Feeding and Nutrition :: My RES only eats pellets

[k9ck024]

I tried many different variety of foods (romaine lettuce, strawberry, banana, carrot etc) but my RES only eats pellets. Any suggestion what I should do for it to eat other foods?

Also how many times a day should I feel my RES? One or two?

[TheComputerGremlin]

Just keep on trying! If your RES is less than 6", they will be primarily carnivorous and not interested in plant material. Around 3" is a good time to start introducing them to veggies and seeing if they want any. I was fortunate and my RES started eating her veggies around 3-3.5", so I didn't need to try any of the tough love approaches. Here are my suggestions:

Try a variety of foods. Basically, if you get it in the house for people, throw a bit in the tank to see what your turtle likes and doesn't like. Each turtle is different! And once you do find your turtle eating a veggie, start the process over. Sometimes it just takes one veggies before they are hooked.

I would start with greens. Try out several different greens as each tastes different. Romaine, green leaf, red leaf, dandelion, and basil are good starts. My turtle was initially given romaine lettuce out of those premixed salad things, and she wouldn't eat any of it. It wasn't until my husband and I switched to making our own salads and buying whole heads of romaine that I discovered that she prefers the DARKER greens! Her favorite lettuce is red leaf, though we don't eat that as much. She is happy with green leaf, and will settle for romaine (still the darker parts, won't touch the ribs or lighter stuff), dandelion, or basil.

As for veggies, try the "worm" sliver approach. Peel a carrot, apple, or mango and let the peels float on the top of the surface. It looks like a worm and turtles like worms. As for other fruits and veggies, try giving smaller pieces, like strawberry or grape slices (grapes peeled first!). Don't start out with whole pieces.

Now, if your turtle is approaching the 6+" range, you can try the tough love method. This means feed NO PELLETS and only veggies/fruit for up to a week. No matter how much begging occurs, just give veggies. Replace the veggies every few hours for freshness. If after a week no veggies have been eaten, give a serving of pellets and then go another week. That way, you aren't technically starving your turtle to death, but you are making them uncomfortably hungry. They should cave eventually.

If that doesn't work, try the turtle jello shots (see sticky).

_________________________
Second question, how often should you feed?

<4" - "head-sized" amount daily, you can break it into 1-3 servings, but if you are doing multiple services, set aside the daily amount at the first feeding so you don't overfeed.
>4" - "head-sized" amount every other day, also can be broken into multiple servings.

To give you an idea, my 6.5" RES gets ~8 pellets daily.

[Outlander]

My turtle for the longest time would only eat pellets or pellet-shaped foods. What I did was blend together high calcium cat food (prescribed by my turtle's vet) and a bunch of finely chopped veggies. I put the mix into a plastic baggie and froze it, and would cut off small chunks to feed him. Sometimes I would also cut up bits of zucchini or cucumber into pellet-sized blocks and he would eat those too. Just last week I started introducing actual leafs of lettuce and he's been eating them like crazy!

[k9ck024]

Just keep on trying! If your RES is less than 6", they will be primarily carnivorous and not interested in plant material. Around 3" is a good time to start introducing them to veggies and seeing if they want any. I was fortunate and my RES started eating her veggies around 3-3.5", so I didn't need to try any of the tough love approaches. Here are my suggestions:

Try a variety of foods. Basically, if you get it in the house for people, throw a bit in the tank to see what your turtle likes and doesn't like. Each turtle is different! And once you do find your turtle eating a veggie, start the process over. Sometimes it just takes one veggies before they are hooked.

I would start with greens. Try out several different greens as each tastes different. Romaine, green leaf, red leaf, dandelion, and basil are good starts. My turtle was initially given romaine lettuce out of those premixed salad things, and she wouldn't eat any of it. It wasn't until my husband and I switched to making our own salads and buying whole heads of romaine that I discovered that she prefers the DARKER greens! Her favorite lettuce is red leaf, though we don't eat that as much. She is happy with green leaf, and will settle for romaine (still the darker parts, won't touch the ribs or lighter stuff), dandelion, or basil.

As for veggies, try the "worm" sliver approach. Peel a carrot, apple, or mango and let the peels float on the top of the surface. It looks like a worm and turtles like worms. As for other fruits and veggies, try giving smaller pieces, like strawberry or grape slices (grapes peeled first!). Don't start out with whole pieces.

Now, if your turtle is approaching the 6+" range, you can try the tough love method. This means feed NO PELLETS and only veggies/fruit for up to a week. No matter how much begging occurs, just give veggies. Replace the veggies every few hours for freshness. If after a week no veggies have been eaten, give a serving of pellets and then go another week. That way, you aren't technically starving your turtle to death, but you are making them uncomfortably hungry. They should cave eventually.

If that doesn't work, try the turtle jello shots (see sticky).

_________________________
Second question, how often should you feed?

<4" - "head-sized" amount daily, you can break it into 1-3 servings, but if you are doing multiple services, set aside the daily amount at the first feeding so you don't overfeed.
>4" - "head-sized" amount every other day, also can be broken into multiple servings.

To give you an idea, my 6.5" RES gets ~8 pellets daily.

Couple months ago my RES would eat strawberry, banana, grapes and carrots but lately its not interested.

I didn't feed it whole pieces but I cut the strawberry in half, banana size of pinky, whole grapes and carrots tip of the pinky and its still not interested.

How big are your pellets? It seems 8 pellets isn't enough.

[k9ck024]

My turtle for the longest time would only eat pellets or pellet-shaped foods. What I did was blend together high calcium cat food (prescribed by my turtle's vet) and a bunch of finely chopped veggies. I put the mix into a plastic baggie and froze it, and would cut off small chunks to feed him. Sometimes I would also cut up bits of zucchini or cucumber into pellet-sized blocks and he would eat those too. Just last week I started introducing actual leafs of lettuce and he's been eating them like crazy!

Sounds good idea. I think I should make the pellets into powder and put in veggies and other foods. But when you freeze the pellets it will turn to ice and hard for the RES to eat it

[Outlander]

Yeah its ice, it melts pretty fast once it hits the water though, and Mr Pink doesn't even seem to care that its ice he swallows it whole!

[k9ck024]

Yeah its ice, it melts pretty fast once it hits the water though, and Mr Pink doesn't even seem to care that its ice he swallows it whole!

It will be difficult for your turtle to swallow it since its ice

[Outlander]

He's been doing it for a year, never had a problem yet.

[TheComputerGremlin]

How big are your pellets? It seems 8 pellets isn't enough.

Standard Reptomin or HBH Turtle Bites. Remember, their bellies are very tiny ... I don't want any pyramiding. I promise, she won't starve to death.

We get a lot of criticism for how little we feed our animals, but we used to free-feed our cats and they got pretty fat, and it's taken over a year to drop 1-2 pounds from them. So now between our 2 cats, they get 3/4 cup of dry food and 1/2 can of canned food. And our dog gets 2 cups of dry food and a cup of home-made wet food each day. We are trying to do right by the dog and not have to do weight loss, just weight management!

[Farshad.roger]

I bought Sera Pellets (raffy Mineral) they really like it and its full of everything
give it as the same size as the HEAD of ur turtle u can give it 1-2 morning 1-2 afternoon or night should be ok but try to give them live fishes and as Thecomputergrenlins said( whats ur name so i wont say this long name again) ...
try to make them fridnly with veggies

[bigG]

My two RES love anacharis and like romaine lettuce or spinach.

[marisa]

It would be good not to feed spinach on a regular basis---it's high in oxalic acid, which inhibits calcium absorption. Also try red-leaf lettuce and dandelion greens.