Feeding and Nutrition :: fat? (pics)

[rayzherup]

How do I tell if my baby is geting fat or if his/her shell is pyramiding or whether he/she is just growing?

[marisa]

Can your turtle fit his(?) head and limbs easily inside the shell? Does any excess flesh hang out when the limbs are in the shell? If it does, your turtle probably could stand to be fed a little less.

What do you feed your turtles? How much at a feeding and how often do you feed them. If they're getting a balanced, varied diet and they're not being overfed, there shouldn't be concern over pyramiding.

If you're really concerned, you could post a pic of them with their shells dry...

[rayzherup]

I feed them once a day at 5pm. I feed them seperately.

heres an example of what i feed:

Monday- pellets and a few dehydrated crickets.
Tueaday- pellets and dehydrated shrimp.


I just keep switching everyother day. and i feed reptomin pellets.

[RunninWideOpen]

Try to offer some veggies also. Romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, etc....

They may not eat the veggies right away, but keep offering them. If they are available to them all the time eventually they'll start eating it and it's really good for them.

[marisa]

They look OK to me from the pics. But it sounds like they're getting quite a bit of protein in the diet, which, over time could affect their health. How much of the pellets and shrimp do you give them? You don't need to be giving both the pellets and shrimp/crickets on the same day. On the days you give the shrimp/crickets, don't give the pellets. Try adding some plant matter to their diets. Anachris (aquatic plant) is a good plant to start them on. Also, pieces of red leaf lettuce and dandelions are good. Look at the feeding section on the site.

[DavidY]

Good pellets (like Reptomin) should provide a fairly well rounded diet. The shrimp and crickets should probably only be fed a couple of times a week for babies, and even less often as they get older. At that point they should be eating more vegetables.

[ice]

what exactly is pyramiding?

[DavidY]

It's caused by too much protein in the turtle's diet. It's called pyramiding because the scutes on the turtle's shell become layered like pyramids. Here's a link to some more info on it and some pics of tortoises with the condition...
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Pyramiding.htm

[orca_gurl12]

Those poor turtles! I looked at the pictures and some were pretty gross considering how a normal shell should look!

[Kayra33]

My turtle doesn't eat any veggies at all, she just eats aquatic plants and she seems fine. She's 4 and still really only loves meat. She won't even think about eating pellets and that's all that she used to eat. And my tank is way cleaner without the pellets!

[DavidY]

Aquatic plants are more natural for her than other veggies. That's funny that she'll only eat ham though. I think pellets would be more healthier for her in the long run. Have you tried insects or fish instead of ham? Again, those would be a more natural food for her. I think ham would be too high in fats and sodium.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Is it possible to raise a Turtle in captivity without special foods (pellets)? In the wild they mostly eat aquatic plants, and when their younger, small insects, right?

[DavidY]

In the wild they're eating all natural foods. Even as adults they feed on bugs, fish, snails etc. just not as much as when they're young. The thing is, the live food they're eating are also eating healthy natural foods and are available in a large variety. The insects we feed our captive animals are usually farm raised and may be mostly grown on grain feed products. And there are only a few different types of live insects that we can easily get.

The good thing about pellets is that they are usually formulated using a variety of ingredients and are made to provide the turtles with a well balanced diet. Also as we've seen recently, there is always the danger of introducing parasites or diseases with live food.

[SpotsMama]

Hmmm....Kayra33, I've heard of some other turtles on here that caught on that have could have meat at every meal and they had their way for quite a while but with a little time and patience their owners were able to switch them over to a healthier diet of pellets. It's not easy if you are soft-hearted and they beg like crazy for their meat but sometimes you have to be the tough mommy with them!

Before I found this site I didn't know how to take care of Spot and I did a lot of things wrong. One thing I did was feed Spot nothing but raw red meat and raw shrimp every day. I thought this was what a vet said I was supposed to do. Thank goodness I supplemented with calcium and reptile vitamins, which probably saved him. This went on for a year. He loved it! He grew unbelievably fast. However, his shell was pyramiding. I know now that this wasn't the healthiest thing for him. I switched him to good pellets by mixing in some pellets with his meat and gradually increased the proportion of pellets until it was all pellets. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

When Spot was in a smaller tank I always fed him outside the tank to keep the water clearer. With his large tank I don't need to do it - I just don't feed him so much that there's anything left over. I used to feed him Reptomin sticks. He liked them but they were a little large and when he bit them little pieces would fall to the bottom. That was ok because there were minnows in the tank to clean up the crumbs. Now, I'm feeding him Mazuri. The pellets are smaller - bite sized - so there aren't any crumbs. Andd that's good because I've taken the minnows out (felt sorry for them). His water still stays crystal clear.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Good point. Thanks for the info david

I'm holding off on live food. The whole parasite thing scares me, plus..dont those things look creepy? Yuck. I'm going to run off to the store this week and get canned crickets (already dead) and feed it to them as a treat every now and then. On the plus side, i dont have to see an animal getting shredded alive.