Turtle Diet

Like people, turtles need to have a special diet provided for them. Too little food and the turtle will become malnourished and underweight, too much food and the turtle can become quite obese. It is suggested that you feed your hatchling turtle once every day, a small amount that they can consume in two minutes. With older turtles you should begin to limit feeding to once every other day, however increase the portion size (a bigger turtle is harder to fill). Doing this prevents obesity, and although it sounds cruel, in the wild turtles will often go more than a day or two without eating, they certainly eat less than we provide for them. Remember to be strong, turtles are notorious beggars, and once they get to know that you bring the food in they will swim up to the glass and beg, sometimes even following your every move about the room. Our one turtle becomes so excited when we are in the room that she swims vertically out of the water and flaps her arms, splashing wildly until she falls over backward.

An easy way to determine if your turtle is overweight is if you startle it and it pulls in its head and front legs do its back legs stick out? If they do, there is not enough room for the turtle in its shell.

You also need to be aware of the signs of undernourishment in your turtles. Malnourished turtles tend to have milky looking eyes and cloudy patches on their skin. Immediate steps need to be taken to care for your turtle, increase food portions and if you turtle shows disinterest in food try providing it with a different diet, maybe they do not like the taste of the food. If you are concerned about your turtles eating, and if the signs of undernourishment can be seen take your turtle to see a veterinarian.

As far as what to feed your turtle, a varied diet is recommended. Food pellets (such as Zoomeds Natural Aquatic Turtle Food [Zoomed also has a large selection of tortoise foods], and Tetra Reptomin floating sticks) take into account the turtles dietary needs and are an excellent base, but should not be the only source of nutrition. Turtles love hunting, so occasionally providing live fish (goldfish, minnows) is a great idea. Providing live fish adds ambiance to your tank and exercises your turtle, fish also are a great source of protein, supply fish sparingly, as too much protein can make a turtle sick. Lastly make sure to provide vegetables or fruits for your turtle. Turtles are omnivores and as they get older lean towards a mostly green diet. Roman lettuce and dandelion leaves are great for turtles, as well as banana and carrot. Experiment with your turtle and see what they like. Our turtles love strawberries, and shrimp.

In addition a clean source of water should be provided for the turtle, a little dish in the tank will suffice, for this drinking water you should use bottled spring water to avoid chlorines found in tap water which can be harmful to the turtle. This should be changed regularly to keep the water fresh.

Special Notes

Turtles are messy eaters, to keep the water in your tank clean you may want to have an alternate container to feed your turtle in. Turtles tend to defecate with in a half hour of eating, so you may want to leave them in the bin until they have done their business.

Certain foods should be avoided, raw or cooked chicken and hamburger can be harmful to your turtle. As a rule, do not provide your turtle with things it would not normally eat in the wild. This is exemplified here because in the wild you would never see a turtle trying to eat a farm animal.

Starchy foods like potatoes and cabbage should be avoided as it is hard for the turtle to bite these and digest them.

Turtles prefer foods that float.

Aquatic turtles cannot swallow outside of the water.