Feeding and Nutrition :: ew worms

[goatfarmer123]

so, i hear it's a good idea to occasionally feed your turtle earthworms. does this mean just the worms you find in the garden, or can you buy them at bait stores? I'm not thrilled about my turtle being, you know, directly carnivorous, which is also why i don't think i can handle him eating fish yet... but eventually i'll get over it....

edit...

also, how fat is obese considered? leo isn't obese, i don't think, but when he pulls his head in there he's got kind of a roll of neck fat. he can definitely pull himself inside his shell all the way but i'm not sure how strict of a diet he needs to be on... i overfed him when i first got him but as i've cut back he's gotten just that much better at begging... he gets about a tablespoon of cooked veggies a day and 3 pellets a day. and about a teaspoon of bloodworms every other day. he's 1 1/4 inches long. is this too much food for him? he eats it all... very quickly...

[jenaero]

You don't have to feed them anything live but I prefer to. It was slightly gross at first but I got over it pretty quick. I buy mine at the corner store. If I had a garden, I'd just dig them up. If you're going to do that tho, make sure there are no pesticides being used in your immediate area.

If it's the wiggling in your hands that grosses you out, try putting the worm in a cup of very warm water for a min. Once out of the water, they won't move at all. After a few min out of the water they do snap out of it tho so feed them while they're not moving.

[jenaero]

that extra neck skin is the typical turtle neck. Not fat, just skin. As long as he can tuck in all the way, he's fine. I do wonder why you cook the veggies?

[goatfarmer123]

ok. good. i'm glad i'm not overdoing it too badly... i just recently started trying to get him onto more veggies and found that he will eat them more readily if they are boiled, especially the carrots. i have heard though that cooking vegetables takes some of the nutrients out of them. is this going to be significant enough to cause a problem? i haven't been able to get him to eat fruit yet, and if i don't cook the vegetables they just sit there and get slimey...
thanks very much for your help with the worms, one day when i'm feeling adventurous i will try it!

[sonyj]

Koopa is going to get his first worm probably this weekend. I'm still not looking forward to it but my mom gave me a whole container full of earthworms and I have to do something with them. I'll probably dump the rest in the garden.

[marisa]

Some nutrients/vitamins are destroyed by cooking, but Vit A/betacarotene in carrots, for example, isn't one of them, particularly if it's steamed lightly. I imagine your turtle likes them cooked because cooking softens them up. Exactly what veggies do you cook?

You may not like the wiggling, but your turtle will (turtles, especially smaller ones, like the movement). Since your turtle is smaller, if the earthworms are large, you may want to cut one up into pieces. The ones I've bought in the past were rather large. The ones I dig outside are smaller (and much healthier looking).

[industrial_girl_2000]

so, i hear it's a good idea to occasionally feed your turtle earthworms. does this mean just the worms you find in the garden, or can you buy them at bait stores? I'm not thrilled about my turtle being, you know, directly carnivorous, which is also why i don't think i can handle him eating fish yet... but eventually i'll get over it....

I used to just dig up earthworms in my backyard when it rained.....heck it is free food for your turtle & has lots of vitamins! I very rarely bought them at bait stores because you don't know if there were any chemicals added. At least in your own garden, you know if there are chemicals or not. Organic is best.

Don't worry about the carnivorous thing. It's very natural for turts. In the wild, they would be catching & eating fish/bugs/worms live!

[goatfarmer123]

hello! i cook the carrots, squash, zucchini and collards. i haven't tried the orange potato yet but i will probably cook that as well. He doesn't like the red lettuce much but i can't really cook that and have it stay together and not just make a huge mess. its pretty funny because i use the veggie peeler to make really thin slices and there's these tiny turtle jaw shaped bites out of the circles. after looking on the feeding section again, zucchini wasn't listed as something you should be feeding. i can't find info on zucchini calling it good or bad, but i just started feeding that to him two days ago. i assumed it was ok because its another kind of squash, but should i hold off on that?
its supposed to rain this weekend, so i shall go worm-hunting.... well...actually... we had around our house sprayed for ants a while ago and that might have gotten in the dirt. scratch that. i'll buy some. if they are small...
i don't think he's big enough to eat the feeder minnows yet, he still doesn't eat baby pellets whole... i'll keep an eye out for small worms!

[sonyj]

Zucchini is in the squash family so I assume it's fine to feed. I feed it occasionally to Koopa in very small thin slices that makes it easier to eat.

[Maplesquirrel]

It sounds like you are feeding him too much food. A whole tablespoon of vegatables, and 3 pellets sounds like an aweful lot. I feed my turtles approx 2 pellets a day, and a couple small peices of lettuce/vegetables or a couple dried blood worms. Maybe its just me, but it seems like too much. especially since your turtles aren't even two inches! Mine are approx 2 inches now. I heard also that worms(out of the garden, or dirt outside) can carry different kinds of bacteria, or something or other that can hurt your turtle. I don't remember where I read this though.

[marisa]

Zucchini is OK as part of the diet. It's kind of bland in terms of smell and taste, so it's not a favorite with my turts.

Does your turtle like cooked collards? I can't imagine my turtles wanting to eat something so wilted (they're good in soup, though ). I rip a raw leaf into pieces and give them to my turtles after taking out any large veins/stalks.

[goatfarmer123]

i'm not sure! he doesn't eat big things or really things that take much biting. if he can't eat it right away he just gets frustrated or something and doesn't keep trying. like, it'll still be in there 2 days later. they are very wilted, but easier to tear apart i guess? he also likes things better if they sink. he won't eat floating things other than pellets, but if you cook the other stuff it sinks and then he goes for it. maybe i should try ripping it up though. i bet that would help!
i looked at the bait store today and all they had were these massive godzilla worms, so i think i'll hold off on that for a while. he is too small to even eat something like that...
it also sounds like he's not in any danger of starving any time soon either... he's kind of a chunk.

[marisa]

The Walmart in my area sells worms, both the large night crawlers and pan trout worms, which look exactly like earth worms and aren't that large. If you want to give him worms and think they're too big, cut them up into pieces for him.

[fishandcandy]

I gave Petri his first worm the other night. My friends had some left over from fishing so I took them home to dump in my yard. I dug through them and found a small one but then I freaked out trying to cut it in half and put it back. Luckily when I dumped them in the yard I found a half that they'd already cut. It was still pretty big. I washed it off and dropped it in the tank and Petri sucked the whole thing down.
It was pretty gross seeing him with the worm end hanging out of his mouth and wiggling.

[goatfarmer123]

lol that does sound pretty gross! i'll definitely change him to a feeding tank if i start feeding him live things...
i think that i may stop feeding him carrots for a while... this is pretty gross but he just kind of poos the carrots out... like he can't even digest them. it's pretty weird.
also, last night, the little devil escaped! i came in from studying at my boyfriend's house and went to feed him. he usually zooms right over when i shake the pellet can, but i shook it and nothing happened... and i couldn't find him. i got a flashlight and started in one corner of my room, turning everything inside out as i went. i was looking under my bed when i looked down at my knee where i was on the floor and not 1/2 inch away from my knee he had buried himself in this very hairy purple rug i have at the foot of my bed. i would have squished him if i had been any closer! his eyes were stuck shut and he didn't move when i picked him up but he perked up within 30 seconds of being back in the water. perked up is an understatement, actually. he was zooming around everywhere, so i decided to feed him like normal for that time of night. he ate just fine and appears to be totally normal today! he fell about 3 1/2 feet off the desk and was out of the water for about 5 hours. i checked him carefully and there's no external damage. i'll still keep and eye on him, but i will also take down the water a few inches.... scary!!