I have an Eastern Box Turtle that is VERY active and seems extremely healthy, although he eats little and rarely deficates. I've had him for about 15 years now and he has never been a big eater, other than iceberg lettuce, which I try not to give him. When I sprinkle calcium on his food, he refuses to touch it or eats around that. When I give him food pellets or expensive canned turtle food from the pet store, he screws me over and avoids it. Sad to say, he seems to only like people food. In order to get him to eat SOMETHING, I sometimes give him stuff off of my plate, spaghetti and meatballs, cheesecake, etc. I know this is bad, but I've tried all the food varieties, fruit, live/dead worms and such. His environment is fine, lots of water, heat, UV light, size is fine etc and he seems very happy. He sprints from one end of his box to the other to greet me when I enter the room and is very comfortable around people. What should i do?
2007-01-24 22:37:51 · 4 answers · asked by Matt 4 in Pets ➔ Reptiles
I guess I'm a little concerned because I've never taken him to the vet or anything. Also, i'm not sure how big box turtles get, so his size was a concern to me too. His shell is about the size of my closed fist, so he isn't huge. I just want to make sure he is getting the best care.
2007-01-24 23:39:51 · update #1
Most commercial turtle diets aren't that healthy in the first place. Just try more variety, like collard greens, mustard greens, endive, escarole, bok coy, dandelion greens (and flowers, just make sure there's no chemicals on them), squash, carrots, peas/pea pods, strawberries, starfruit, banana etc... For animal protein try giving him boiled ground turkey (always a favorite), or a lowfat moist dog or cat food ( I recommend the lowfat Eukanuba dog food). If you can get him to eeat either of those readily, then you can try mixing in the other stuff with it so that he can't pick them out.
NEVER offer iceberg lettuce, it's like trying to live off of water. If he seems healthy, have you tried tough love? As long as he doesn't lose weight, you may just have to be tough with him and wait till he's hungry enough to take what you give him.
Good luck!
2007-01-25 02:20:19 · answer #1 · answered by snake_girl85 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Stop with the junk food already. I'm gonna add to the list here of things to try. If you live somewhere that you can find these things and be sure that they are not from an area that gets sprayed for bugs or anything, go out and flip some logs and find some banana slugs and grubs, and earthworms (you can even go to a bait store for earthworms) Apples cherries, grapes, melon (as an occasional treat, not a lot) blueberries, strawberries, mango squash zuchinni, etc.
Box turtles don't get huge, the biggest I've seen was probably a little over 5 inches from the front of it's shell to the back of it's shell. Of course it depends on what kind of box turtle you have as well. It's nice knowing that he's social, but I've seen box turtles die from the inside out because of poor nutrition. "We've had him for a few years now, he loves ice cream and mozzerella cheese......" *mutter* Your turtle can live quite some time without food (it's the joy of having a reptillian metabolism). Offer him something healthy every day, NO ICEBERG! Cut that stuff out of your diet too, it's not good for anyone. When he's hungry, he'll eat.
Good luck.
2007-01-25 03:22:14 · answer #2 · answered by gimmenamenow 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1. Practice some tough love. STOP with the deadly foods and only offer good stuff. The thing won't starve, you've just spoiled it so now have to show that you are tougher than he is.
2. http://www.tortoisetrust.org has some really good box turtle stuff. http://www.boxturtlesite.org is good as well, as is http://www.austinsturtlepage.com
2007-01-25 12:50:28 · answer #3 · answered by Madkins007 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You've had him for fifteen years and you're just now worried? Surely you must be doing something right!
2007-01-24 22:46:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋