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Ok, now we have this food called Vitakraft, Reptile Gammare Menu. My mom says that is all they need but i am trying to tell her that is not true and they need a varitey of food. She says that we cannot get them anything besides commerical food and she wont buy other foods for them. (ex. feeder fish, lettuce). They can only have pellets and this reptile food she says. She says this is true because the pet store guy said that is the best for them. Please help me convince her without getting her too mad.

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Well turtles can SURVIVE on just pellets the same way we can survive on junk food and soda. We can survive but it doesn't mean that its healthy for us. If you feed your turtles nothing but a high protein commercial turtle food their shell will eventually begin pyramiding which looks like this http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Pyramiding.htm . Just like humans they also need a wide variety of foods.

You can find a wide variety of foods here http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5

Also i will tell you from personal experience most people that work at pet stores are very uneducated about the proper care of turtles.

aside from food do you have a uva/uvb bulb??

my turts r pyrmiding and my mom agreed to get them pellets, finally but no people food.

why does your mom deny feeding other foods??

have you tried directing her to this site??

yes but she says this site is not "trustworthy"

well i know for a fact some people on this site have been keeping turtles for decades.

lol...cant u even sneek in some other foods?? Like while your moms not looking

no they will take too long 2 eat and i would have 2 sneek them upstairs

Hmm. Sadly, some people would prefer to trust the pet store "experts" than the internet. Because anyone can post on the internet, right? I think that's what this kid is up against.

Haha, lettuce is "people" food. Nope, definitely rabbit food, haha.

P.S. The pet stores SELL the pelleted food. Of course they're not going to mention that you can get them a huge clump of lettuce at the grocery store for $1.50...

Well, I have yet to see a pellet dispenser in the swamp

Well, getting a variety of food can be actually really easy, when you cook fish for example, cut a couple of slivers off before you season and bred them.

You can get small plastic baggies to put veggies in (and the fish) and stick them in the freezer and pull it out when needed, it won't take up too much space. It does not turn toxic just because it's labeled 'pet food'

Pet foods are really a relatively new invention, certainly convinient for the busy pet owner, but in many cases no different than a TV dinner for people. It will keep you alive eating those, but you can do much better.

If you buy a well balanced pellet, that's all the turtle really needs. Of course some veggies would be good, but for whatever reason, your mom thinks otherwise.

I really don't think any pellet provides everything a turtle needs. Pellets are convenient for the keeper, but the diet really should be supplemented with other foods.