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ok, first of all, my turtle is only about 1.5 inches

RIght now I am scraping flakes off of the cuttlebone by myself and throwing a few flakes for him, he eats them right away!
but should I just leave a small peice of cuttlebone floating in the water? Wont this make the water dirty?

also, when I feed him lettuce/raddichio I just throw iti n the water, he seems to have a hard time eating it though. should I rip it up into tiny bitesize chunks for him?

I just feed chunks of cuttlebone once a week for my turtles but they're older. For your little guy, putting in a several flakes 3 times a week should be good. Also you should tear the lettuce into smaller bitesized pieces to make them easier to eat. You could also attach larger pieces to a veggie clip attached to the tank glass to make it easier for him to tear pieces off of it.

hmm ok thanks. I find it fun to watch him try to bite off chunks of lettuce though, it seems liek its very good exercise for him
is this stressing him out or not? I probably will just shred it up for him tommorow.

Oh no, it's probably FUN for the turtle to shred things up. Serra enjoys it even more when she rips it all up...lol

Same with Kokoro. I shredded it one time and she lazily ate it. When i got a veggie clip and put in a leaf she would play with it and even take a rest on top of it.

I don't really "feed" cuttlebone. I just chuck it the entire piece into the tank after I got off all the hard backing. That way, she can eat it whenever she likes...

It's getting smaller now.

I also just throw in large chunks...it disappears quickly

sidenote- kevin your sig changes so often, so "oscar" (jumping spider hehe i forgot what you named yours) is gone and now you have ladybug larvae...interesting, i never thought of them in pre-stages, what do they look like???

If you're turtle is interested in cuttlebone at his tender age, that's good. I'd keep a few small, thinnish pieces floating in the tank and replace them as needed/daily if he eats them.

I cut off two small pieces for the kids and throw em in while I'm feeding them.

kstewart55 wrote:I also just throw in large chunks...it disappears quickly

sidenote- kevin your sig changes so often, so "oscar" (jumping spider hehe i forgot what you named yours) is gone and now you have ladybug larvae...interesting, i never thought of them in pre-stages, what do they look like???

LOL I set the spider free...It's so boring in my apartment I raise a whole bunch of critters since we don't have any room for any more big pets.
Here's a photo I took of em

(Not very good, I know, I was rushing...lol)

Egg-->larvae-->pupae-->ladybug

can too much cuttlebone be bad? Im just worried he will overdose on it, thanks lol

I'm not sure. If you leave it in his tank for him to eat it whenever he wants he probably won't overdose on it, that is, iIF they can get overdosed

how do I get rid of the hard backing on the cuttlebone? I cant get it off!

You can use a small knife and dig it in by the side and push up. That's how I did it.., but it flung pieces of it everywhere...lol

oooh, so those are ladybug larvae, i've seen them and thought they were some weird beetle... very cool!