Feeding and Nutrition :: feeding fruits

[witch21]

can i feed my turtles fruits like guava ,banana,mango,papaya? If i can how often and how much? they're babies,2-2.5 inches in length.

[TravisL]

Maybe once a week sure but green leaf veggies are what you should be feeding daily. At the current age they prob won't eat it but doesn't hurt to try.

[witch21]

but they dont eat much green.. they only eat pellet,and sometimes a lil bit of chopped fruits :/

[ljapa]

TravisL is correct that fruit should be reserved for a treat. The danger is that their systems aren't designed for the sugar in fruit.

Wild RES live primarily in ponds in the central and southern US. There they have access to insects, snails, perhaps the occasional small fish and lots of leafy water plants.

They never encounter fruit unless maybe a wild blackberry falls into a pond. Their systems aren't designed to process the sugar in it.

Keep the fruits to a rare treat and keep trying different kinds of veggies.

Again, looking at wild RES, young ones are almost exclusively carnivores,eating high protein diets like you provide via pellets. As they age they progressively become more and more vegetarian--though, older wild RES will still eat live prey given the opportunity. They just don't spend as much time seeking it out as they did when younger.

[witch21]

thanks for explaining,really helps