Feeding and Nutrition :: turtle feeding

[mitchy04]

ok i need some help here .. apparently my turtle at home is not eating all the pellets given to her ... im away at university and my sister is taking care of the critter and she recently told me that theres quite a bit of access food left over ... my turtle is just over 3yrs old and is about 8-9 inches in length .. when feeding the turtle i use the rule of the turtles head to feed her that many pellets.. my sister told me that the turtle has only been eating about 10 pellets out of the 25-30 pellets.. we feed here every other day in the morning ... i told my sister to cut up some apples and grapes without the skin and to sulk them in tuna juice to try and feed it to the turtle.. today she fed her and she ate some but not all of the fruit and my sister is going to try and feed her pellets again on thursday. She is basking normally no change there all that seems to be wrong is that she is not eating as much as she used too.. she is getting old so maybe her metabolism is decreasing and she is eating less?? is what i am thinking to myself but it is hard for me to know exactly what is going on since im so far away from home.. i know its not a big concern but when im this far away from home anything can happen without me noticing... can anybody give me some advice about the metabolism of turtles increasing by age or any advice at all would be helpful.. including other ways i should tell my sister to feed the turtle.. all advice will be much appreciated.. thank you

[jenaero]

I wouldn't be all that concerned. I think 10 sticks every other day is plenty. I don't know a whole lot about the metabolism or if it changes as they age but it doesn't sound like anything to worry about at this point. If he/she stopped eating altogether then that'd be an issue.

[mitchy04]

AHHHHHHHHH ... i talked with my sister and my turtle LAID 6 EGGS!!!!!!!!!! ... apparently the turtle is eating the eggs but im sure that cant be good i told her to take them out and since they are unfertilized just to throw them out !!!... i guess thats what was causin the turtle to eat less food

[marisa]

They do eat less when they're gravid. Eating the eggs won't hurt, but I would think it could get messy in the tank.

[industrial_girl_2000]

AHHHHHHHHH ... i talked with my sister and my turtle LAID 6 EGGS!!!!!!!!!! ... apparently the turtle is eating the eggs but im sure that cant be good i told her to take them out and since they are unfertilized just to throw them out !!!... i guess thats what was causin the turtle to eat less food

WHOA!!! LOL!

Glad you figured it out.