General Care Discussion :: why doesnt my ybs and my map turtle eat plant herbs!

[Rocky YBS]

i feed them a balanced mixture of variouse dried crustacea, water insects, tasty sticks containing fish that is carefully selected to meet the nutritional needs for turtles that helps them grow healthy and have a well grown, strong and healthy shell.

however, they have never had herbs like duckweed, cabbidge, carrot,grapes.......!
i guess they like to be carniverouse!
but im sure its not very healthy.
what herb can i give them that they will except?
i have been trying for ages!
i think they are both nearly 3 years old (4-5")
they both still act normally.
swimming.....basking......eating......sniffing round......begging........not agressive my YBS is trying too mate but my map isnt having any of it lol!
does anyone have any sudjestions

[SpotsMama]

Time for those big boys/girls to start eating their salads!

My turtle would eat basil before he'd eat anything else green. Basil is expensive if you buy it in the grocery store but if you grow your own in a pot it's dirt cheap.

Another favorite of a lot of turtles is anacharis. Spot always gobbles his down.

Have you tried red or green leaf lettuce?

Have you tried these tips?

http://www.redearslider.com/entice_eating.html

I suppose YBS' and maps' tastes are similar to a RES's. Maybe not.

[marsspyder]

this is what i did to convince my res to eat his veggies

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8631

he now shoots me dirty looks when i give him pellets. hes like mom! i want the good stuff...but i suppose i can eat a few sticks...

spotsmama-larry doesnt like anacharis, i dont know why, he just makes a mess of it and stuffs it into the filter

[Rocky YBS]

i have tried green leaf lettuce but they arent having any of it.
thanks for the web pages i will try them now

[octpusgirl8]

Using a vegetable clip may help, my turtle won't eat his veggies if they're just floating around but he will when they're clipped to the side of the tank. You can find them in the fish food section of the pet store usually. Here's one of the ones that i use: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1

[SpotsMama]

marsspyder, sounds like Larry is a bad boy.

[Rocky YBS]

that vegetable clip sounds pretty cool!
but what if they dont want to eat thier salads?
will they still be healthy with what im feeding them?
the chopping up and mixing veggies and sticking them in the freezer sounds cool too!
thank you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[octpusgirl8]

They definiteley need to eat thier veggies, try not giving them anything else for a couple of days, the vegetables might look more appealing to them if there's no pellets or shrimp for them to eat.

[Rocky YBS]

thank you. i will try it

[Baseballchik138]

i tried this today! it worked theyre eating their herbs. rocky it should work...are we able to feed them apple?

[marsspyder]

spotsmama-i suppose larry is a bad boy, but technically hes a girl. short fingernails, short tail, 6 inches or so...yup hes my little girl. he eats plecos, scares the little faster algae eaters into the filter tubes, shreds green things, yup hes a rebel

baseballchic-i think apple is allowed once in a while as a treat. larry doesnt like it. how he picks around it when its mixed with other stuff is beyond me, but he wont eat it.