What do terrapins eat?

Question

What kinds of food do terrapins eat?

Answer 1

try some vegetables--lettuce-cabbage ect

Answer 2

Suggested terrapin/turtle diet
Plant leaf material
Fruit
Canned dog food (low lat varieties preferred)
Raw (whole) fish
Rehydrated dried cat, dog or trout pellets
Fresh meat
Earthworms
Snails and molluscs
Small dead rodents such as mice

Where food is to be rehydrated, as with the dried cat or dog pellets available in pet stores, rehydrate using water plus a soluble vitamin additive. This is a highly successful way of ensuring that your turtle will obtain all of the essential vitamins and trace elements it requires.

To avoid contaminating your turtles with Salmonella organisms, it is wise not to feed raw chicken or pork -these frequently harbour the organism and if eaten by the turtle the disease will be passed on.

Diets rich in meats are invariably also high in phosphates and low in calcium. This can cause serious problems for terrapins that need high levels of calcium for healthy bone and carapace development.

Note that in the wild most aquatic testudines feed regularly upon snails and similar creatures that have a calcium-rich shell. In captivity, this source is rarely available and therefore additional calcium supplementation is absolutely essential. Calcium tablets can be successfully hidden in meats, and all foods heavily dusted with a general high ratio calcium-mineral supplement such as Nutrobal.

Provision of a cuttlefish bone, which can be gnawed if required, is also recommended.

Finally on the topic of feeding, it is definitely the case in my experience that overfeeding rather than underfeeding tends to be the main problem in many captive situations; in the long term this can prove just as damaging as underfeeding.

Not only must the quality of the diet be maintained within safe limits, but the quantity too. This applies equally to land tortoises and aquatic turtles; in the latter case if you overfeed you will not only get fatty, obese and lethargic turtles but you will also very quickly experience serious tank hygiene problems -and an almost certain outcome of that will be a dramatic increase in the incidence of infectious disease.

In most cases, feeding 3 times per week will be quite adequate. Daily feeding is hardly ever required with aquatic testudines.
===================================================
http://www.edogadvice.com

Answer 3

Most will eat a tablespoon or so of fresh, thawed ground beef. About every 3 or 4 days . also, they usually eat night crawlers or other types of earthworms, because that's what they eat in the wild, after it rains. Also, try some tuna, or other fish

Answer 4

lettuce, tomato, cabbage, some grasses. dandelion leaves
my turtle would also eat baloney and raw hamburger.

Answer 5

I think they eat lettuce and grasses

Answer 6

Here is a link that will answer your turtle questions:

http://www.anapsid.org/mainchelonians.html