a day or two.

She'll eat it when she gets hungry. Most feeder fish are goldfish. You should try for a store that has rosie reds. They are red minnows. Or just get a couple of guppies or platies. They give birth to live fish, so if your turtle doesn't eat them they could liven up the tank. My goldfish are comets. The first I bought as a 10 cent feeder fish. He tried but she was to fast. Now they coexist. Until she makes a mistake. My second is a carnival fish. My nephew won him and his mom wouldn't let him take him home. So he lives at my house. Boy i hope my turtle doesn't eat him.

I give Rosy Red Minnows to my turtles once a month as a treat. I get them from petsmart, they are like 10 cents each or something ridiculously cheap like that. I'm sure you can call your local petsmarts and see if they carry them.

Goldfish are NOT recommended. http://www.redearslider.com/prey.html

Feeding and Nutrition :: Cuttle Bone: How on earth do I portion it out???????

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