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I've read too much lettuce can give a turtle diarrehea, but somewhere else I've read that I should give lettuce to the turtle everyday. Whenever I put lettuce in, she immediatly starts eating it...By the the end of the day she's eaten most of it...What should I do? Should I still give her lettuce everyday?

Something from the plant kingdom every day is good. Most days it should be salad greens - romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, dandelion leaves, etc. Mix them up - sometimes one, sometimes the other. On occasions you can give thin pieces of carrot, apple peel, strawberry.

Water plants in the tank for them to nibble on when the mood strikes are great - like anacharis. water plants will also improve water quality. Turtles are messy, though, and there will be little pieces of the water plants on the bottom of the tank all the time.

Here's a really good link on plant food:

http://www.redearslider.com/plants.html

She always rejects dandelion leaves, even the new shoots.

Thanks for the water plant idea, though!

How exactly does having live plants work? I was just looking at another topic where they were saying that they're useful in breaking down nitrites etc, and I guess I don't understand the concept. Do you just buy the plants and toss them in there and they just kind of float around? Do they actually live off of whatever they can get from the water?

I'm not sure about all aquatic plants, but the anachris i bought just floats around and lives off of stuff in the water. well, it would have anyways. but my turtles ate all 6 big strands of it within a couple hours.

Nitrates are fertilizer for plants. Algae also use nitrates, so if there's a lot of nitrates in your water (plus good light) then algae will thrive. But if you have other types of plants growing in the water then they will use up the nitrates (fertilizer) so there's nothing left for the algae. Whatever nitrates aren't absorbed by plants or algae have to be removed by changing the water.

Too bad we can't teach our turtles to refrain from eating some of the water plants so they could absorb more nitrates.

How much lettuce is too much lettuce? My turtle goes crazy when i put lettuce in and devours it in 5 minutes (Literally, and its a baby lettuce).

Daily good quality lettuce (red and green leaf lettuce, dandelion leaves, turnip greens) is great. If your turtle starts have the runs then you'll know he's got too much lettuce in his diet and needs to cut back.

Anacharis and other water plants are great for the turtles. They are part of a turtle's natural diet. Too bad they gobble them down so fast!

Here's more on plant food:

http://www.redearslider.com/plants.html

I know what you mean. Here's whats usually left at the end of the day:



I'll start to cut back once I start seeing "stuff' floating on the surface. I just give them half of what they usually get for a few days....

I am currently growing red leaf lettuce. I have 5 plants and usually take two leafs at a time off diffent plants. My two turtles love the stuff.

What exactly do 'turtle runs' look like.

My little one eats alot of lettuce and when he defecates it comes out in a clump then sort of breaks apart into what looks like oregano.

Sheba gets greens every day. She gets baby romaine (romaine lettuce mix with red & green leaves). Sometimes I mix in some collard leaf (she LOVES collard). 1/2 large collard leaf is the max I will give her in a day (more than 1 big collard leaf makes her tummy upset!).

I boil a large sweet potato occasionally & divide it up into containers which I freeze for later (she obviously can't eat the whole thing at once so I freeze it so it doesn't spoil).

I keep fresh blueberries in the fridge for treats. Sheba LOVES blueberries more than anything on the planet. She gets so excited that she splashes water all over the place when she knows I am giving her a blueberry!