Feeding and Nutrition :: Just a question about Pellets

[Tigris Tusha]

Now I was moved to beleive that pellets contained mostly vegetable matter, and so it would be best to compliment them with some sort of protein, which is why I feed my turtle Reptomin Pellets, along with some freeze dried shrimp (both from Tetra). But from reading the forums it looks like the pellets already have alot of protein in them? I've had this same feeding process for a while now, (5yrs) and Im worried that I could actually be harming my baby

Can anyone help me out?

Here are some links about what I have:

Jumbo Krill:
http://www.pet-dog-cat-supply-store.com ... page-10875

Reptomin:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00025 ... e&n=284507

Also, is feeding salmon/tuna ok? Just curious.

[knite]

Yes, pellets are the best nutrition balanced food out there. It doesn't supply everything your turtle needs however. No single source of food in the world I can think of can supplement every single vitamins and minerals the turtle needs. There is such a wide range of foods for your turtles.

For your 5 year old female, it is SOO important to have actual vegetable matter than the vegetables in products. Wufei may take a while to adjust to eating vegetables I'm afraid since I think she may have developed a habit of eating only a strict group of products. Good things for Wufei may be any sorts of aquatic vegetation, lettuce, kale etc. I don't generally agree on feeding salmon or tuna.

[Tigris Tusha]

I've tried carrots in the past, no dice. Not even aquatic plants like Anacharis(sp). She does love chicken though, but I dont see what turtle wouldn't. Hmm, maybe I'll try tonight :3 But is it true that pellets are all vegetable matter? Or is there more to them?

[cam722]

Chicken should only be fed as a treat not a staple of the diet as it's purely protein and an all protein diet will create a ton of problems with your turtle, ie. growing too fast, causing organ damage just to mention two. Krill is also high protein and not a healthy balanced diet, it should only be for a treat. Pellets at least add vitamins to a turtles diet but again should not be the ONLY thing your turtle is fed. Pellets are NOT all vegetable. If you read the label you'll see that hey are high in protein. What type of pellet are you using? This is why we stress that you offer your turtle veggies because that's the only way they are going to get them and as adults RES are more herbivorous than carnivorous. Have you read the what to feed and not to feed stickies on the forum and main website?

[Tigris Tusha]

Yup I have read the two sticky's. Good to know. I know not to give her the chicken and such all the time, I never said that I did, but I also didn't say didnt. What I did feed her on a usual basis was the shrimp, but now I know not to do that. So that is my fault for not being completely clear. It is good to know that I should be giving her other things. Thank you! And I added the link to the type of pellets I feed her, here it is again: http://tetra-fish.com/catalog/product.aspx?id=150

[cam722]

Same kind I use.. Just so you know, my turtles for the first year only ate gammare, chicken, crickets and fish (minnows, guppies .. etc.). Although, I didn't feed them every day and they came out of it realtively unscathed. My daughter found this forum/website and lord did I have a lot of reading and changes to make. So I'm not pointing a finger at you because as they say, the rest are pointing back at me They now eat about anything I put in their tank.. well anything but carrots.. grrr. So when I pass on information, that's all it is.. passing it on.

[reptilegrrl]

Why don't you read the ingredients list on your pellets? Turtle pellets all have some kind of animal protein in them.

[marisa]

Aside from ingredients, most pellet containers that I've seen also have a section that lists the minimum amount of protein, phosphorus, fat, ash and moisture content in the pellets (some have other categories as well). The regular Reptomin (as opposed to Reptomin Baby), for example was 42.5% protein the last time I looked.

When you look at the ingredients, those that make up the highest percentage of the pellet are listed first.