Feeding and Nutrition :: Turtle is a monster during feeding

[bubblyturtles]

Alright I have a situation, my RES, Margaret Thatcher is turning into a total monster when I feed her. I feed her every other day or every two days depending on how much I give her. She gets a variety of veggies, reptomin pellets, superworms and sometimes live feeder fish-I mix it up every time I feed her so she doesn't get spoiled off one thing.

She was very quiet when I hand fed her until these past two weeks. She would "take nice" and kept begging to a minimal. Now all the sudden she will take the first piece of food, for instance, a pellet, and eat it nicely then when I go to give her the second or third she launches out of the water with her mouth wide open almost as if she is going for my knuckles!!!!! I thought it was maybe because of the worms and how they are wiggly and she feels like she needs to "hunt/attack" them but I tried stepping away from the worms for a few feeding times and she is still doing it. I haven't changed the way in which I feed her at all...perhaps she is getting more comfortable with hand feeding and is showing her true colors?

PLEASE help me, I have zero interest in losing the skin on my fingers and knuckles.

[steve]

Hand feeding is a tricky thing. You have to compensate for your turtle's approach to your hand. Slow, inquisitive movements are preferred but if they move in fast, then abort quickly and pull back. Try to start at one end, and move across parallel to the surface of the water while the incoming turtle chases, then matches speed and takes a bite. You can also use longer portions of food, like a longer shred of carrot and letting your turtle get a bit before you have to release the remaining portion. You can also just drop in food, thus saving your fingers any of the risk associated to hand turtle feeding, though you might still get splashed on.

And for the diet, I'd be giving veggies every day, then have a rotation of a small amount of pellets, worms or feeders on top of that.

[my.lovely.turtle.]

using some sort of tongs would work.