I have two res turtles how do I change their eating habits to other foods?

Question

I normally feed them pellets from the store but , i want to try and feed they fruits and vegtables so how do i do that? Also I tried just dropping the food in the water but that didn't work either. Please Help!

Answer 1

Your local aquatic pet store should carry live plants. There is one called Anachris that will serve two purposes. Your RES will nibble on it, and the plant digests trutle waste, keeping your tank cleaner ALOT longer.

Answer 2

Red-eared sliders do well on pellets. If that's all they've been eating, it's going to take a while for them to get used to different food sources. I would just feed a small amount of vegetables with pellets at the same time. Once you reach a point that they are checking out the veggies, just use less pellets. I wouldn't totally eliminate pellets, though. At the moment I have a painted and mud turtle, they don't eat as much vegetation as red-eareds but I do give them some as well as pellets.

Answer 3

give them 70 percent pellet food and 30 percent fruits/vegetables. then do 60 and forty, then 50 and 50 or go a little faster. so slowly ween them off

Answer 4

Young Red-ears do not eat fruits or veggies- they eat bugs, worms, small invertebrates, etc.

As they get older (over about 4"), they begin to eat more veggies, but then it is mostly dark leafy greens and some colorful veggies but almost no fruit.

Try the articles at http://www.austinsturtlepage.com or http://www.redearslider.com for more diet info.

Answer 5

I duno abt you bt my REs are damn particular abt their food. perhaps they are used to the pellets, they just simply ignore the green veggies. infact, they are kinda of frightened by the green veggies.

Answer 6

it takes time...they are slow about everything