Feeding and Nutrition :: Lettuce

[Lauriebeth83]

I feed my RES lettuce daily. This may be a stupid question but i was just curious as to how long i should leave the lettuce floating in his tank because he almost never eats the whole piece.

[industrial_girl_2000]

I would take it out at the end of the day (leave in there for 8 hours).

[Lauriebeth83]

Thanks industrialgirl.

[missibsu]

I used to leave mine in over night and replace it in the morning when I did my feeding. And, believe me when I say it won't take too long before the whole leaf is eaten!

[Lauriebeth83]

I hope so. I offer it everyday and he does eat some but not even half of what i give him.

[adam85491]

I put it in and it is gone in an hour..guess I just don't have to worry about that

[RunninWideOpen]

Ha, I put 2 pieces in as big as their shells each day and both pieces are gone in 10 minutes. My girls are part pig.

[marisa]

What kind of lettuce are you feeding? Sometimes it's good to vary the type (but never iceberg).

[Lauriebeth83]

I've tried both green and red leaf lettuce. Next time i will try romaine. I just started trying the green leaf lettuce but he seemed to like the red more. It was almost like he was just eating the red and purple pieces and leaving the green. I think i read somewhere on here that someone else had the same issue with her turt but i'm not sure. Anyway, yes i am varying the types of lettuce. He also gets carrots, which he loves, occasionally slices of banana.Ithink that's his favorite above everything else i've tried but i can't really give that to him all the time so its just a really great treat for him but he does get super excited as soon as he sees it in my hand. I've triedsmall pieces of apple but he's not at all interested in that. He also loves chicken and tuna but again that's only a treat. I've tried numerous veggies but he doesn't show much interest. I do try to keep his diet as varied as i possibly can though. I just keep offering the veggies hoping one day he's gonna eat them.

[marisa]

My turtles are pretty much the same, they like red-leaf as opposed to the green, and although they will eat the whole leaf, it's the red parts that they attack first. The red color is an attraction for a lot of turtles.

A small slice of banana is OK very occasionally, and turtles usually really like it, but it's not good on a regular basis---high phosphorus content, if I remember correctly.

Keep offering those veggies.

[Lauriebeth83]

I will keep offering the veggies no matter how many times he just turn his nose up. Hopefully one day he'll stop being so picky. And the banana is very occasional. Probably only once a month or so. I was giving it to him more often because in the book i bought when i got Duckie it said i could give them to him but didn't say how often but then i found this site and i have slowed down on how much i give him. He does love them though.

[urbancleopatra]

I just put mine on one of those little clips and leave the room to come back in a blink of an eye to see that little stem bit sticking out. my turtles are half bottomless pit.