Feeding and Nutrition :: Picky Eaters, Anyone?

[siranlea]

Hi Love, here are the pictures : http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/h47 ... Terrapins/ Feed them mostly pellets but since Shelly, the biggest one, keeps eating, I alternate with fresh prawn and tried a bit of carrots and greens. No go with greens with them. Real picky eaters! Another question: Since Speedy is catching up with Shelly in size, how to tell them apart? Behaviourial wise they are the same, except Shelly loves to eat while Speedy tries to claw his way out from the feeding tank. Can we use any permanent marker on their shell to mark them? My daughter and I love to talk to the little buggers, but we dun want to get their name wrong. Okay, its not like they know any difference what name we call them as long as we have food in our hands lol What's the funny white markings under Shelly's belly and in between her scutes?

[siranlea]

I'm worried about PintSize. We got all 3 same size at the same time. PintSize doesnt seem to grow, she's the worst when it comes to eating. I've fed her separately but she eats little. She's fast on her webbed feet though, swimming away from me whenever i walk past the tank. And she prefers hugging the filter to sleep on than the driftwood to bask. I may have to overhaul the whole tank setup but its real costly here in SIngapore and the aquatic shops cater more to fishes than other water pets. I'll be uploading couple more pictures of the Live Tortoise and Turtle Museum, the largest in the world I hear. You get a kick out of watching all types of tortoises there. The snapping alligator turtle looks like a throwback to the dino time or some offshoot of Power Rangers aliens lol cheers

[steve]

Take note of the patterns in the shell and skin. The markings on the bottom shell are actually the most unique, but will get blotchy as they get older. The smaller one is probably not getting his/her share of food. How are you feeding them?

[siranlea]

Hi Steve. The odd thing is PintSize eats a little fresh prawns and few pellets but Speedy never touches anything in the feeding tank and yet he's bigger than PintSize. We just found out that PintSize is shedding skins under his neck and legs too. I know it's normal but how often do i need to change the water then? No use netting except the big ones but the water's full of tiny floating skins. Kinda of yucky :p

[steve]

Do you feed them both inside the tank?

[turtlelvr2000]

my turtles eats reptomin and only eats something else if i shake the reptomin bottle....lolz

[turtlesrmom]

I found a pet store in my town where one of the staff is quite knowledgeable about turtles....yay! She showed me a package of frozen turtle food. it's in little squares and you pop them out like one of those gum packs. Krush loves them. I feed him one every other day. they have a lot of vegetable material in them which is great because he isn't going for lettuce much at all.

[Matryoshka]

I have just bought the two a can of Reptomin, when I saw that their first can of 'XO turtle food', the food they were fed at the store I bought them from to help them get more used to their new home, but they ignore it. They seem to be hungry but only sniff at the Reptomin sticks. Thinking that it was the size I broke them down to quartrets and still no improvement. I think it's because XO has brightly colored pellets.

[Matryoshka]

So I broke the Reptomin into quartrets and they ate it. Basically they dont eat anything that involves ripping it apart (meat excluded, they're such geniuses =_= ).

[siranlea]

They sell pellets mostly in Singapore pet shops. I had to give Shelly, the biggest one, away as she was biting the other 2 very aggressively till the top skin on the neck is gone. I'm still having problem trying to feed the other 2 in a different basin. They eat more in their swimming tank but very little in the feeding basin. Sigh, spoiled to the core both of them. Forget about any greens or fruits, they wont even touch it with a ten foot claw :p To one and all, thank you for all the advices.