What can I feed a small rainbow turtle?

Answer 1

Hi, I just answered the exact same question...

Here is a tried and tested feeding regimine. Do not follow the turtle food turtle instructions: it's wrong and it will give your turtle a slow death sentence by overfeeding it.

The hatchling was likely not fed nor treated very well in the pet store. It usually takes a few days or a week for to get used to the new environment and pellets. Here is what I suggest:

1.) Provide a basking area (like a rock or log) with a heat lamp (regular 75-100W bulb). The turtle needs heat and this will help it stimulate it to eat. Keep the bulb about 10" away.

2.) Provide a cave (small clay pot turned on the side works well) so itr can hide and feel safe in the water. In the wild, hatchlings hide most of the time.

3.) Make sure the pellets are small enough... you can try fish flakes or small fish pellets as well. You mayhave to let the larger turtle pellet soak a little so it softens. Put the pellet in once every second day. Turtles are foragers and do not need food everyday. Three pellets a week is sufficient. Overfeeding will cause a lumpy shell (Pyramiding) and lead to shortened life.

The turtle WILL take the pellet, but it may be a few days, up to a week. Put a pellet in each day and leave it for a few hours. If it is uneaten, scoop it out and try it again the next day, until it takes it. My suggestion of three pellets a week refers to when it is feeding already.

If the hatchling does not take pellets after a week and you're worried to death, try fish flakes or gammarus (dried shirmp). This is a healthy diet and it is the equivalent of humans eats potato chips. Pellets are the best single food to feed, since it has all the vitamins and minerals it needs.

When it is feeding one pellets, three times week, in between pellets, you can feed it leafy greens (any aquatic plant, dandelion leaves are best or you can try romaine, and other salad leave sare not as nutritious). It will take a few weeks or months, but it will feed on greens.

BTW, most people do not call it a Rainbow turtle... it is likely a Red eared slider (RES), Trachemys scripta elegans, or Painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, both of which are very common.

Good luck!

Answer 2

read this...

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