General Care Discussion :: Feeding turtles over vacation?

[swimlib]

I have 2 turtles that live with me in my apartment. Over christmas I am going to florida and need to figure a way to feed the turtles. Since it will be over the holidays, I was wondering if it would ok to set up an automatic fish feeder with some pellets for the time that I am gone? Someone can check on them part of the time but I can't get someone in here consistently because of the holidays.

Any suggestions?

[rachel16]

gets soem guppies too.

[Blue Flamingo]

The fish feeder and guppies sound good to me. You could also add some live plants that they can much on. How long are you going to be gone for??

[swimlib]

I will be gone for just over a week.

[sai_dee]

A week isn't too long, just get some feeder fish and the food dispenser and they'll be just dandy.

[Turtle_Turtle]

yup thats all you need i left my turtles for 10 days with just a timer for there lights, an automatic fish feeder and some guppies and anacharis

[megcornell]

When you buy the feeder make sure it can handle pellets-- most are designed for fish flakes and pellets will clog them.

[mikee]

Swim – How long you can leave your turtles depends on several things. One of them is how big they are and how healthy they are. Smaller turtles need to be fed once a day and the larger need to be fed every other day. Since there seems to be no feeder that skips a day you will have to use the daily one. Pellets are your best bet and it will take some experimenting to get the feeder set up properly. Pellets are the best way to go. Make sure that the water level is at a point that it is will not evaporate out too much until you return. After setting up the feeder I cut off my heaters and let the temperature lessen to my living quarter’s temperature. I just got back from a week trek and their temp was 72 degrees. The lower temperature slows their metabolism and reduces their hunger and they eat less. If the water is clear and the filter/pump is working properly a week is ok with having someone check on them a couple of times while you are gone.

[megcornell]

Contrary to mikee's advice- DO NOT let the water temperature fluctuate.
It's much better to have hungry turtles than to have turtles with a RI because of too cool water. Even if by some freak chance your feeder clogs, your turtles will not starve, but they can get very ill from too cool water.
If I were you, I'd get a timer for my lights, buy the automatic feeder and some aquatic plants and maybe a few rosy reds.
If you can get someone to check in on them, that's great- but if not, the timer and feeder will do just fine.

[mikee]

megcornell
Moderator -- In principal I agree with the moderator (megcornell) about fluctuating water temperature, however, I only drop the temp. from 78 tp 72 over the period of time that 100 gallons would take to drop that little. In retrospect it was probably not a good idea to bring this up with so many newbie’s on the forum. -- Thanks