Feeding and Nutrition :: Vitamin D3

[steve]

Are we talking about vitamin D or vitamin D3?

Mohamadfar, you don't need to leave your turtle unattended or all day out in the sun. When it's sunny and warm outside, I bring my turtles outside for an hour or 2, depending on the temperatures and weather conditions.

[SpotsMama]

My understanding is that oily fish is a good source of vitamin d3. Have you heard otherwise?

[steve]

No, but I'm not sure how much D3 it provides compared to sunlight or a dietary supplement... and if it can be a suitable substitute for UVB.

[mohamadfar]

seven sean pellets in okey are not ?

[megcornell]

Can you provide a link to them or some info on them, I've personally never heard of them nor could I find them online.

[SpotsMama]

On vitamin D3 from food (specifically oily fish) I did a little reading and a turtle apparently could NOT get enough from fish oil to provide what he needs for his shell and bones. Eskimos and Inuit Indians get enough from their traditional oily fish/meat diets without supplements even during the long winter nights but they eat fatty fish and meat almost exclusively, not what we'd recommend for a turtle!

For other people with more typical diets that don't include huge amounts of fatty fish and meat, vitamin D3 has to either come from sunlight or supplements. Similarly, a turtle who can't bask under a UVB light bulb will either need vitamin supplements or regular meaningful exposure to natural sunlight. I would think that good quality sunshine would be abundant in Tehran since it lies pretty far south if reptile supplements are hard to come by.

[marisa]

mohamadfar, I remember you saying you lost a turtle that was left outside in the sun without enough water. I wouldn't let this be the reason why you can't take your turtle outside in the warmer months--you just need to be more careful and NOT put your turtle in a glass container with water (it heats up quite quickly) and have a shady place for your turtle to go to.

If, in the summer/warm months, you take your turtle outside on a regular basis---several times a week, for 30 minutes to an hour, your turtle should have his UVB needs met. Bring a book, newspaper, whatever---something to do---and stay out with the turtle so you don't forget about him and he doesn't get overheated.

If he's healthy now, you did this consistently in the warmer months, and made sure he had some Vit D3 in his diet the rest of the time, I'm thinking he could be maintained this way fairly nicely...

[mikee]

Mo-mad -- Your turtle must have uvb to survive. They need it to metabolize calcium for their bones and shell. If they are unable to metabolize their food they will start to get MBD and then die. Sun light would be fine if the temperature is ok. At any rate uvb is necessary. While getting their uvb they need to be up on a basking area for uvb and heat. The sticky s have all the info for the temperatures, etc.

[mohamadfar]

Can you provide a link to them or some info on them, I've personally never heard of them nor could I find them online.

Seven Seas
www.codoliveoil.co.uk I think

[marisa]

I cannot get anything when I click that link, and when I type in the address, I don't get anything either. Are they fish pellets or for turtles?

[mohamadfar]

bad typed !!!!!

http://codliveroil.co.uk/

Thanx marisa

[eugenetimpog]

The url is http://www.codliveroil.co.uk/

I dont have a uvb lamp also and I let them bask under the sun everyday.
I've been doing these for more then a year now.
I have a rubbermaid tank outside and it is positioned to catch the sun from 8-10 sometimes 9-11 am. after that it would be shaded so it wont overheat the water. And then at night i would bring them back inside the house into another enclosure. I live in a tropical country so it doesn't get too hot or too cold. Maybe you can try it. Just monitor temp and look for how long before the water get into dangerous temp.

[marisa]

Thanks. But this is cod liver oil---you had mentioned Seven Seas pellets a while back---do you mean the vitamins in the link?

Does your turtle have a Vit. D3 deficiency now or is your turtle basically healthy and you just want to make sure he's got enough Vit D in his diet? If he's not deficient, I would think including some of the foods that are high in vit D would be enough in the cooler months. If you can't find any of them, I suppose you could get a bottle of the cod liver oil and put a little on his food occasionally, but you'd have to be careful not to overdo it.

Really, like eugenetimpog has described, taking your turtle outside for an hour or two several times a week in the warm months would be really good for him.