Red Ear Slider owners....please answer!!?

Question

please tell me the following:

1. what do you feed your turtles??
2. how often you feed them??
3. how much you feed them??
4. the size of your turtles??

i feel like i am feeding my turtles too much or too little because alot of times they would swim crazily up against the glass looking at me, even after i just fed them alot of pellets.

i have 2 RESs at about 5' each and it gets very annoying because they always beg for food and i have to cover the tank up with cloth so they stop swimming crazily against the glass.
i dont want to feed them too much all the time, nor do i want to cover the tank with cloth 24/7......

thank you

i appreciate the links....but they dont help! i've read them all. i know the rules.

i need personal advice and experience! thanks

please ANSWER the question....

in #1-4 fashion

no links please.

Answer 1

I own several adault RES and several baby painted turtles (the painted's dietary needs are the same as a RES) For the adault RES I keep a good supply of feeder fish in the tank at all times, the tank is very large so it takes awhile for them to catch the fish and it gives them alot of exercise, because of the work they don't overeat on them. I also give them some turtle pellets about once a week, and sparaticly give them worms, crayfish, aquatic plants, insects, etc. This gives them a good balanced diet.

The baby painted turtles need more plants because of thier age. So they get more aquatic plants. I also give them pellets, once or twice a week, and I give them some feeder fish, but they are in the same tank as my baby snapping turtle so keeping a constant supply of fish is impossable. So most of thier meat comes from earth worms, they can eat these before the snapper can steal them. I try to give them earth worms at least twice a week, but some times it can be hard to find them.

Really you can't go wrong feeding turtles, they are oppertunistic feeders, so they can safely eat an amazing amount of food, but they also can survive for several months without any food, so I would just keep whatever feeding cycle you have been using, I am afraid there is nothing you can do to stop them from swiming againt the side of the tank, they will continue to do this no matter how much you feed them.

Hope this helped

Answer 2

You are not going to get the most helpful info from the best answerers if you dictate rules to them.

1. The best general care site I know is http://www.austinsturtlepage.com Most other sites have errors, etc.- this one is rock solid. They also host a great and very helpful forum at http://www.turtleforum.com

2. Bashing the walls is often a sign that the habitat is too small. Figure they need about 10 gallons of water per inch of turtle. If yours are 5" long, they should be in about 100 gallons of water (and they are only about 1/2 grown!)

Remember- turtles, like many other animals, cannot figure out why they cannot pass through this section of hard water or air.

If you are unwilling to offer the right sized habitat, try putting some tape or visual barriers on the glass so they can see the limits.

3. At 5", you would feed them about a teasoon or so every other day per turtle (an amount about the size of their head, if the food was scrunched up.)

4. The diet of a mid-sized Red-ear would be about 25-50% pellets, and the rest would be split between veggies (dark leafy greens, yellow-orange veggies, water plants, etc.) and live or frozen/thawed 'fish food' like small fish, shrimp, krill, worms, insects, etc.

Answer 3

I have a red ear slider...had for about 3 yrears and is about 5 inches long...he does the same thing..try feeding it diffrent things...they love meal worms and like krill. I try different things and my likes the wordle reptile sticks..I feed my 3 times a day.They do eat during the night so some of the food is eaten. Do you have a log for them to sun...that is a vital....and enough space for them both. Hope all goes well for you...c

Answer 4

I don't have a water turtle but I believe that you are supposed to feed them as much as they can eat in 5 minutes once a day. If they keep begging you might throw some dandelions or salad greens in for them to munch on.

Answer 5

One of my fans, Zealotta, has Red Ear Sliders.
Maybe she will follow my entry. If not suggest the reader go look for turtle mania.

Answer 6

I have the perfect link for you:
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/aquaticturtles/f/feedingturtles.htm

As far as what I feed: floating food sticks, so he gets full nutrition, nightcrawlers (worms), and sometimes feeder fish or crickets.

Answer 7

www.austinsturtlepage.com. Great site for all RES info. :)