General Care Discussion :: cuttlebone fun

[vieniebebe]

OMG,Vien is hilarious.I got her fruit cuttlebone, and I don't know how to cut it, so I put it on her dock, and she is all scared of it,it's funny

[Pokey's Grandpa]

What is cuttlebone? I have never heard of this fruit

[vieniebebe]

cuttlebone is something that people get for birds to make their beaks stronger,you can also give it to turtles.It has a lot of calcium.It comes in regular or in fruit flavors

[Pokey's Grandpa]

Oh I think I know what you are talking about, is it this sort of sharp looking round white rock? That is usually clipped to the side of the cage of parrots and things? How do the turtles use this? Do they chew on it or what?

[vieniebebe]

Yep,that's the one.Regular cuttlebone is pretty easy to give to turtles,but not all turtles will eat it.Just take the hard backing off with the knife and break it into small pieces.Don't give your turtle too much.I don't know how to give them fruit kind.Mine likes it better,but she's having a hard time biting it off.Don't's forget to use UVB lamp for vitamin D

[sonyj]

It is not good for your turtle to get any kind of flavored cuttlebone. Stick to the plain.

[Pokey's Grandpa]

I have a semi-retarded question but should I put it in the water or the dry area?

[sonyj]

Just drop it in the water after removing the hard backing and breaking it into bite size/head size pieces. It will just float until it's eaten. You can offer a few pieces at a time. Sometimes it takes a while to get them used to it so just keep trying.

[Pokey's Grandpa]

Well Pokey is so small to make it head sized is like impossible... I just basically destroyed the whole damn thing with a filet knife. I was all careful trying to remove the backing, and instead either made chunks roughly the size of the entire turtle itself or so fine it is a white powder and police keep trying to set up a sting operation on me lol Is there any easy way to cut or break this stuff??

[marisa]

Why is fruit flavored cuttlebone so bad? I've seen it, but haven't gotten any because it's more expensive than the regular.

Pokey's Grandpa, I use a sharp paring knife to cut the cuttlebone into very small pieces. First I break the cuttlebone into halves (or quarters) and pry off the back (if often comes off in pieces). Then I just use the paring knife to slice the soft part into little pieces (you'll still get some crumbs, I give them as well---make sure there are no small pieces of the hard backing among them). I save any powder as well to coat moistened pellets with.

I keep a few pieces floating in the water for them to nibble on.

[missibsu]

I've never purchased the fruit flavored cuttlebone, but I always just assumed it had added sugar to it. I never read the package...it was just an assumption.

[sonyj]

Actually Marisa, I don't know I'm going by info from either Steve or Jen that I got off of here in an older post. I'll have to look back though to see who actually said it. I assumed because it was artificially flavored but that's my guess.

[marisa]

I'd just be curious as to why (no assumptions, just the facts). I've never heard of this, that's all.

[sonyj]

Here's the link to the post I was remembering... http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... cuttlebone

But it doesn't say why either... maybe we can find out why for sure.

[vieniebebe]

yea no offence if i sound rude, but you gotta understand that today is a horrible day.Yep,I'm missing France vs. Switzerland for the second time, this time because we don't have the fricking channel.grrrrr...Now I can't see Zidane .
So yea, I already got fruit cuttlebone, and it cost me $3, and I am using it.I spent over $200 on turtle stuff, just to find out it was wrong.So that is it,I am not spending another penny on any equipment,or plain cuttlebone.Turtles do just fine without UVB and all that other stuff