Baby snapping turtles....?

Question

Does anyone know what a baby snapping turtle will eat? Mine hasn't eaten since I got it on thursday. So, please help me.

& I already tried corn, lettuce, spinach, banana, & some really little shrimp thingy.

&&&& I CAN'T LET IT GO!!!!
My stupid friends took it away from where ever and if I put it back it'll get lost and probably die. I mean come on. It's shell is no bigger than a quarter.

Answer 1

Mine likes worms, tiny feeder fish and sometimes small bugs, along with Reptomin which you can get a a petstore.
They also need a UVB light and a basking light with a place to get out of the water to bask. He may not use the basking area to much they tend to stick to the water. Also make sure the water temps are 80-85 degrees with a fitler.

Answer 2

FOR FOOD: go to a pet store and get some rosy gold fish and put them in the tank. get the smallest ones they have. (like 5 or so don't buy too many or too few) if need be chop the fish in have if they're too large. if all they have is larger goldfish and you are against chopping up a fish get a few pieces of chicken or turkey (like off the bone NOT like deli meat it has to many preservatives and such in it). and try that if not then try pellets from a store for reptiles like retomin or wardley pellets.
if none of these work then the tank my not be warm enough. if you don't have a heater then you need to get one.... today. or the turtle wil be in limbo of not warm enough for activity and eating but not cold enough for hibernation and it wil die, if that is the problem.

are you absolutelty sure that it's a snapper? if not then take pics of it to a pet store or search in images for water turtle or something to that effect.

WHY i say this is becasue f it is not a snapper say its a slider or painted then you could keep it but if it is a snapper then you MUST let it back into the wild perferbably by a pond. they grow to be very large turtles depending on species and they are extrememyl aggressive and they are not a breed of turtle that someone with little or no experience should be raising.

BUT if you are intent on raising this little guy then you should definatly do lots of research through the internet with FAQs and talking to people as well as reading books.

one more thing if it is a snapper they live mostly in water not in gardens they naturally don't eat corn or bannanas. there may or may not be a problem with corn but it is not a larnd tortise like a box turtle and it can not handle very sugary things like bananas. spinach is ok but not best and what kind of lettuce. iceburg is a big no no for water turtles. instead try romaine or other dark leafy lettuce. ( it porbbably won't work either because snappers are highy carnivorous and don't and should have veggies as a staple.)

for anyother questions you could have here is a great FAQ on many tutle secies including several water turtles: www.turtlecare.net


but yeah you should definatly let the little guy go in a pond but that's just my two cents

Answer 3

We also had someone bring us a baby snapper that they had found. We decided to raise it as they found it right after they had hatched and were migrating to the pond. Snapping turtles lay their eggs on land away from the pond or lake and when the baby turtles hatch they will move to the closest water source. We didn't want to let him go just anywhere because if you release a snapping turtle into a pond that doesn't already have snappers you can destroy that areas ecological structure because the snappers will eat the turtles natural to that area. We raised ours until he was a year old and large enough to be released in a lake in the mountains that has snapping turtles in it. Your turtle set up should be 80% water with a land area with a basking light. The first two months we had ours we used dirt from the back yard to create the land area in order to create a more natural environment. The water shouldn't be extremely deep as he is small only deep enough so he can submurge himself and he should have an easy route out of the water. For the first couple of days my baby snapper dug himself into the dirt. We put food in daily, raw chicken very small pieces dropped into the water the first few days he wouldn't come out of the dirt but soon he came out and began eating. After a couple hours take any uneaten food out of the water. When you notice that your turtle is spending more time in the water than on land, you can change to rocks and sand for the land area and set up a filtering system. As your turtle grows you can make the water deeper, the way I gauged it was no deeper than he was long. They are meat eaters, not much interested in vegetables. Once I went to sand, rocks and a filtering system I bought baby goldfish to put in the tank he didn't begin to eat them for about 2-3 months but they were available to him. I also would drop in floating water turtle food which he would eat. Once your turtle becomes comfortable in his surroundings you will notice that he will snap at anything floating in the water. If you keep your turtle through the winter be aware that his eating habits will change, instead of eating daily he will eat only every 3-4 days (the body will naturally signal time to hibernate) the problem is though that his environment will not change so he won't go into a true hibernation. When or if you decide to release your turtle back into the wild (which you should really consider as snapping turtles become very large and it will be quite expensive to create an environment for him as there will come a time when he will need an outdoor enclosure) make sure that you do your research or call your local wildlife agency to choose the correct location for release and do so early in spring but after the chance of a freeze so that your turtle can adapt to his new environment in mild weather when food is abundant, it will allow his wild instincts to resurface so that he will be able hibernate through the winter.

Answer 4

Jessie- the rest of the snappers in the world manage to live just fine without your help- this one will too.

Please let it go. In captivity, most turtles being kept by people who don't know what they are doing only live a year or less... and if you tried to feed a meat-eating snapper veggies, you don't know what you are doing. (We all learn sometime, but starting with an animal you did no research on is not the way to go.)

It will be fine if you let it loose again. In the wild, these things can live for 50 years or more easily.

So, which is more fair to it- 1 year suffering in captivity, or 50 years free in the wild?

Answer 5

they like earth worms. some have a vein that groes on thier tounge that they expose when under water to attract fish because it looks like a worm. but why would you want a snapping turtle. where I live people try to avoid them. and adult can very easily btake your finger off. They can bite through a wouden broom handle. so be carefull. I have fed adults strawberries. and people who trap them around here use fish for bait. I beleive they mostly eat fish and worms and other stuff that lives in the water

Answer 6

when we first got our smallest baby snapper (we have a total of 3 right now and two adults... well 1 has escaped and we're still searching, but I'm sure I'll dog will find him) he wouldn't eat so I tried turtle food I feed my red ears, and painted's and he ate the hell out of them... we use the turtle food pellets as a sublement on top of their normal diet... they are pigs..

Answer 7

Do you realize a baby snapping turtle is going to turn into a big snapping turtle right? let it go!

Answer 8

LOL.. lack of data is bliss... Sexing an animal potential determining that's gender. so a ways as turles pass, i extremely do no longer comprehend. i'd call a vet and ask. For a number of you: by vet I mean a veterinarian. no longer a veteran.

Answer 9

Let it go in the same body of water it was captured in, so as to avoid genetic pollution.

Answer 10

Try worms, they can't resist those. :)