General Care Discussion :: Food Suggestions

[scmom0305]

I poseted this in another topic but this one seems more relevant. I've tried giving my yearling RES lettus, greenbeans and carrots (not all at once) and he wouldn't eat any of them. Is there a trick or is it just keep giving to him and eventualy he'll eat them? He eats the pellets but nothing else. Also do I need to cook the carrots I give him?

[SpotsMama]

Is Salad pretty little? They get more interested in vegetables as they get older. Still need to try to get him to eat some.

Different turtles have preferences for different things. Spot would eat basil when he was little and wouldn't eat anything else. Some turtles will eat red things - tomatoes, carrots, an occasional little piece of strawberry, red leaf lettuce. Spot likes an occasional blueberry.

On carrots, try cutting a long thin strip like a worm with a vegetable peeler. That may make it easier for him.

Some turtles like it better if you put their vegetables in a vegetable clip. That's a cloths pin type devise that sticks on the side of the tank with a sucker and holds the veggies in place. You get them in the fish section of a pet store. They're very inexpensive.

Lots of turtles really love water plants like Anacharis. Water plants are very good for them. One of the nice things about water plants is that you can leave them in there indefinitely until the turtle decides to eat them and they will improve the water quality. The only negative to them is that turtles are messy messy messy and will scatter plant fragments all over the tank if they get it into their heads to tear it to pieces. If you're ok with that then water plants are an excellent alternative.

[scmom0305]

Yes Salad is a little guy (I say guy but I don't know yet). He's only about an inch. You said basil, can I give him the dried kind? Also red lettus that isn't the same thing as red cabbage is it?

[SpotsMama]

An inch is tiny indeed!

The basil should be the fresh kind, not dried. I grow it in pots at home when the weather's warm so I've always got some around. I can get a live basil plant for a couple of dollars and it will keep me, my husband and Spot in basil for months. If you buy it cut at the grocery store it's really expensive.

Red leaf lettuce is different from red cabbage. Leaf lettuce comes in both green and red forms. The red isn't really all red - it's just got a reddish or brown tinge on the ends of the leaves. It's really good for your turtle - and for you too!

[steve]

Some people have had success placing aquatic plants in their tanks. If they eat it, they know the leafy green stuff is edible. If not, you have a nice tank decoration.