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Hi, Mum,
My wife and I go to the store once a week and there we also but a big haed or two of Romain Lettuce. My wife breaks the leaves off one head, strips the green part away from the stems and rinses and spin drys the leaves in a spinner that she has and puts them in a Zip-lock Baggie. I went in the frige to get my Romain but instead grabbed an identical baggie that had fresh Spinach leaves. I wondered about the difference as I was twisting the leaves into smaller pieces but really paid no attention. I came upstairs with the baggie in my hand and Marilyn says," Did you want to feed your turtles Spinach, because I was going to use that in a salad". I swapped bags and hustled back down stairs and there were my turts, happily munching on those Spinach leaves. I was horrified and began netting all of it out of the pond. I remembered that Spinach has oxalic acid and won't let the turts metabolize calcium. Whew! That was a close one. My turts are in their outdoor pond getting some real rays now and there is a supply of cuttlefish bone floating in the water,daily. I wonder what the Japanese Black Trapdoor Snails will do when they come upon a sunken chunk of bone. If it has junk on it, they'll just clean it off, I'm thinking but they won't eat it. George

This link and your other one are very helpful, thank you very much.

On a side note, where is Romulus at?

Mike

Old Turtle, Mine love spinach too, and I have fed it as a mistake also. I didn't acclimatize my turtles and I don't have an in ground out door pond so I have to wait just a bit to get mine out in their swimming pool

Therizman1, Romulus, MI is near Detroit. In fact, it is the same City that Detroit Metropolitian Airport is located in. (I live about 8 miles below the airport though)

I have read that while Spinach is not something to give your greeny all the time, it can be given in small amounts to help add variety to their diets. I would just be very stingy with the amounts given to them.

I have read something similar. The problem is when a turtle really likes it, and the keeper keeps feeding the spinach because h/she knows it's something the turtle will eat. (It's easier to do that than introduce a new food and patiently wait for a turtle to accept it.) For me, it's just safer to suggest that spinach not be given.

If a turtle has a balanced diet, some of the less desirable foods can be tolerated. The problem is getting that balance (and knowing when to supplement a little more of one food when necessary).

I totally agree with you. If unsure about any plant, including spinach, and how much to give or how often, it's best to just stick with the foods that are known to be beneficial and safe for your greeny. Since I have 8 of them, I usually drop about 2 spinach leafs in once or twice every two weeks. Heck, I've only had them a little over two weeks so far, but that is my plan. I drop the spinach in with romaine, cabbage and carrots and let them decide which they want. However, if I do notice that they start taking to spinach more than the other stuff, I will remove that or reduce the amount given to them even more.

I gave my turts spinach once, before I heard it's not good if they eat a lot of it. I have not given since then. Why give them something that is potentially bad for them when there is so many other veggies they will eat that will be better for them

I didn't mean to imply that such foods should be given on a regular basis. I've never given my turtle spinach and don't ever plan to. But I know that if he were to eat a little once in a great while it wouldn't hurt him, as long as he was eating an otherwise healthy diet (and I think I'd compensate by giving him another food that had a high calcium content). And I agree with you that in the case of leafy greens, there are enough better ones to choose from so that spinach needn't be an issue.

There's positive and negative in many foods. A case in point--carrots are generally recommended for turtles, and they are healthy. They're a good source of beta carotene, which can be converted by a turtle into Vitamin A without the worry of a turtle getting too much (Vitamin A supplements can be toxic if overdone.) But if you look at the calcium/phosphorus ratio at www.chelonia.org/Articles/nutrientanalysis.htm , you'll see that it's not good and the oxalic acid content is somewhat high (I was really surprised the first time I read the info). My turtle gets carrot shavings about once a week. The beta carotene content outweighs any drawback they might otherwise have. Besides, my turtle likes them.

The key for me is when you said "it's not good if they eat a lot of it." A lot of one food to the exclusion of others is bad, feeding something too often is bad. You want a balanced diet.

I have read somewhere that spinach along with certain other veggies will mess with their calcium, it binds to the calcium and the turtle can't use it, not sure about the specifics but I will look for it.

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Update: Here is a link that talks about some toxic and some potentially harmful plants and veggies:

Examples of plants with nonlethal but nonetheless potentially harmful chemicals include bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and soy, which contain goitrogenic compounds. These chemicals bind iodine, preventing its uptake, thus leading to impairment of thyroid gland function, which in turn leads to a host of metabolic problems. Spinach, parsley, carrots, and chards contain calcium oxalate, which interferes with calcium uptake; when fed as a significant portion of the overall diet, they cause the mineralization (hardening, crystallization) of organs and muscle tissue and can bind enough calcium to cause a form of metabolic bone disease.

From: http://www.anapsid.org/resources/plants ... teractions

I hope that clears some questions out

Yes, when fed "as a significant portion of the overall diet," it certainly will negatively affect their health.