Feeding and Nutrition :: Decreased appetite

[laurapa]

I posted on here a few weeks ago saying it seemed like Oliver had gotten bored with red lettuce. But these days he's not finishing his dandelion either.

He is also rarely coming down to beg like he used to. Most days he just basks all day long and then goes into the water to sleep at night. Some days he swims around and tries to escape, which is his favorite activity. (I posted about his laziness of late in another post, too)

Once he sees the big green reptomin can, though, he leaps off his log and gets excited about eating. He eats ALL of his reptomin with his usual voracious appetite, and usually all of whatever additional veggie is offered (carrot, sweet potato, green pepper, blueberry, green bean, etc). But the leafy stuff he never finishes anymore. I don't think he even ate half of his dandelion leaf today.

He also doesn't finish his kale (but he never liked that), and lately hasn't been so crazy about green beans. He'll eat most of them but not finish.

He is exhibiting such a strange combination of hungry/not hungry that I'm not sure what to think. He's 4 years old and has always loved his veggies. I kind of want to introduce anacharis but it's so expensive and the stuff at Petsmart is crappy. Maybe I can grow my own...I'll look around for posts about that.

Any other ideas on how to get him interested in leafy stuff again?

[BullDog]

I think turtles go through "phases" on what they like and what they don't.
Right now, Ralph is in a "hungry" phase, where he'll gulp down anything I put in his tank (and I mean all of it!). Sometimes he'll only take a nibble of two of his greens, and only eat the other stuff (carrots, sweet potato, etc.). Or he'll only eat lettuce and won't eat anything else.

I would say just keep an eye on him, and offer him less of the leafy stuff (so it doesn't go to waste). I'm sure he'll come back onto the leafy greens eventually.

[octpusgirl8]

Turtley is also in a "no leafy greens please" phase. He's still all about pellets, sweet potato, carrot, etc. but for the last week or so he's only been nibbling at his lettuce. If he keeps it up i'm going to hold out on the goodies for a few days until he's hungry enough to eat his greens. Anacharis might be a good way to get some veggies into your turt, i'd of gotten some but the petsmart near me stopped selling aquatic plants It's super easy to grow anacharis, all you need is a small tank (or bucket), a flourescent light (or sunlight) and maybe a fish or two for nutrients.

[laurapa]

A related question:

If Oliver doesn't come down from his rock to beg all day one day, should I just not feed him? I wonder if he's just not hungry these days and I should focus on feeding him when he's hungry rather than convincing him to eat when he doesn't feel like it.

Maybe he is in the mood to just eat every other day these days, as he gets older. I don't want to make a bad assumption, though.

[steve]

It certainly won't hurt to skip a meal. If you're concerned, you can just a little lettuce in the tank overnight.

[queenjane]

Tank has phases as well. I think its like how dogs know when to eat grass... they eat the things like lettuce and carrot when they know their body needs it.

Just a theory. O_o.

I'd just keep providing food options for him, and he'll eat when he is hungry. Turtles aren't disposed toward starvation, lol.