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Hello! I am new to this forum and like the site so I'm looking forward to learning more about our RES. I've had an RES before, but he somehow got sick or wasn't getting the right nutrition; he passed about 6 years ago.

I now have a RES and got him in November; the store estimated him at about 6 months old and is about 5-6" long (which based on what I'm reading, his tail seems longer and may be a male; if not we have a female named Crush ). Crush has a 55 gallon tank that we fill about half way; has a filter, water heater, floating basking rock, UVB lamp (this one is on 24/7).

Over the last few weeks, seems like he would go through a few days of wanting more food, then not eating as much. I thought maybe it was growth spurt, but now since reading some info on this site, we might be overfeeding him; the last few days he gets overly excited when we wake up and some times throughout the day. We use round pellets bought from Petco and the last week we've also been giving sun-dried shrimp as a treat. I've seen some posts on the good/bad foods to give him, but still wonder what is actually good (I want to give a variety, but also don't want to have 6 different veggies on hand if we know he likes one or two of them). He is swimming fine and is under his basking lamp every day, nearly all day from when we turn the light on to when we turn it off.

From now on, we will maintain the daily pellets (does this mean once a day?) and shrimp as a treat, but I would like to start adding the veggies/fruits/protein to his diet as well.

Hi, you're saying you think he is less than 1 year old and at 5-6" long? What brand pellets are you using?

We use Zoo Med pellets and Reptotreat for shrimp.

5-6" is huge for a RES under a year old. And 6" is pushing the size of a male, so it's more likely a female. RES are expert beggars, so its likely you need to drastically cut down on the pellets and treats/

Yes, you can use pellets daily, just proportionally cut down on how much you use.

Ok, thanks! Do you think we should supplement with any other foods? With its size, should we try cutting back to every other day or just continue once a day?

Yes, your turtle should be getting mostly veggies by now. You can still feed once a day, just be more aware of how much you're using.

Ok, thanks for your help! Even though it seems to like the shrimp, should we transition to all pellets/veggies? I think I saw a list of approved veggies from someone else's post or the Nutrition page of the site that I will reference.

How big was he when you got him in November? I'm thinking the store's estimate was wrong.

I'm thinking it was 3-4" because we bought the pellets for a 2-6" size turtle

Pellet size usually doesn't matter too much, just focus on the quantity and variety. I pretty much just use red leaf lettuce as their main veggie.

Ok, thanks! We will continue with pellets and get started on veggies.