General Care Discussion :: Begging for food?

[Little Luey]

I have seen some post about turtles begging for food, how exactly do they do that? I am having a hard time picturing that, but then again I had my turtles for only a few days.

[donchewliano]

In my RES' case, he swims up to the glass, swimming up and down, very excited to see me.

[callmedavey]

my YBS are still small, so they just float and stare at me. however, as turts get bigger, they do what i call the happy dance, which is splash water everywhere and make a lot of noise, right in front of the glass, staring at you. it's so funny.

[LocateCloseWith]

Go Sox

[TheComputerGremlin]

Imagine a dog begging for food, jumping up and down, patting his paws around. Except in a pond. There's lots of clawing the walls of the tank, splashing water everywhere, head out of the water trying to see everything.

[Little Luey]

Ok, I get it now. Thanks for helping the newbie here.


Locateclosewith, you really mean White Soxs, correct? how did you figure I was originally from Chitown, you are good!!

Go Sox

[Take-One]

Look at his avatar.

[jordan]

I have 4 baby RES, and they swim up to the corner of the glass, they look very excited, and they try to bite my finger when I put it up to the glass.

I definitely feed them enough, but they do it anyways.

[imderanged]

I seeeeeee youuuuuu!! GIMME SOME PELLETS!

[1981camaroz28]

You are going to get 20 people with 20 different answers about feeding. I can tell you what work's for me. I will call it now most will say I over feed. My turtles all beg it's a turtle thing. Everyday they get pellets or sticks I feed them a couple pinches. Fruits and veggies every 2 days. Twice a week they get raw shrimp maybe 3 days and only what they can eat in 5 minutes and yes they do stop when they are full. Every 2 weeks I give them live small fish like guppies or Rossie's. Once a month I add 20 gold fish. Remember with live fish do not add the water from the pet store. All feeder fish at a pet store are on a different filter for a reason. Also maybe once a week I give them frozen blood worms the kind in cubes. One last thing I suggest if you are going to use live fish do this the day you are about to change or clean your filters give your filters about 1 hour after the fish are gone before you clean or change them.

[Chrisbarnett]

1981camaroz28,
I disagree with your feeding schedule.
You are giving way too much protein. Your turtles might be fine now, but they will develop pyramiding and gain weight as they get older.

Raw shrimp are much too high in protein to be giving even once a month. Most people only give them to their turtles a couple times a year.

Goldfish have no place being in a turtle tank. They are useless as a feeder fish for turtles. They have a very high fatty content and low nutritional value.

http://www.redearslider.com/index_nutrition.html I suggest you read over that section again and re-evaluate your turtles diets.

Raising turtles is not rocket science, But it takes a lot of knowledge and dedication to properly care for them.