Feeding and Nutrition :: Turtle eating like there is no tomorrow plant wise

[missibsu]

I wouldn't give up on the veggies. Have you tried yellow pepper? Of course variety is best, but sometimes that is a pain when the turt is a picky eater. In my opinion, put the lettuce in, and if he really is that hungry, he'll eat it.

[steve]

Michelangelo knows what he's doing (he sounds like a masterful beggar). Just keep offering the lettuce, he will eventually learn to like it.

[daredevilgirl013]

He doesn't really beg he just eats. When I walk into the room (or anyone else) he hides. So we don't see him do the splash around thing. Though at night when I do the only like five pellets of food every other day compared to the day when he gets more, I'll see him hunting around like where is my food?

I've tried peppers and grapes, no go. The stuff has sat in his tank till I cleaned his tank one day and it just does no good. So I'm trying to figure out what he likes besides amazon sword and dandelion leaves. He's just too picky.

[marisa]

If he likes dandelion leaves, that's good.

[industrial_girl_2000]

My little guy is still going nuts. My mom cannot believe that he is now reduced to biting at the snails constantly, biting at the fish constantly, and everything else. He is just soo hungry. I bought him another big amazon sword plant..gone in one day. I picked a big handful of dandelion leaves..gone in one day. He's just going nuts! He's just constantly wanting food

Sounds pretty consistent for a baby turtle! LOL! Their eyes are definitely bigger than their stomachs.

[tissigirl]

I don't know how I missed it, but I didn't realize that red leaf lettuce was a good option for turtles. I've been trying to come up with some alternatives to keep a good variety in Mr. Turtle's diet.

My problem now is that he has his favorites, and if I try to give him something that's not he snubs his nose at it! Romaine and carrots are his favorite, but I know there are other greens that are much more vitamin rich. Unfortunately I have yet to be able to find dandelion greens. I live in a metro city area, so going out and picking some is just to risky!

[missibsu]

I can mail you some, lol. We have an over abundance here. My dad goes out and digs them up to get rid of them, and I am out there telling him not to so I can feed them to the turts.

[tissigirl]

Man, I wish you could mail it to me! LOL

[Andrew7769]

ill have 2 take a pic of my yard u want dandelions i got thousands. George is the COMPLETE opposite of a picky eater anything i put in there he eats carrots, lettuce, cucumber, grapes, fish, earthworms, pellets, etc etc lol

[knite]

If you go to a chinatown pet store nearby (if there is one), the anacharis and hornwort is much cheaper. It's literally 2 dollars for a huge bunch. I would otherwise invest in a cheap 10-20 gallon aquarium and in no time your plants will multiply endlessly. Save yourself a bunch of money in the long run!

[alkaiser]

This reminds me of the time I used to try feeding my algae eaters in my turtle tank; Whenever I put in an algae disk my turtle would swim down and chomp on it, I didn't know if it was bad for him so once I tried to take it from him. lmao it was like we were playing tug o' war. That's how much he wanted it.

[marisa]

I give my turtles pieces of algae wafers on occasion for variety.

[industrial_girl_2000]

So I'm trying to figure out what he likes besides amazon sword and dandelion leaves. He's just too picky.

Mix a little bit of canned cat food in with the romaine lettuce. That's how I got mine to eat romaine! Now she just devours any kinds of greens, including collards, which I fed her last week (and I enjoyed them too, LOL!).

[alkaiser]

I give my turtles pieces of algae wafers on occasion for variety.

Just what is algae anyways? I know it's kind of like a bacteria but I don't know much about it.

[BullDog]

I realize this is 2 months after the fact, but I had a similar problem with my Ralpheal (hey, we just need 2 more turtles and we've got a tv show!). I bought 3 plants for the first time, and he chomped them down one at a time. I've taken them out now, and they're coming back. I've decided to "rotate" them, keep 2 in a seperate fish bowl, and put one plant in his tank until he demolishes that too. I found recently that he loves the fresh lettuce from the garden... Although he's not fond of it if it's just floating around in the tank. So what I did was pull the lettuce out (including the roots) gave it a good wash, and anchored it among the rocks. He thinks it's an expensive aquatic plant, so he enjoys destroying it, and he gets some good nutrition too