redearslider.com

So, my mother and I just recently got a Red Ear Slider from a coworker of hers. We've had him for about a month now.

His shell is 2-3 inches, a nice shade of green, and he's active. But, our concern is that he won't eat turtle pellets at all. We've tried different brands, shapes, some with shrimp 'flavor' added in.. So, because he won't eat his pellets, we're afraid he's not getting any calcium. If I hold him between my thumb and index finger, and give a small amount of pressure, his shell has a litle bit of give to it. I don't know if that's cause he's young, or if he needs more calcium.

Currently, his diet consists of worms, anacharis plant, and the occasional shrimp/cricket treat. We do have a cuttle bone in his tank that he ignores completely (I just saw a thread on how to remove the backing from those, and will do that once I'm done posting.).. We also bought a calcium supplement spray, and we've started soaking his worms in that until they die. He still eats the worms dead, but he only eats them in the water, so again, we're not sure if he's getting any actual benefit from the calcium soak.

I've heard about the feeder fish - Guppies, minnows, and such. I can't find any place around here that sells prekilled fish, and I'm not sure if he's big/old enough to eat live ones.. How could we, possibly, kill the fish ourselves?

Any ideas? Tips?

We are going to look into getting a syringe so we can inject the worms with calcium, just for the peace of mind of knowing it's in there.

You could try the turtle Jell-O shots for calcium:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17486

Since he eats anachris, you might try kale. That is supposed to be pretty high in calcium. You could also cut back on any protein except for pellets. He may decide they are worth trying.

Hm. What is Kale? A plant, or some such? We also went and picked up a couple of female guppies, and put those in with him. He's fun to watch, swimming back and forth along the length of his aquarium to catch them.. No success on that part yet, though.

Romain/red leaf lettuce would be better than kale. You can also dust pellets/crickets with the calcium too. If he has a healthy appetite, I would just cut down on the "treats" and use some tough love.

First, two questions:

1. What exact pellets are you trying?
2. Is your turtle showing interest in eating? Like, is he sniffing the food, curious about it? Or does he not even bother?

Couple things you can try:

1. You can purchase powdered calcium supplement that "dusts" food - they are intended for crickets, but we dust pellets and that works.


2. Regarding the pellets - what pellets exactly are you using? If they are vegetable based, then toss them. Our hatchling/juveniles despised them. Hatchlings and juveniles respond best to pellets that smell absolutely delicious (to them) - so if it's rich in a putride, fishy-kind of smell (hard to describe), then they will probably eat it. Here's a good recommendation to try, that all our turtles loved: