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Michelangelo won't touch any other vegetable, but he LOVES nori! I think he would eat an entire sheet if I let him. My question is, can I feed him nori as a staple vegetable? (In case you're unfamiliar, nori is a toasted seaweed that comes in dry, crispy sheets. It's what you use to wrap around sushi.) The kind I use has no preservatives, additives, nothing. The ingredients on the package read: roasted seaweed.

I happen to love nori almost as much a Michelangelo, so I always have some on hand. ^_^

I'm not sure what it would mean to the long term health of your turtles, but I do know that they are typically very high in sodium and potassium. It won't be listed in the ingedients but should be on the 'Nutrition Facts' label.

This may not be exactly what you have, but take a look here for more info;
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vege ... cts/2765/2

I'm thinking nori is high in iodine as well...

I have some Nori here at home and it has like no Sodium, some Vitamin A and C and some Iron. It doesn't say anything about Iodine.

These are the stats from the Nori I have per serving (which I am sure your turtle eats less than me):

Calories: 10
Sodium: 103 mg (4%)
Carbohydrate: 4g (1%)
Protein: 3g
Calcium: 4%
Vit C: 3%
Iron: 32%

All other stats were at zero, however, I dont think iodine is something usually listed so it may have that in it, but not listed. I am not sure.

Just fromt he taste of it, I would say its too salty for turtles, but im not expert.

I'm not an expert, but if your turtle likes nori, would he like something algae/fresh water-based as well? I'm sure there are water plants similar to nori that you could try, even like those algae wafers that people feed fish. And if he doesn't go for those, he may like the salt rather than the actual nori and may be lacking some mineral/vitamin/salt that he needs to be healthy.

I'm almost positive that my nori doesn't have any sodium. It doesn't taste salty, at any rate. It just tastes...um...seaweedy. And yeah, ComputerGremlim, come to think of it, I bet he would like algae wafers. I actually saw some nori packaged as saltwater fish food recently, and that's why I decided to try giving it to him. I wish I could find some anacharis to give my turtles, since I keep reading that most like it so much, but no one around here sells aquatic plants!

So...what's the consensus? Is nori ok to feed turtles on a regular basis?

I spoke to a friend that survived cancer who eats seaweed (some of it was green Nori, not red) because of the supposed medicinal benefits.

Apparently, seaweed usually contains iodine in small amounts, possibly small enough that it might not be listed at all. Kelp contains much higher amounts of iodine.

She also told me, and this is the most interesting part for this dicussion, that Nori can cause an increase in phosphates in aquariums.

So, it sounds that it might not be such a good idea to use as a turtle food, but like anything, fed occasionally in small amounts it doesn't sound like there would be any long term detrimental effects either, as long as you maintain your tank water quality and check for phosphates. Also, keep in mind that your turtles are not marine turtles, so you may not want to feed them anything intended for salt water fish.

spaceapple wrote:I'm almost positive that my nori doesn't have any sodium. It doesn't taste salty, at any rate.

You're confusing SODIUM with SALT (Sodium Chloride). Sodium is a component of salt, but don't assume that you can determine the sodium content by whether something tastes 'salty' or not. That's why nurtitional facts labels have become so important on food. Sodium is the component of salt that typically causes people so many health problems which is why it is listed specifically rather than salt.

Fuzzy Hamster wrote:

spaceapple wrote:I'm almost positive that my nori doesn't have any sodium. It doesn't taste salty, at any rate.

You're confusing SODIUM with SALT (Sodium Chloride). Sodium is a component of salt, but don't assume that you can determine the sodium content by whether something tastes 'salty' or not. That's why nurtitional facts labels have become so important on food. Sodium is the component of salt that typically causes people so many health problems which is why it is listed specifically rather than salt.

I know ^_^. I meant that I did read the nutrition facts, and I don't think there was sodium. Then I just happened to remember that it didn't taste salty. In case anyone wondered. Anyway, thanks for the input!