Feeding and Nutrition :: Feeding question

[Mikeolsenxxx]

Hi, new to the forums here, just had a few questions, I ordered my RES online yesterday, Sanchez, so he will be here tomorrow. I went to Petco today to get everything I needed (or the Aquatic manager said I needed for a RES) and ended up with a basking lamp, Filter large tank, and water cleanser (to rid the water of chlorine), some basking rocks, a thermometer, and a couple of diffrent feeds, however, this is where my question lies: I have a feed called "ReptoMin" wich is 3 diffrent foods (seperated) in one little feed shaker thing the food it consists of is baby shrimp, mini-sticks, and mini-krill. I also have a bag of food wich consists of crickets, pellets, and shrimp (all mixed in). So my question is am I only supposed to feed it the pellets once a day and the shrimp/crickets/Krill once every two weeks? If not, what should I feed him out of the feed everyday? Should i feed him that more then once a day? Also, in the pellets, shrimp, and crickets bag all of the items seem a little big (about the length of a sunflower seed) for my turtle as he will only be a little baby when i get him, so should i cut the peices? Another thing, should I not feed him plants and other food in the same day? And can is there a limit on the amount of plant i could give him in a day?

Anyways, Thank you for any help you can give me!

Very excited to be a future turtle owner!

P.S. Anything else you think i should know feel free to tell me allways open to information, thanks!

[Tenodera]

Er....where did you order from? There's this horrible website that sells baby turtles in horrible conditions.

Did you read the nutrition section of this website? hatchlings need pellets everyday, pellets the amount that would it in his head as if it was hollow (excluding the neck)

the shrimp/crickets/krill can be offered very rarely since they contain a lot of protein.

and veggies, you can feed them as much as you want although I personally feed mine a piece the size of her shell.


Kevin

[Mikeolsenxxx]

I ordered mine from a place called turtlesales [not reputable].com I dont think they sell them in bad condition though only because my sister who lives in College station just got her two today and they looked healthey (she sent pictures) although i am no turtle expert and could easily be wrong. And Im sorry to be so knit-picky but by "very rarely" what span of time do you mean?

[Mikeolsenxxx]

Deleting

[Tenodera]

EEK!
That's the website that it's infamous for selling sick and dying turtles.

Please erase the name, we don't want anyone ordering from there. There are tons of horrible stories about that place.

[Mikeolsenxxx]

O no! When I get it what should I look for? I dont want anything to happen to it!

[Tenodera]

I'm not sure...You'll just have to wait and see.

[steve]

Here are some basics that will help you get things setup:
www.redearslider.com/startup.html

and some tips

www.redearslider.com/hatchling_tips.html and one more here www.redearslider.com/entice_eating.html

Good luck!

[Safdar]

Its a very bad site and you are lucky to get a turtle that turned up okay

[DavidY]

Don't get too worked up just yet. They sell turtles by the hundreds if not thousands. I'm sure that not all of them are sick or dying. The problem is that they just don't care and they treat these turtles like they're McDonald's Happy Meal toys, basically giving them away. They also treat their customers horribly if they do get a sick turtle. Basically they demand that you ship the sick, dying or dead turtle back to them for a "replacement" which often turns out to just be another sick, dead or dying baby. If the one your return was still alive, they will either just try to sell it again or destroy it (most likely they'll sell it again for the money). But they certainly won't bother to pay to treat the poor animal.

You didn't know about them before hand unfortunately so there's not sense in fretting about it now. Just please do not recommend them to anyone else and do not do business with them again. There is at least one very popular pet forum online that runs their payed ads even though they have certified that company as being a terrible business ("bad guy") but they legally can't pull the ad. It's really sickening.

[Kayra33]

Wow, I'm really glad that I picked up my girl just cruising along the Florida grass......no humans had harmed her yet. But my question is this....why do you delete the name of the website that is bad? How is anyone supposed to know where NOT to order a turtle if you don't know the website? Just curious....I don't plan on getting another turtle anyway (one is definitely enough) but I just wanted to know.

[Mikeolsenxxx]

I'm not sure but they asked me to delete it so...But anyways, Sanchez comes in in a few hours so fingers crossed thats he's ok, just FYI if he is sick theres no way I'd be sending him back for another, too barbaric and unfair to the turtle in my opinion, not to mention the fact that i could probably take much better care of him then they ever would from what youre telling me.

Turtle's life>money spent.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Whoa.

I just got a chance to read this thread. Good luck Mike! Let us know how everything turns out! Here's hoping your turtle will be ok. We're here in case you have any questions at all....don't hesitate to ask, ok?

Welcome to the board, BTW.

[untsmurf]

It's a great thing that you feel that way. Hopefully your turt won't be in a position where it can't be saved.

Depending on where you live, I don't think you should have chlorine in your water. You can get a water testing kit and see what all is in your water. There's a water conditioner that I use, it gets rid of all the crap in tap water that turts can't tolerate. Test the water before you buy any more water treatment stuff. You might not need it.

Good luck.

[Mikeolsenxxx]

well, I just got him about 5 mins ago, He seems prety healthy, he was really energetic when I put him in the tank (however i dont know if thats normal regardless of health). Although I do have one concern, It looks like there is a white patch on his neck, now im not sure if that could possibly be a sign of illness, dried up skin, or just natural coloring, any tips? Im planning to take a picture of it and post it here when he pokes his head enough out of his shell again to see it. Also just a few more things, I had dropped in a few pellets (about the size of his head if it was hollow) but he didnt seem intrested but I came back up 5 minutes later and I couldnt find any of the peices, I know the answer may seem obvious but I'm just thinking if he didnt seem intrested in them at all when I first dropped them in I find it hard to imagine that he would race around and eat them all as soon as i left the room, my thought was that they might of gotten into the filter or somthing, should i try and feed him in a seperate bowl or let him settle in for a few days, drop food in, and hope he eats it? I know im probably sounding a little too worried but I just want to make sure he is perfectly happy/healthy.

Thanks again for all youre help guys, I REALLY appreciate it!