Feeding and Nutrition :: He wont stop eating.....

[Raph]

This turtle walked into our lives. Looked out side one morning and saw a rock comming to the door. at the time he was 4 inches in diameter.

we started to care for him. 300.00 later with a canister filtration system adn a 55 gal take 3 docks that he has eaten and more.

the last week he wont stop eating. Usally we would put 20 feeder fish in his tank and it would last 2-3 weeks two carrots each morning and some pellets.

this last week he slaughtered all his fish in one night and he ate a half of a cucumer and two carrots and his pellets.

Vet told us that to continue the pellets and the carrots and lettuce but it is crazy

he ate his tube to the bubbler and tried to eat his new dock that is made from ceramic cause he ate the other one.

do we continue to give him the 20 fish each week and if he runs out he runs out or do we cut him off.

he is too the point of digging through the rocks at the bottom of the tank looking for pellets that have fallen there.

[cam722]

I'd not give him all that fish.. too much protein isn't good for their organs and can cause shell problems also. I'd go with what the vet said and continue his pellets and the veggies. Fish should only be a treat not a staple of their diet.

On the digging in the rocks, I think all turtles do this. Turtles are opportunistic eaters, if there's food they eat. They'll continue eating until they vomit even. So it's up to us to monitor their food intake and sometimes it takes some rather tough love to do it, especially when they come over and start begging

How long have you had your turtle and what is his size now?

[Raph]

We have had him for 8 months. when we got him he was 4 inches across his shell now he is 8 inches. What would make him change from letting the fish last upto 3 weeks to only being one day. Because up to this he was letting them live and the vet had told us to put the 20 fish in there and let him feed himself so he would not over eat.

How do you tell if they are male or female?

[cbk]

he ate his tube to the bubbler and tried to eat his new dock that is made from ceramic cause he ate the other one

ummm......wow.

[missibsu]

That is a lot of growth for such a short span of time. Usually the recommended growth for one year is an inch...after the first year of life. Seeing as how he was already 4 inches, my guess is that he is over a year. However, if he has grown that much, maybe not. That is still too much growth in my opinion. What is the water temp in your tank? I know that a cooler tank will sometimes cause a turt to stop eating, so I was wondering if maybe the temp was too high if the turt might want to eat more. Just a theory.

I can't believe he ate the bubble tube! It's hilarious, but not.

How big are the rocks that he is digging in? If they are small enough that he can eat, they should be removed. Especially since your turt seems to have a knack for eating things. Gravel can become impacted and cause it's own set of problems.

[Raph]

no the rocks are not big enough to eat. They are the size you would find in a water fountain in the house. The tank is set to 74-75 degrees. Vet said the growth was from the blood worms the boys were feeding him. They were giving him one a day. then we switched to the feeders. first goldfish then guppys. He grew soo fast the wirst two months he could not fit in his shell. His fat but was hanging out. We also have a problem when we take him out of the tank the cat will lay and watch him. He will chase after the cat. Funny but what if he gets a hold of the cat. he always chases the cat with an open mouth. Who said turtles were slow never saw this guy.

[missibsu]

Goldfish could have also been a contributing factor in the growth. They are extremely fatty.

As for the cat...The turt shouldn't be wandering around the house unsupervised, so it shouldn't be an issue of the turt catching the cat. I know that my cats are curious, but scared of my turts. As long as there is good supervision though, letting them wander isn't a problem.

[cam722]

As I said previously, too much protien can cause health issues, one of them is growing too fast which causes problems with the internal organs. There are many posts regarding overfeeding and protien..

Ideally, they should only grow an inch a year, although the first 3 years they grow a bit more. I too overfed my turtles protien the first year and they were nearly 4 inches at a year, but since I've followed the guidelines others have recommended, their growth has slowed down tremendously.

When you measure are you measuring the SCL (Straight Carapace Length) Top of the shell to the bottom minus the curve? That may make a difference in your measurement. Either way, at that size, your turtle should only be eating pellets every other day with that being the amount that would fit in it's head of it were hollow (minus the neck) and with veggies every day. As a turtle gets older, they are more herbivores so you may want to try this.

Do you know what sex your turtle is? Also, goldfish aren't the best choice of feeder fish. They are fattier and tend to carry more parasies. Most use rosey red minnows or feeder guppies.

[steve]

That is a serious case of overfeeding. I'd skip the fish, fruit and all other treats/prey. I'd stick to the minimum amount of pellets and a minimum amount of lettuce (romaine, red-leaf, etc).

[Raph]

I have read about the begging but how do you know if they are not starving. I mean she is nipping at the silk plants today. should I take those out till she plateus out. She will stand up and use her front paws to splash and almost get a fourth of her body out of the water with her mouth open when you come in to the room in the morning to give her the pellets. It is like a baby bird wanting a worm. Is that normal begging behavior or is she starving?

[marisa]

Add some cuttlebone to the tank for him to chomp on.

[steve]

Most RES have huge appetites, you have to learn not to give in. If necessary, sort out the pellets for the week ahead (a pill box is good for this) and just offer veggies. I'd probably keep the tank bare since he seems very aggressive.

[thais]

I can sympathize with the comment on 3/16. Donatella acts like she's starving all the time. She gets so excited when I come near the tank that she splashes water like crazy. She's two years old and about 4 inches. (Please explain the measuring thing again.) I've had her for 3 months and am getting used to her and learning more thanks to this forum. I used to feed her too much cuz of the begging. It took a while for her to eat the organic baby romaine that I give her. Now she loves it and I feel better that she has something to munch on most of the time. I can only put large smooth river rocks in her tank; anything else she'll eat. She still occassionally throws up a piece of the gravel she had when I first got her. She likes the cuttlebone, too.
How big of a piece of cuttlebone and how often should she get it?
Also, it makes the water quite cloudy.
My main questions regard feeding her as she would eat in nature. In other words, she would regulate herself in nature, eating fish, worms, vegetation, etc. I can't quite understand that turtles in nature would eat until they throw up. I doubt the nation's ponds full of stupid, bulimic turtles. Someone suggested cantalope and I'm almost certain she wouldn't get that in nature. Donatella liked it, though. Would turts need more protein in nature and why? I follow the advice here and perhaps I'm branching off into philosophies or theories but I'm quite curious.

[marisa]

The measuring thing? Measure the length of your turtle's shell from the scute in back of the neck down the spine to the end of the one above the tail. Don't include the curve of the shell. The result is call the Straight Carapace Length (SCL).

For the cuttlebone, I keep several head-size pieces in my RES's tank and replace them as they disappear. (A few sink to the bottom, and I leave them there.) I've noticed that some cuttlebone tends to leave a little film on the water. If the dust is making the water cloudy, try rinsing it before you put it in the tank.

In nature, a turtle would spend a fair amount of time foraging for food---food wouldn't be available daily as it is for captive turts. Some days a wild turtle would go without, and the days that the turtle found an abundance of food, the turtle would probably gorge itself (opportunistic eating) because the next meal would not be a given.

Cantelope contains beta carotene, a precursor to Vit A. A turtle wouldn't enounter cantelope in the wild, true, (but I have been told of a wild boxie that found someone's berry bushes and was able to clean the branches that could be reached clean of the berries) but the beta carotene is a safe way for a turtle to get Vit A in the diet, turtles usually like cantelope because of its rather strong smell, and it's safe to give occasionally as part of the overall diet. Wild turtles would be getting Vit A from other sources in the wild, but since their diets can't be copied exactly, giving a food that contains that Vitamin in a different food isn't a bad thing to do.

I think turtles if possible adjust their diet to their needs. They're programmed to seek calcium, for example, and it's though this is a reason why captive turts try to eat pebbles/gravel in the tank (and why not having gravel in the tank and having cuttlebone in the tank is good). This isn't so different from humans (when you feel thirsty or want something salty to eat, for example).

I don't know if wild turtles require more protein than captive ones, but suspect it would be as I mentioned above--if they went without protein for a while that's what they'd be looking for and most apt to consume. But in the absence of that, they'd eat whatever they could find.

[Spookster]

If necessary, sort out the pellets for the week ahead (a pill box is good for this)

Never thought of that. Pretty neat idea.