Turtle food bowl?

Question

I bought two map turtles, and the guy gave me a container of food, telling me to feed them each a pellet a day. Do I put the food into the water, or in the basking area? I read somewhere they need a food bowl, but I just can't imagine them like... sitting by the bowl begging for treats... Is the bowl really necessary?

Answer 1

No, map turtles need basking areas only for basking and that is the only land they need. Please visit http://www.redearslider.com for more information on your turtle. The site is for cooters, sliders, and maps. The info there is great and you will learn a lot about your turtles there. Or go to the forum and sign up and ask any questions that you are having with your turtle there- http://www.redearslider.com/forum

Or here are some other great forums and sites for info - http://www.austinsturtlepage.com and http://www.turtleforum.com

The feeding for your turtles should be feeding the pellets everyday, feeding them the amount you think could fit into their head (not counting the neck). Since you just go tthe turtles, you should feed them in the tank and make sure each turtle gets the same amount of food. Then after about 2 months you could start to feed them in another container. And offer veggies all the time, fruits every 2 weeks, and fish every month or so (rosy red minnows, NOT GOLDFISH). One pellet is not enough food. Make sure the temps of the tank water is around 78 degrees and the basking area 10 degrees warmer. And make sure you have a UVB and UVA light plus a heat light (regular house bulb)

Taking care of turtles are not easy, just remember that. And if you cant handle taking care of them now, you should take them back to the petstore. They require lots of money out of you too. I have spent over $500 and am still buying things for the. Turtles need 10 gallons of water for every inch of shell they have, so 2 turtles with 2 inch shells each would need around a 40 gallon tank or bigger. Turtles need lots of swimming space.

For all the other care look at the sites info they have.

You can e-mail me any questions that you have. Also, if you would like me to identify what kind of map you have, just e-mail me the pictures too. (Just go to my profile, I allow e-mail on there.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

I've got a bad feeling about this. I suspect you are not quite prepared for the reality of owning a turtle.

First of all, two turtles need space and Map Turtles like to swim, so they should be in about 10 gallons of water for every inch of shell length. The water should be warmed to 75-80F and filtered with a big, powerful filter to keep it crystal clean.

Next- the food. Pellets are not a complete diet. Baby maps should have enough food every day to fill a small bowl the size of their head. It should be about 1/2 pellets, and 1/2 live or frozen/thawed 'fish food' like small fish, worms (especially blood worms for young turtles), krill, shrimp, etc. You can also use bits of beef heart.

Turtle food is placed in the water. Water turtles like Maps hunt, eat, mate, and pretty much live in water.

They should have a good basking site that is warmed to 90F and lit nicely- ideally with lights that offer UVB rays.



Try http://www.austinsturtlepage.com for more ideas.

Answer 3

you should feed them in a seperate container because they make a mess when they eat
put maybe an inch of water in there with the food because it will float.
you should look up map turtle diets because they should be getting other nutrition from stuff such as crickets