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i found a snapping turtle when it was just born. it will be a year in july. it is almost squishing out of its shell, and i only feed it like everyother day because i thought i was overfeeding it. any tips?

2007-04-30 05:38:20 · 8 answers · asked by THE 0RiGiNAl MiNT 3 in Pets Reptiles

8 answers

1. Obese turtles are very common in captivity.

2. Snappers, however, naturally are bigger than their belly shell (plastron).

The proper serving size for a turtle is about the size of its head, and it should be fed daily for a young turtle, every other day for a mid-size (this is where yours is), and every 3 days for an adult. This helps prevent the problem!

2007-04-30 06:24:13 · answer #1 · answered by Madkins007 7 · 1 0

because of snapper's physiology, they naturally look a little fat. they have bigger bodies than they do shell especially the bottom shell. cut back on food, to about 2/3 or 3/4 of what you're feeding it. and see if there is improvement within a month or two.

also if you research yu will find that everyone has a different opinion on how much you should feed. some say a portion have the size of their head others what they can consume in 5, 10, 20 minutes. the only agreed on thing is that babies are fed everyday and adults efvery other.
so tell us how much you feed everyother day so that we can better formulate a more accurate answer.

2007-04-30 07:13:35 · answer #2 · answered by Akkaiden 3 · 0 0

reptiles have a better metabolism and their bodies don't cumulate fat so easily. If you overfeed a turtle it will enter a sluggish, hibernation-like, state, where it will be dreamy and inactive while its stomach is processing the food. Once that happens it will be normal again, but, since it doesn't eat during the process almost nothing, it will keep itself in its healthy weight. That happens with all the reptiles. However, the best is to feed them decent portions all the days so they'll never be hungry or sluggish (the decent proportion depends in your turtle and you'll have to find out. However once it overfeeds a few times it will find by itself the proportion she prefers to take by day and will eat that part and leave the rest if you offer it more food).

2007-04-30 05:50:01 · answer #3 · answered by lassarauko 2 · 0 2

Yes.
http://www.turtlecare.net/diet.htm

2007-04-30 05:42:10 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

yep- they can be overweight. BTW- in most states it is illegal to keep snapping turtles as pets.

We usually feed our adult snappers (at the university) 7 or 8 minnows twice a week.

You definately need to feed it a bit less.

2007-04-30 05:45:01 · answer #5 · answered by D 7 · 2 0

Any animal can become obese. Feed your turtle 3/4 what you are feeding him or her now.

2007-04-30 05:41:56 · answer #6 · answered by Kandice F 4 · 0 0

I let my dog eat all he wanted from a food container, for several years. He never became overweight. And I think if you let turtles eat all they wanted, only their natural diet, they wouldn't become overweight either. When you feed if every other day they will eat everything in sight, just like people do at dinner. Both think there won't be any other food for a while.

2007-04-30 05:47:58 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 3

all i can say is that snapping turtles do get very large

2007-04-30 07:59:06 · answer #8 · answered by phil 4 · 0 1

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