Feeding and Nutrition :: Messy Eaters?

[drummerguydw]

Ok, since getting my new turtles, I have been trying to convert them over to a better diet than they had with the previous owner. So I've been having them start to eat vegetables like lettuce/carrots/pellets/ect.

JUst curious, I notice when I feed them the lettuce and shredded carrots they break off pieces, spit it out, then eat the smaller pieces, but I've ben noticing that they havent been cleaning up after themselves very well and some big chunks are starting to clog up the filter a little faster. So I was wondering how you guys take care of this issue, do you usually feed them vegatables in a dish outside of the water, or just deal with the big chunks going everywhere?

[rturtle1]

my turtles do the same i just whait til the food falls to the botom of the tank and every week i clean the tank. turtles r very messy. also a feeding tank might help. get a small plastick tank at pet smart they normaly sell for 10 $

[BullDog]

That's pretty standard with turtles.
Frankie likes to pick the bits off of the filter, and Ralph is usually pretty good at cleaning all his up. But I do find big chunks of veggies in the filter. It's kind of something you just have to deal with. If you have a good filter, you really only need to deal it with when you clean out the filter, about once a month. I don't think it should affect the performance of your filter.

[FLhaven4strays]

...do you usually feed them vegatables in a dish outside of the water...

RES cannot eat outside of the water - they need it to swallow. They're pretty messy eaters no matter what. You can try a seperate feeding tank (or just a large container) to see if that helps. My son just lets it sink & uses a turkey baster or small siphon a couple times a week in between water changes. Some of the stuff that floats (spit-out water plant bites for example) are easy to clean by skimming w/ a net.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Turtles don't understand the concept of "eating neatly."

Just toss in the veggies & let them bite them all apart. They will eventually clean up the little pieces.