We put in a pond about a month ago. My husband surprised me with a yellow-belly slider that the pet store told him we could keep in our outdoor pond. (There are goldfish in the pond too but they are much too large for the turtle to eat.) I'm in Missouri so it gets cold here, and I realize we will have to bring him inside for the winter.
The turtle (Turt McGurt AKA Old Turty Bastard AKA OTB AKA Sir Chomps-a-Lot) seems to be doing really well. It looks healthy, has grown already, is active, uses its cork log to bask in the sun... The problem is it will only eat my lily pads. For the record, I don't care that it's eating them. The problem is that's the ONLY thing it'll eat.
We have water hyacinths in the pond too, he basks on them but doesn't eat them. He won't eat fresh greens I've thrown in (spinach - which I realize I can't feed him often) or his turtle pellets. Today, he was chomping on a lily pad so I threw some pellets in to distract him. One landed right in front of his mouth, but he just turned away from it and started chomping on the next lily pad over.
I'm worried he's not getting what he needs in his diet. Any advice??