Feeding and Nutrition :: About to begin feeding veggies to my turtle... how?

[mcghee.kevin]

Many know from my other posts, I have inhereted some turtles, they are about 12-15 years old and lived on food sticks all their life. I want to start getting them to eat veggies, bought some romaine lettuce today as per recommendations but how to I administer this, put a leaf in the tank and let it float and they eat at their leisure... tear it into peices???? Any other stuff like carrots .... what about them. I guess I want to know how to feed em veggies in general.

[emma]

I just put the leaves into the tank. My turtles end up biting them into tiny pieces anyways. For the carrots, you can just shop those up into pieces and put them at the bottom of your tank, your turtles will find them eventually. Or you can feed your turtle in a container so the tank doesnt get so messy.

[SpotsMama]

After about a day, it's good to fish out any uneaten veggies as they get slimey and gross. My turtle likes to have his veggies attached to a veggie clip (that's like a clothes pin with a sucker on it that attaches to the tank wall) because it keeps the veggies from floating away when he bites them. However, he'll also eat veggies when they are floating free. He likes carrots best if I shave off a couple if long thin strips with a potato peeler for him.

[megcornell]

For leafy things I just toss a leaf or two in. For more solid veggies I slice them into thin strips or bite size pieces.
My turtle notices anything I add to the tank so I don't bother with a clip to keep things in place. It's a matter of what your turtles will prefer.

[stealthpilot]

I've also began feeding mine veggies after almost a year of strait pellets. I'll usually put some green leaf lettuce in with his normal pellets. He will always go for the pellets first, then go after the lettuce. I've noticed he will eventually eat all the lettuce leaves floating around in about a day.

I've also got him on carrots, I just slice them thin with a potatoe pealer as mentioned earlier. They sit at the bottom until he goes rummaging for them.

Mine took about a week to catch on, but they eventually do I believe.

[mcghee.kevin]

Well I wasn't that surprised that Ralfi went for the lettuce, she will eat anything I think... a very voracious apppetite, thou she didnt finish it, Rammy the sick one I was surprised to see him eat his... he hasnt eaten much in that past couple of weeks and to see him grab it and drag it down to the bottom and eat was a pleasant surprise!! He didnt finish his either but oh well...