Feeding Turtles

[dtocher]

Here's my situation. My ex-girlfriend and I got into herps at about the same time... except for the fact that when she was a kid, she had pet turtles. The tiny, illegal red-ears you get in China town. She loved her turtles, but gave them to a friend who set a cool habitat for them. She got two snakes, and felt she left the world of turtles.

One of her neices (about 10, I think), wanted a pair of turtles for X-mas. My ex's dad got her some, but got a "deal" where instead of two turtles, he got 8. Turns out the neice really only wanted 2. This man asked my ex (his daughter) if she wanted the extra six, and she said no... but she asked me, and I had an extra aquarium lying around. She said her dad would have let them die, had someone not taken them.

They didn't eat for the first few weeks I had them (live or pellets). I got a water heater in there... and now they pound the pellets like no tomorrow. But, they still don't go for the small mealworms. Often times, the mealworms will roll off rocks and die before they get a chance to be food. Any suggestions? I'll try and put a pic of my tank up later today.

~d

[snakers55]

What kind of turtles are they?? Mealworms aren't very nutritious for them anyways, maybe go to your local fish store and pick up some frozen bloodworms (mosquito larvae) and try them.. If they are eating the pellets, that's definately a good start.

[snakers55]

Oops.. I see that they're red eared sliders in your singnature..

[macd0282]

I have 2 red eared sliders , one 9 inch female and a tiny 2 inch female. Both feed mostly on pellets and do quite well on them although I use several different types of pellets and rotate them. The larger one very much enjoys gut -loaded crickets. Once they get a little bigger they will pretty much eat or at least taste anything that enters the water that even remotely seems edible..lol...some people feed fish to them but I have had a bad experience with my larger turtle who got tape worms from fish who can be hosts for the parasite. This of course meant several very costly trips to the vet for injections and the only vet who could treat turtles was an hour away! ugh...so I have sworn off them but many use them without troubles. I use grammarus as a treat and occassionally they will take romaine lettuce and other veggies. Just make sure to use a UVA and UVB light to prevent calcium deficiency and I find the mostly pelleted diet works great. Just my opinion...hope it helps a little...boy...I wrote alot..sorry

[snakers55]

Good advice.. Goldfish are a bad idea for sure... If you want to give them fish at all,go for feeder minnows (like rosey reds or something similar) or feeder guppies... Another good food item for them would be small aquatic snails.. Any fish store Im sure would be happy to give you some, and they will breed and be consumed by the turtles. They have a lot of calcium in their shells too,so they're great for growing baby turtles.

[dtocher]

I was planning on getting an extra UV bulb set-up for the turtles, but it just dawned on me that they are right up against a huge window that gets direct sunlight for as much a day as a surface perpendicular to the ground can. Will this suffice? Just a thought.

[Buddha]

turtles especially RES will not be able to eat mealies on land only in the water as they do not have a tongue to help them eat outside of water. well the sunlight from the window will not do much as most of the UV will be absorb in the window. also keeping the tank in direct contact with sunlight will also cause problem will eluvated water temps.

[dtocher]

It's cold enough here that I had to install a heater for them to even begin to consider food. I'll get a new UV lamp/bulb setup for them, though. One ate a small mealie tonight. He dragged it under, swallowed it, threw a little back up (chomped on the head again), swallowed, and kept it down. Was savage.

[JVG]

Yeah they can grab food from the land just cant swallow it on land.