Feeding and Nutrition :: young ones

[holmeed]

My wife got me 2 young red eared sliders about 2 months ago. These are alot more maintenance than I thought but I want to make them happy and give them a good life.

I know your not suppose to move them that often but I keep them in big cattle tank at night and big 90 gallon pond outside in day. I clean, I clean then clean some more. I have a good filter and light for indoors but they are almost always out in day in their pond.

I have been feeding them earthworms, tadpoles, strawberrys, grapes. and repto min reptile food. They will not eat lettuce or sliced carrots or ANYTHING vegetative.

I now read where you should not give them the yummy shrimp that comes in the repto min canister. So I stopped giving them that and am trying just to stick to turtle logs and romaine lettuce . They won't touch any lettuce etc like I said. Is this because they just want "candy"?

I read 50% of their diet is suppose to be veggies and such. Now I'm not going to go buy expensive exotic greens and plants so...

My question is when will they eat their veggies? They are young and need more protein...

Thank you for any help...

[steve]

For veggies, try a veggie clip -- it's a clip with a suction cup. It seems to work pretty well when they're not interested.

[marisa]

Try some anacharis, an aquatic plant that you should be able to get at aquarium shops or garden centers in your state, if it's legal (some states consider it to be invasive and therefor ban the sale of it). You can leave it in the tank to be nibbled on at will (it won't go bad like lettuce will). If conditions are right, it will also grow.

Once they start nibbling on that, I've found it to be a fairly easy transition to other leafy greens).