food for turtle?

Question

i have a res. i fed him guppies but he catches them 2 easily. is there any other live food he can chase but wont be able to catch 2 easily? i want him to excercise.

Answer 1

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Red Ear Slider Diet:Hatchlings
Hatchlings should be fed everyday for the first year of their lives. They should be given as much as they can eat in 10 to 15 mins time or as much as you could fit into their head if hollow. You can feed them all of it at once or you can slit it up into 2 feedings.

Hatchlings tend to be more Carnivorous than adults, so make sure to check out the suggestions of live and protein-rich foods below for how to supplement accordingly. (Make sure you still give fruits and veggies at this stage!)

Juveniles/Adults
Once your turtle reaches the 4" mark, we recommend that you change their feeding schedule to every other day. Giving them greens or live plants in between.

Adults tend to become more Omnivorous, so make sure to check out the suggestions of fruits and vegetables below.

Vitamins and Calcium
You should supplement your turtle's diet with both vitamins and calcium, every third feeding or once a week. To give them vitamins many people will give them a Vitamin Bath once a week. You can also either soak the pellets in a liquid vitamin or dampen them and roll them in a powder vitamin before feeding.

It is recommended you have a light that supplies UVA and at the very least a 5.0 UVB output. The UVB is necessary for the absorption of calcium and vitamin D3. Turtles need both calcium and Vitamin D3 for strong bones and shells.

**Feeding Tip Feedings should be done in a separate container so that you do not have to frequently change the water nor the filter media.


Common Diet Errors

Feeding Cat or Dog Food
Despite what some pet store employees may tell you, turtles should not be fed dog or cat food (Sounds insane, but we've heard it!)

Pellet Only Diets
Pellets provide many benefits, but variety is key!
Supplement their diet with veggies, live foods and some fruits. Check out our safe list below.

Giving in to Beggars
Turtles will always beg whether you give in or not- they know you are the supplier of food!
Supplement between feedings with greens or live foods they have to chase to eat. ( Iceberg lettuce is a common filler that doesn't contain much nutritional value, but will keep them content.)


Safe Feeding List

Commercial Foods (This is just a few of them on the market)
* Tetra Reptomin
* ZooMed's Aquatic Turtle Food
* Exo Terra
* Wardley's Reptile Premium Sticks
* HBH Turtle Bites

Frozen/Canned (For treats)
* Spirulina-enriched Brine Shrimp
* Bloodworms
* Plankton
* Krill
* ZooMed's Can O'Crickets, Grasshoppers, or Meal Worms

Live Foods (Carnivorous)
* Guppies or Rosies Reds (no goldfish they are too fatty and have very little nutritional value)
* Crickets (Gut-Loaded)
* Pinhead Crickets (for smaller turtles)
* Earthworms, Night Crawlers
* Ghost Shrimp
* Aquatic Snails/Apple Snails
* Slugs
* Wax Worms, Super Worms

**Be careful about Wild-Caught foods, they can carry parasites that can be transferred to your turtle. Freezing Wild-Caught foods for a month will help to kill off some parasites.

Fruits (small amounts for treats only)
* Apples
* Bananas
* Grapes
* Melon
* Tomato
* Strawberries

**Should be cut up in small, bite-size or match-like sticks that will be easy for the turtle to bite into and not choke on.

Veggies
* Squash
* Zucchini
* Carrots
* Greens- Red Leaf, Romaine, Collards, Kale, Dandelion Greens

**Stay away from Spinach. Make sure to cut the veggies in bite-size or match-like sticks so your turtle can eat them easily. Iceberg lettuce is a good filler, but contains little/no nutritional value!

Aquatic Plants
* Anacharis
* Duckweed
* Water Hyacinth
* Water Lettuce
* Water Lily

Answer 2

The best exercise for a water turtle is a big tank. In fact, big tanks are great for turtles for many reasons- less stress, easier to keep clean, more micro-habitats, etc.

Turtles are not super active by nature and do not require much exercise. In fact, the problem most keepers have is restricting food intake.

A food serving should be about the size of the turtle's head, nad we should feed babies daily, young turtles every other day, and adults every three days or so.

Answer 3

turtles are slow moving creatures.they like vegtables put the veges on the other side of the box make it a big box so it will have plenty of room

Answer 4

I feed both of them fish food.....for ten years and they're very huge! for exercise....i let them walk every evening when i change water......sometimes with fresh prawns or small fish

Answer 5

minos are really fast and not esay to catch but depending on the turtles size is wut size mino u should get to fnd them u can go to is a fishing store that sells live bait or can look in diches for minos.

Answer 6

try carrots gold fish or food pellets and u can try hot dogs

Answer 7

Goldfish might give him a greater challenge.

Answer 8

i have a red ear slider - crickets, gold fishes, and it some type of small sticks you can give to him

Answer 9

chuck a whole load of krill in there or sea monkeys

Answer 10

This is from http://www.austinsturtlepage.com
Throughout their lives, Red-eared Sliders are omnivores progressing from predominant carnivory as juveniles to predominant herbivory as adults. That said, even adults prefer meaty foods when carnivorous & herbivorous fare are offered simultaneously. Their raw drive to gorge on higher protein foods makes it easy for keepers to feed too much protein (causing very rapid growth & a pyramided shell, & suspected to cause liver & kidney damage & shorten life span). Keep a check on the turtle's diet and ensure it gets a low-volume well-rounded diet. There are many foods they eat: Mazuri and ReptoMin, Reptile/Pond 10, Cichlid Sticks, feeder fish, feeder crickets, earthworms, krill, blood worms, occasional crayfish & ghost shrimp, aquatic plants (such as Water Lilies, Water Hyacinth, Duckweed, Anacharis, Water Lettuce, Water Fern, Pondweed, Water starwort, Hornwort, Water milfoil, and Frogbit), some vegetables (such as Zucchini, Squash, Collard Greens, Beet Leaves, Endive, Romaine, Red Leaf Lettuce, Kale, Escarole, Mustard Greens & Dandelions) and some fruits (i.e. Banana). Many keepers use a good brand name commercial diet (usually Mazuri or ReptoMin Aquatic Turtle Diets) for a substantial portion (say, 25 - 80%) of the carnivorous portion of the diet, & round that out with treats of crickets, earth worms, crayfish, ghost shrimp & krill, & use Romaine lettuce (chosen over iceberg for higher fiber) & Anacharis as mainstays for the herbivorous portion of the diet. Since wild RES likely don't encounter fruits often we don't recommend use of Bananas & other fruits except as rare treats. Some people offer hairless mouse pups to turtles on occasion; never feed hairy animals to animals who don't naturally eat them (like RES) since hair is poorly digestible & can form trichobezoars (hairballs) & cause G.I. obstruction in some animals (so in theory perhaps RES).

One critical point: if you keep your turtle indoors & don't provide UV-B lighting (i.e.: a ReptiSun 5.0 or 10.0 fluorescent bulb), be sure you provide adequate dietary Vitamin D3. This involves either using a commercial pellet food that includes it, or a powdered supplement like Rep-Cal for feeder insects. Beware using large amounts of food containing Retinol, a form of Vitamin A that (unlike β-Carotene) can interfere with Vit. D3 absorption in the body. UV-B doesn't penetrate glass well so sunlight coming through a window won't do.

Another critical point: you must provide adequate dietary calcium. The ratio of calcium to phosphorous (preferably 2 or more to 1) is important. Typical feeder insects have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, meal worms have a terrible ratio, & it's thought by some advanced keepers calcium-containing 'gut load' feeds may not add enough calcium to feeder crickets.

Insufficient Vit. D3 or calcium over time can cause soft shell & skeletal disfigurement (Metabolic Bone Disease).

We've a nice research base of wild Slider dietary intake to inform captive care. Sliders are opportunistic omnivores with a wide variety of habitats. Initially predominantly carnivorous but progressively herbivorous as they mature. Turtles of the United States and Canada1 cites research6,14,15 showing they start out strongly carnivorous which continues into the second year but drops during the first year of growth14; it’s thought the juvenile diet is calcium-rich & may aid shell-hardening14. It's been suggested high-protein = fast growth & increased resistance to predation based on size. The percent animal material in the gut (dry weight) drops to between 0 & 10% at a plastron length around 4 – 6 cm1 (Page 313). Louisiana juveniles start out largely eating insects (mostly hemipterans and dragonfly nymphs) but gradually shift to plants15, paralleling a move from foraging in shallow to deeper water. However, adults still prefer animal material when available14. Note: the Red-eared Slider is currently classified as genus Trachemys, species scripta, subspecies elegans, so Trachemys scripta elegans. In the past sliders were classified as genus Pseudemys, which includes the cooters. Researchers often don't discriminate at the subspecies level, so some slider research was done on Yellow-bellied Sliders (which we assume to be identical to RES excepting cosmetic distinctions).

RECOMMENDED FEEDING SCHEDULE

For the first 6 months of life, feed commercial pellets and/or other 'meaty' foods (such as earthworms, crickets or fish) once daily, enough to diminish appetite but not gorge the turtle. After 6 months, switch to every other day feeding. Romaine lettuce & other leafy greens may be offered daily for graze at will. Over time adjust diet content & schedule accounting for growth, activity level & appetite. Overfeeding high-protein foods causes rapid growth, shell deformities (pyramiding) & is believed harmful to the liver & kidneys. If the carapace scutes develop a prominent concentric ring pattern &/or thicken, making the carapace bumpy, cut back strongly on protein in the diet or your turtle will have a permanently pyramided shell. While growth rate varies amongst different hatchlings, at 1 year of age we want to see an SCL of 2 to 3.5". At all ages recommendations on the amount of meaty food to offer vary; some suggest enough to fill the head back to the rear of the red patches if it were hollow, others let the turtles gorge but only feed twice per week, & some simply feed enough to slake appetite a bit. For a 50 cent piece-sized hatchling, 1 or at most 2 regular ReptoMin pellets per day are sufficient.