General Care Discussion :: Feeding question

[pariah]

My wife and I are leaving for 4 days early tomorrow morning. After reading through this board I decided I would feed my turtle a good large meal of pellets and a freeze dried shrimp today and drop a couple minnows in the water for the four days I will be gone.

Well he left them alone for about 2 hours and I just checked and he's choking down the smaller one already.

Will he force feed himself the other one too?

Should I remove it and let him starve for 4 days? (His shell is about 1.5" and I feed him daily...every three days or so he gets a small snack before bed too)

Stupid little jerk.

[untsmurf]

When we go out of town, we get a few bunches of anacharis and some rosies (2-4). That'll last him a while (a week max). Every time we leave him with that it's all gone by the time we get back. But our turtle is 4.25''.

[pariah]

Shoot! I forgot to put a lettuce leaf in there!

[Rexamus]

I was on vacation when my turtle was about the same size as yours and I had a neighbor come by and feed him. I've heard several different things about whether to feed every day or let him go till I get back. In order to have a piece of mind while gone, I would suggest someone coming by and checking on him at the very least. You never know what can happen while away. I was fortunate enough to have a neighbor and it allowed me to relax more while on vacation. Good luck!

[SpotsMama]

Someone on here once said turtle's are very poor food budgeters. They'll gobble down all the extra food at once then have to go without until their keeper gets back. I think what Rexamus suggests is good - if there's a person that could come by, that's always a good solution. Alternatively, there are automatic feeders that can dispense pellets periodically.

If you're only going to be gone a few days, I think just giving her/him a good feeding before leaving - maybe a little more than usual - and adding some anacharis (it will last awhile and not spoil) will suffice. Again though, it's helpful to have a person look in to make sure something hasn't gone wrong - filter or heater quit for instance.

[packfan1]

I recently left our turtles for four days and they did just fine. The day before I feed them more pellets than normal, but didnt over do it. The day we left I added some rosie reds, a decent amount of lettuce and some cuttlebone.
I figured they would eat the easy to get to stuff first and then have to chase down a minnor or two after that. The best bet would be to have someone come by to feed and check on things....I didnt have that option.

[pariah]

Well he made it! His tank is filthy of course, and no minnows to be seen...but he seems to be alert and well behaved...the snail is still going.

He can't quite figure out why that one rock smells like food. lol

[untsmurf]

Glad to hear it! Time to break out the cleaning supplies