Feeding and Nutrition :: Am I over feading?

[Penelope75]

So I'm really not good at figuring out the whole size of their head hollow is the amount of pellets to give them and I need a little help. My little guy is about 5 inches. I use the small zoo med pellets and on the container it says to feed them one level teaspoon...which I'm pretty sure is too much. I was also told that if I cut the pellets in half I could feed him every day which I prefer doing. So my question is..Is a half a teaspoon of the small pellets(the growth formula ones)a day too many? If it is too many would a 1/4 teaspoon of them be OK? I really don't want to over feed the little guy as I'm aware of the problems this can cause. I also feed him lots of organic romaine(the dark and light baby romaine)and I give him a little bit of the freeze dried krill every other day. Is that too much krill?

[TheComputerGremlin]

I have both the HBH pellets and the Reptomin pellets, and I give my 6" turtle 8-10 each day. Yes, it feels like you are starving them, but it's fine.

Never follow the directions on a food package for turtles, it always tell you to give them too much. Many say "Feed as much as they will eat in 5 minutes." If I let my turtle eat as much as she wanted in 5 minutes, I'd run through a whole container of food!

[Penelope75]

8-10 of the little pellets or the big pellets?

[Penelope75]

One more thing..I give him organic baby red and green romaine about a handful broken up everyday. He gobbles this stuff right up and I wondered if I can give him more or can you feed them too much of this as well?

[robind]

I'm of the opinion that you can't feed too much greens.

[worldpeace]

robind - Overfeeding is still overfeeding even if it involves "healthy foods". It's true that too much protein in a turtle's diet can cause pyramiding, but this can also be caused by lettuce or other greens offered in very large quantities.

[novroz]

robind - Overfeeding is still overfeeding even if it involves "healthy foods". It's true that too much protein in a turtle's diet can cause pyramiding, but this can also be caused by lettuce or other greens offered in very large quantities.

How much green should we give them then?

[Saga]

Can you really overfeed if you give leafy greens (aquatic plants, lettuce)? I've been giving my turtles their bodysize with weeds, grass, aquatic plants or lettuce 2-3 times a week for the last 6 years (I give them greens almost everyday, but the other days I give less). And my turtles seems fine - they've been healthy, are neither over- nor underweight and has no pyramiding.