How much pellets should I feed my red eared slider turtle ... and is the Wardley's premium sticks a good type

Question

of nutrition for my turtle? (Turtle) He's about six months old ..... and he's pretty chubby =)

Answer 1

I think you need to watch him eat, whatever he consumes in 5 min. is adequate The rest will just foul the water. Depends on his size also. I have 2 hatchlings and I feed 2 sticks of ReptoMin daily, plus I cut up either a tiny bit, [the size of a match head, cut in 4 pieces] of strawberry, apple, or tomato. They also eat canned tuna, same small amount between the 2 of them. If I see food left after several hours I remove it with a net. Read the ingredients, I think all of the commercial turtle food sticks are pretty close in nutrition.

Answer 2

1. Please disregard the advice of anyone who suggests giving vegetables, fruits, etc. to a young Red-ear slider (RES). Young RES are almost totally carnivorous- the only vegetation they eat in the wild would be in the stomach of their prey.

As they get older, RES become more vegetarian- they shift to about half and half or so, and even then the primary vegetation would be dark leafy greens.

2. A serving size is about the size of the turtle's head (or twice that). Baby turtles are fed daily, young turtles every other day, and adults about every three days.

3. We often remove food for two reasons- to help keep the tank clean, and to minimize overeating. We can accomplish both goals with better portion control. The only foods I remove are those going bad.

4. Wardley's is OK, but not as nutritionally complete as the better brands. NO pellets should form the entire diet- about 75% should be other stuff but with the better pellets, you don't have to be so careful. The pellets are rated here: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm

5. Feeding baby turtles is one of the reasons they really don't make good pets. Try this: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/newhatchling.htm

Answer 3

Generally feed them about the volume of their head a day (if I remember correctly...). Young turtles consume more protein than adults, but you still need to be careful about overfeeding. Most commercial diets are too high in protein and the main ingredients are just filler. However as far as commercial pellets go, Wardleys is one of the better ones. At such a young age he may not take veggies yet, but try to get him on those too as soon as possible (collard greens, endive, squash, some fruits, etc...). You can also round out his diet with some mealworms/waxworms, and low fat meat (mine LOVES boiled ground turkey).

Overfeeding can be a serious problem however. When I got my turtle (as a hatchling, I was only in junior high). I was still on a steep learning curve and we fed him solely pellets and waaay too much of them. As a result he grew too quickly for his shell, and he has some pyramiding as well. Plus he was FAT (he couldn't fit into his shell all the way, he'd stick his head in and a leg would pop out). Now he's on a better diet and while his shell is slightly deformed, he's not (as) fat anymore, and he's very healthy now (about 9 or 10 years old, hopefully he'll stay around for quite a while).

Answer 4

turtle sticks don't carry all the nutrition needed try giving it some lettuce and fish. you should put as much sticks as it can eat in 5 to 10 minutes.

Answer 5

sue pretty much answered it, but mine love cantaloupe and watermelon cut in small chunks, i feed all mine (6) both the reptomin and the wardley's, plus the guy at the pet shop told me he feeds his and i've tried it, is any kind of floating pond pellets, mine like these too. i try to give a big variety to make sure the get everything they need. fish and worms, mealworms they all love. mine eat about 10 sticks each at a sitting, but mine are 2 and 3 years old. my wood turtle is somewhere around 16

Answer 6

I've got 2 2year old RES. I've always heard that you feed the only what they can it in 45 seconds then clean out whatever's left. I've been following this for the 1 1/2 years iv'e owned them and they honestly couldnt be healthier.

Answer 7

i would put a couple really small fish in the tank and they liked to catch them and eat them. try lettuce too. my turtle used to eat that atleast. and then there was apples. they liked the red part the most but only wen it came with a little of the yellow. wut else..idr but mostly mine liked lettuce how strange that wasidk but they never ate the foods urs ate too and the only food they ate made for turtles was those shrimp things too. good luck!