What kind of household foods does a "Box" turtle eat?

Answer 1

A variety of sources offer the following suggestions; fruit, some vegetable matter, animal matter including live bugs but since you are asking about household foods then purina trout chow or a low fat cat food could be used.

Answer 2

NO lettuce; it has little nutritional value.
NO beef or red meat; the fat within the meat will only build up within the turtle's liver and eyes creating blindness. Turtles cannot properly digest animal fat. If you have to go red meat then use beef heat...it is free of fat.
You can feed it dark leafy greens like turnip, collard and mustard greens on a daily basis. These plants contain levels of calcium which turtles need in order to properly develop. On a weekly basis you can feed the turtle spinach and kale. Although these plants contain lots of vitamins and minerals your turtle won't be able to process the calcium within them. Summer squash can be added into their food daily. If you have any dandelions outside that haven’t be sprayed with a herbicide then you can offer the leaves and blossom to the turtle.
Fruits like berries, apples and etc. can be offered a few times out of the week but not to much. Fruits usually make up less then 10% of their natural diet.
You can also feed your turtle fish and chicken sparingly. Earthworms tend to be relished.

Answer 3

Mostly fruits and vegetables. Just don't make the mistake of feeding iceberg lettuce only. Iceberg lettuce has NO nutrition. The greener the better. I once found a box turtle in my blackberry bush, it's face covered in purple juice. I'm guessing they really like berries. Box turtles also eat insects, so you may want to get some crickets to throw in. Why not invest in a book on keeping box turtles as pets?

Answer 4

Any kind of greens you'd put in a salad. Tomatoes. All kinds of fruit like apples, bananas, berries - different box turtles have different preferences. They also like raw beef, moistened dog food, earthworms, mealworms, and other insects. Feed them a variety but mostly the fruits that have the skin on them (something tough like apple skin should be cut into bite-sized pieces) or veggies that are dark and leafy like kale, beet greens, or dandelion are healthier than something like a peeled apple or iceberg lettuce. Yellow or orange veggies should also be included (squash, carrots). They really enjoy the canned bugs you can buy at a pet shop - they love crickets but aren't very good at catching them.

Answer 5

There are many housedold foods that Boxies can eat, but like all turtles, they need a varied diet.

Box turtles can be fed a diet that is 50% mixed fresh vegetables with some fruit, and 50% low fat protein like canned low fat dog food. Ideally the protein should be whole live foods like earthworms, mealworms, beetles, grubs, crickets, slugs and snails. Variety is the key to a healthy appetite and good health. Try apples, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, bananas, grapes, kale, romaine lettuce (avoid iceberg, it essentially has no nutrition), summer squash, sweet potatoes, soaked alfalfa hay and soaked gerbil pellets. On rare occasions feed corn on the cob, tomatoes, water packed tuna, hard-boiled egg and some lean chopped meats. Prepared turtle foods such as Reptomin or Reptile T.E.N, dried dog food, catfish chow, and trout chow can be used. These should be used sparingly and should be soaked in order to soften them. Turtles should be given a vitamin/mineral supplement to insure proper bone and shell growth. To prevent ingestion of the flooring material all food should be placed on a plate or flat rock or brick paver. Wild turtles are omnivores and in will eat earthworms, snails, grubs, beetles, caterpillars, grasses, fallen fruit, berries, mushrooms and flowers. They will take a bite of anything that smells edible. But they won’t come across hamburgers or bacon and eggs in the wild! You must feed your turtle what it needs to eat, not what is convenient for you to give it. If you find something your turtle really loves, then you are half way to retraining any bad eating habits. If it loves earthworms then try giving it chopped worms with grated yellow squash and cantaloupe. Or a plate of worms and chopped collard greens and strawberries.

http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Terrapenecare.htm

Also please refer to http://boxturtlesite.org/diet.html for even more valuable info, like what foods to feed regularly, rarely and never. Good luck with your boxie!

Answer 6

75% of the diet of a box turtle is insects, so unless you eat really weird stuff...

Crickets, many of the bugs found around the yard, worms, snails, etc. make up the bulk of a wild box turtle diet.

The rest is easier- a mix of grasses and 'forage', veggies, and fruits. Trying to feed a box turtle on just 'household' stuff is unfair to the animal.

Just FYI- a good site on box turtle care is http://www.boxturtlesite.org

A good general turtle care site is http://www.austinsturtlepage.com.

Answer 7

red leaf lettuce is the best lettuce to feed them because iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value, they like tomatoes bell peppers watermelon pretty much most veggies they also love dandelion leaves and clovers so let them walk around outside and munch on different stuff just watch them good they are quicker than you would think

Answer 8

Ok.... Why did you buy one if you did'nt know what they eat? They eat many types of foods... Fruits should be fed once a month well heres there diet...

25% proiten like crickets and mealworms.
25%pellets
50% vegies
Remember they need 5x5 foot enclosure! And need water to swallow.

Answer 9

lettuce and Strawberry's. Some will eat dog food.

Answer 10

we used to feed ours letucce, tomattoes and carrots when we were a kid. Not sure what they are suppposed to eat or what they need, but they always seemed to like the tomatos