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So I tried making this last night (used a medical mask bc I HATE the smell of tuna ) and I wanted to make something that can be a staple food for them along with their pellets and occasional mixed veggies so all I put into it was:

1) a whole head of green leaf lettuce
2) some skin off an apple
3) some dandelion leaves
4) half a can of tuna in water
5) some mazuri pellets sprinkled on top

Well, I didnt want to make too much, since I wasnt sure if they were even gonna eat it, so I only made about 2 cups in which I poured into a glass pan to set overnight. This morning I tried giving a cube of the stuff to each of them and my biggest, Herbert, seemed a bit disinterested although he ate about half the cube. My small one, Squirt, ignored it at first but once I held it up to him he went at it and ate about 3/4 of his cube and a bit of Herbert's leftover cube. I'm thinking maybe adding 3/4 can of tuna next time and some of their pellets mixed in perhaps to entice them more hmmm....For now im going to have to force this down them since I dont want it to go to waste LOL

I'm about to make these for my Nature Center red-eared slider and painted turtles! They're all over 2 years old and do not like to eat vegetables, the only thing I've seen them bite is squash. (and then they spit it out...)

Question: What about mercury poisoning from the tuna in this recipe? If this is the only way to get these goofballs to eat their veggies, I don't want to be giving them a side of heavy metal poisoning. If I make these a staple part of their diet (feed a jello veggie shot every other day, along with pellets), is that too much? What about other canned fish? Other not-fish things?

It's likely mercury does not affect them like they do us, but it is intended to used sparingly anyway. What about salmon? That should have less mercury than tuna.

Thanks, Steve! I'll give salmon a try...and these will just be more of a treat food, too.

just posting this so i have a shortcut to this topic from my profile OWO

This looks great! I was thinking of using this as the main daily meal for my 3 in. 6 month old-ish YBS. I'm having so much trouble with lettuce clogging up my filter daily (he likes to shred it up, then eat it), so I hope this is an adequate substitute for half a piece of lettuce floating daily in the tank.

Which recipe should I use for his age/size, "new and improved" or "original?"
Kinda worried about protein levels for him being right since he's still young. Also wasn't sure if the "new and improved" recipe is mostly geared toward adult turtles or if the added ingredients for "shell maintenance" would be okay for him to eat on a daily basis even if his shell looks perfectly fine.

If I follow either recipe, do I need to supplement the one I use with anything else other then the occasional treat? He's not a very fussy eater, so I'm hoping he will be thrilled about this! I currently supplement his diet with rep-cal calcium supplement (phosphorus free) with no D3 added, so I will use this in the recipe also.

Thanks!

This is a great idea, Perfect way to get everything they need in their diet in one shot. With all the fresh veggies right now ill have to make a big batch.
I finally got Terry to eat veggies by dicing everything up small and mixing it around with some shrimp crumbs. She loves her shrimp salad, now shell eat everything even if I don't mix in shrimp.

I made these months ago and gave my two RES this twice a week. I've had no problem, they both seemed to love it. However recently one of them started to be difficult about it (it eats but not a lot at all) while the other keeps on gobbling up everything. It's currently winter and I don't know if the lower temp is causing this ? They are both still pretty active.

Was it the only thing you were feeding them?

Usually not, they have a pretty balanced diet with dried shrimp, pellets, lettuce and these jello shots. Only for a bit more than a week I had no other option. Is he doing that because he's being picky?

Some can be real picky and you have to change things up once in awhile while some (probably most) don't care.

My girl absolutely loves these! The current from the filter moves them around when I feed them frozen and she loves hunting them. Only been doing it a few days and the filter is handling the mess really well so far but she doesn't leave much, she gets every crumb she finds. This is a great way to get veggies into a turtle who doesn't care for them.

How much of this can I feed a 1 1/2-2 inch baby?

Roughly "head-size" amount is fine, and be a bit conservative when feeding RES.

I had serious trouble making my two boys eat their vegetables (it's like when my son was 6 all over again!) and this solution sounds great! I'll give it a try and keep you informed.