Feeding and Nutrition :: my turtle diet changed/needs changes?

[faithin_felix]

hi everybody.
the place i normally purchase turtle chow decides not to sell it anymore. Everywhere else is considerably more expensive. I use to feed them pellets and now I've been reading around and see alternatives on top of the pellets. I notice some of you feed lettuce one day and pellets the other. Do you have any suggestions for me?
A cheap place to buy pellets? (Vancouver, BC)
An alternative diet?

Here are my two babies:

flippers 6.5"

bubbles 4" (sorry for the blurriness, my sister focused it bad)
bubbles looks bigger because of the image size.

i've had them both for approximately 3.5 years and don't know exactly how old they are. Do they look healthy to you? Over-fed maybe?

Comments and suggestions appreciated.

[gwennie]

They both look like they have some pyramiding - it's quite common for captive turtles to have. It comes from being fed too much protein.

Do you feed them any leafy greens or vegetables? Or have you always fed turtle chow?

[faithin_felix]

Always turtle chow, yesterday I threw in a few pieces of vegetables and they were scared of the vegetable. I thought they were starting to pyramid too, any suggestions of what I should do? a changed diet?

[papoopeepoo]

your best bet is to lay off the pellets for about a week. at that point offer veggies, only veggies. carrots, red leaf lettuce, sweet potato or choose from the list on the nutrition page on the main site. don't give into their begging during that week. they'll be fine.

check this out: http://www.redearslider.com/plants.html

you want to get them accustomed to veggies because as RES get older their diet should be 60-70% veggies. the little damage that is done to the shell is already done, but you can prevent future damage from occurring by changing the diet drastically.

[faithin_felix]

thanks a lot! i will do that starting next monday. so no pellets, and ONLY veggies for a week! i hope they won't starve! thanks a lot!

[TheComputerGremlin]

They won't starve, we promise! As for what their diets *should* be from here on out:

Every other day, give them a headful of turtle pellets. Stick with the pellets as the main source of protein because they have added nutrients that regular meat or fish won't contain. For the 4" turtle, I would guess about 6-8 pellets and for the 6.5" turtle, I would guess 8-12 pellets. You'll have to eyeball it based on your pellets.

Every day, give them some type of veggies. Lettuce, in smaller portions (I recommend about a shell size), can be given daily. Then you can give carrot slivers or whatever else occasionally.

Also, get some cuttlebone to feed them. It's an extra calcium boost. It's found in the bird section, there is a hard backing that has to be cut off first.

We have a number of Canadians on the board, so try searching first, and if not posting, a topic like "Calling all Canadians, I need to buy turtle pellets" and see if you can't wrangle a few of them out.

[faithin_felix]

thanks for all your help. i hope they will eat the food evenly since they are in the same tank.

[steve]

Sorry for the late response, but Flippers might have an issue with fungus, which would be contagious to Bubbles. I'd try to determine what it is to see if treatment is necessary.