Feeding and Nutrition :: Veronica's diet.

[buffyfan9005]

Right now I'm feeding my hatchling a pellet and a half every morning and night. I'm offering veggies (romaine lettuce, carrots) and she's just ignoring them like they're the black plague.

Is there any other things I should be offering her in her diet?

Update: Veronica just ate a bit of green pepper. I am so proud of her. Also, I feel very ashamed to say that I felt she took after her mommy since I love green pepper.

Update again: She just ate some lettuce finally.

Okay. I'm relieved. I thought I'd never get her to eat veggies.

[reptilegrrl]

That is not nearly enough pellets. Please, don't starve your turtle.

Have you read through the diet sections of this website? Hatchlings are mostly carnivorous. They need a lot of protein for their growing shells and bodies.

She does not need to eat a lot of vegetables right now, and starving her of protein to get her to eat veggies is not healthy for her. Please, read through the feding and nutrition sections of this site.

[buffyfan9005]

I'm not starving her. I'm feeding her pellets the size that would fit into her head twice a day. That's what the "feeding and nutrition" sections of this site say to do.

I don't starve her of protein to eat the veggies. I offer the veggies with the pellets.

[reptilegrrl]

One and a half pellets a day is the voume of her head? Are these giant pellets?

And what else are you offering her, besides pellets and veggies? What kind of live foods? She is not at a stage in her life where she needs to eat a lot of vegetables.

[ellman605]

you could definatly try rosies, mine eat about 6, then get bored and leave them for a while, and in that time, they cleaned up a whole anachris, and that crap left a lot of leaves at the bottom, and within the next day, all the rosies had eaten the leaves.

[buffyfan9005]

The pellets are the regular reptomin pellets and she gets 1 and a half to two IN THE MORNING. And then later that evening she gets the same thing along with her offer of lettuce.

I've offered her minnows. She ignores them. She's not interested at all.

I hate to say that I'm taking offense to the way you seem to be attacking me, reptilegrrl. I would never mistreat my turtle. I've done everything this board tells me to do and spent hundreds of dollars in the last few weeks buying what she needs.

Veronica still is a tiny hatchling and I'm feeding her what I can without over-feeding her.

[ellman605]

well, i found that the easiest way to get my turtles to eat anything is getting them used to hand feeding, and then offering them stuff, and they will take it if its in my hand

[buffyfan9005]

I'm doing the same thing also. I offer Veronica her veggies in her tank. I have to push them towards her and once she sees it moving towards her she's like "HEY! WHAT IS THAT?" and takes a nip at it. Occasionally I'll actually feed her her pellets in her tank instead of her feeding container because I know she likes to swim around her big tank with her food in her mouth.

[SlidersRCool]

I hate to say that I'm taking offense to the way you seem to be attacking me, reptilegrrl. I would never mistreat my turtle. I've done everything this board tells me to do and spent hundreds of dollars in the last few weeks buying what she needs.

I feel for you on this one. I swear, you come on here to try and get some pointers and people jump on you. I've got 2 little hatchlings, and I give them about 1 1/2 to 2 pellets in the morning, and then the same thing in the evening.

You know, these turtles heads aren't THAT big... got people telling me I need to feed 'em 10 a day, I'm like damn!

[buffyfan9005]

Well overfeeding can be very unhealthy for any animal and I know I'm feeding my hatchling as much as she needs (and wants).

There is a lot of "attacking" on this forum but it's just comes from the fact that we're all so anxious and upset over the mistreatment of so many RES in the US so I think a lot of the people here immediatly start firing off questions and advice at new turtle owners because they're afraid the newbies don't understand how much money and care it takes to properly take care of a turtle.

But I still think we all need to learn to be a little less um...mean. Because sometimes I'm reading posts from newbies and they're just being attacked like whoa and I can't for the life of me figure out why they even stick around after the initial reaction they receive. :-/

[ellman605]

You know, these turtles heads aren't THAT big... got people telling me I need to feed 'em 10 a day, I'm like damn!

watch the language, there are little kids on the forums who take offense to that language

[SlidersRCool]

Exactly. I don't think I'm over, or under-feeding, my turts right now. I'd say they are doing just fine, they seem to be happy, swimming around.

And trust me, I know about how people can mistreat their turtles. I have been to someone's house... and saw their tank, they had like a 20 gallon tank, filled half way... and I couldn't tell you the last time they had cleaned it... it was completely green, you couldn't see in it... so I didn't think there was anything in there... so I'm looking in, and all of a sudden, I see a turtle head pop up. Turns up there were two of 'em in there!! I tell you, it's bad.

But my turts are happy as can be.

[SlidersRCool]

You know, these turtles heads aren't THAT big... got people telling me I need to feed 'em 10 a day, I'm like damn!

watch the language, there are little kids on the forums who take offense to that language

Oh, sorry, am I contributing to the downfall of children? Darn, I might just have created the next Jeffrey Dahmer or Ron Jeremy by using a cursed four-letter word!

Come on, seriously, people... do you really sit up on your high horse and look down on people like that? Some people need to get over themselves. There's alot worse things in the world (and especially the web) than me saying "damn" (oops, kiddies, don't read that last word, you might learn a naughty word you'll never hear in your life)

[ellman605]

Behavior and etiquette
There is a level of maturity that exists within Turtle Talk and we expect it to stay that way. Everyone who participates and offers advice does so in his or her own free time; and this participation is fundamental to the development of this forum. We anticipate people to act and respond in a civil manner - there is no tolerance for written and verbal abuse and harassment of any type. Inappropriate posts/topics, out of topic posts, cross posting, spamming, pestering and anything with a malicious or illegal intent are not permitted. Do not take warnings lightly.

[buffyfan9005]

I admit it's hard for me to not use "bad words" on this forum, haha. I'm used to using them everywhere else that I'm at on the web but for some reason I kind of felt like this would not be the place to use them. O_O

SlidersRCool, I'll gladly give up using my bad words just to be at a decent place to discuss turtles. This board really is the most constructive that I've seen.