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My Tortue (RES) whom I would love to christened "Torture" right now is driving me up the wall. I've had him for slightly over two to three weeks now.

My problem?

He is extremely picky with food.

At first I thought he wasn't eating well until I bought some gammarus mix and dried scrimp together with sera baby-gran (granulated stuff). The bugger will only take the gammarus mix and scrimp (if I dump it in).

He won't touch turtle pellets (I use Nutrafin/Sanyu turtle pellets) unless he has been starving for two/three days, and even then he takes small bites and that's it. When I tried giving him the sera baby-gran this morning, he only nibbles on the red bits but not the green ones.

Tried dumping in a treat together with the pellets...he goes for the treat and that's it.

Forget about veggies. He won't go near them.

Please don't ask me get more turtle food. Now I have dried scrimp, sera rafy-1, sera-gammarus for hatchlings, sera-baby gran, nutrafin basix and sanyu turtle pellets. Besides, where I live, it's hard to get the usual American brands - not all brands are sold here. GAH.

Any ideas how to get him to eat pellets apart from starving him?

One of the tricks we usually recommend for veggies is soaking them in tuna juice. You could try soaking the veggies as well as pellets in the tuna juice, or another smelling food. Some people here used canned cat food as well. That would be my suggestion.

I would withhold the shrimp and use the tips Missi listed above until he's eating the pellets and veggies well. These are what he needs to eat, so with holding the treat type foods would be best until he is eating well. If he knows you are just going to give him the treats if he doesn't eat the other then he will keep being picky. Don't reward him for being picky.

How big/old is he? Hatchlings are more carnivorous and will be attracted to things that move, are colorful and smell. Shrimp should only be a treat, try to focus on the other foods (I really can't comment on them since I am not familiar with them).

There are probably a few Malaysian herp societies that you might get some more info on acquiring local RES food.

You may find he'll eat more readily once he's in the proper habitat. You're getting a larger tank for him right?

Try some live food like earthworms or crickets. Also food that has a strong smell to it.

eleraine wrote:Besides, where I live, it's hard to get the usual American brands - not all brands are sold here. GAH.

You can try online pet stores that ship worldwide. You could also try Ebay. Here are people selling Reptomin the most popular brand of pellets that ship worldwide

http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/SaleSe ... =3&frpp=50

all the food you're feeding him isnt very good

i recomend getting him some small feeder guppies, some mealworms, some reptomin calcium sticks, and...

a bigger tank

and you're good to go