Food for desert turtles?

Question

What should I feed my turtles? I feed them lettuce but I just ran out...any substitutes? MY grandpa fed them spinach ,water turtle food ,green onions, and rose petals...are those any good for them cause i dont think so and also he pours water in the tray....uhh...cant they drown in the water? HELP!!!!!!

Answer 1

Growing grass, weeds, dandelions, alfalfa, nopales (Opuntia cactus), and rose and hibiscus flowers and leaves are excellent food sources. Supplement this diet with vegetables such as endive, escarole, broccoli, squashes such as zucchini, chopped carrots, mixed vegetables, small amounts of kale, romaine and other dark-green leafy vegetables. Sprinkling the food with ground-up rabbit or guinea pig pellets is a good way to add extra fiber to the diet. Tortoises have a high calcium requirement: occasionally sprinkle the food with calcium carbonate or offer a calcium-rich source such as boiled chicken eggshells or cuttlefish bone for them to eat. Occasionally sprinkle the food with a suitable vitamin preparation. Provide a shallow dish of water for drinking and soaking.

Answer 2

I assume you mean desert tortoises. The websites below can really help you.

Light green head letuce is TERRIBLE for turtles- almost no nutrition. Variety is great, however!

Tortoises don't drown, but they don't swim well either. They don't eat in the water, but should have access to drinking and soaking water all the time.

OK, the basic Tortise Diet (http://www.petdoc.ws/TortDiet.html) goes something like this:

About 50% 'Fodder'- dried or green hay, alfalfa, grasses, clovers, flowers, dandelions, 'yard plants', leaves, etc.

About 35% vegetables, including mushrooms but avoiding light-green head lettuce, onions, peppers, or too much cabbages (cauliflower, broccoli, kale, etc.)

About 10% fruits and berries

Less than 5% proteins- this would be the water turtle food, but better proteins are things like hard-boiled or scrambled eggs (with shells), anchovies or sardines with bones, good quality dry dog food, etc.

Leave the fodder available most of the time, but remove other foods as they start to go funny- usually about an hour or so.

I usually feed a loose handful of fodder per tortoise, and a similar-sized 'salad'.

Vary the ingrediants of the 'salad' as often as you can. I usually have a mix based on frozen ingrediants, a fresh mix, a 'cheap/emergency' mix (based on packaged tortoise food), and a 'luxory' mix I switch between.

Suppliment each meal with RepCal or a similar good calcium suppliment, and every other meal with a good reptile vitamin.

Feed babies every day, teens every other day, and adults every 3 days.

Answer 3

First of all, you need to know what kind of turtle or tortoise you have. different types will eat different food & have different care needs.

http://www.anapsid.org/mainchelonians.html
http://www.chelonia.org/care.htm

Iceberg lettuce is not good for any animals. Chicory would be MUCH beter. Spinach not the best either but MIGHT be ok in small quantities as a very small part of the diet. Green onions - bad. Rose petals may be good if they ahve not been sprayed with insecticides or other poisons.

Please visit the 2 sites listed above to find proper food. Again you will need to know what kind of turtle or tortoise you have!

Good luck

Answer 4

ask google