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I've had my Red Eared Slider for a very long time and unfortunately have provided an incorrect diet for much of that time. Early on he shunned all lettuce and veggies so we just kind of stopped trying and he was always Reptomin. Recently, after reading more forums I did the tough love method, withheld food for a few days and then starting doing red and green lettuce in a veggie clip. He will happily gobble all of the lettuce and loves it.

Now, my question... I only offer pellets every other day since he's a mature adult. But I also read that you can offer the lettuce daily. I'm pretty comfortable with knowing what amount of pellets to give but the lettuce part is trickier. And to add to it, I think he's getting fat. He was shedding excessively both on his skin and his scutes for a little while so I scaled back. I'm worried that with the lettuce he's getting overfed.

Lettuce is flat. Some leaves are larger, some smaller. Does the whole "feed them what can fit inside their head" thing apply to the lettuce too? Lettuce + pellets? I started with 2 veggie clips of lettuce. Now it's just one, every other day.

I really want to do right by him so any advice on how to think the lettuce part through would be great. He's getting up there in years (He's got to be between 15-17 years old) and I want to make sure this old man is aging well.

You can feed them lettuce all the time. It doesn't count in the whole fit in your head thing. Iceberg lettuce doesn't have much nutrition in it, you need more like collard greens, mustard greens, red leaf lettuce, etc... And veggies like zucchini and cucumber are also excellent.

Yes, what Joddog said. Keep an eye on the poop, make sure it's not loose and real messy. Also, if the turtle eats very quickly, spread out the feeding.

Awesome, thanks so much! I kind of thought it might be like people where lettuce and greens are "free calories" but didn't want to overfeed this little pig.

Right now the lettuce I give him is darker greens and reds so I think I'm doing ok there. I'll add some safe veggies too and absolutely spread out the feeding through the day.

Thanks!

I prefer to feed veggies in the morning. They seem to digest better while basking throughout the day.