Turtle Diets

[labmad]

Hey all - apologies for sounding a bit dense here, but a tad confused about turt diets and amounts etc

I have 4 baby eastern painted turtles, and at the minute they get repti-min most days, treats like dried river shrimp, gammarus, mealworms/crix etc at the weekend (not all of them of course) and there is cuttlebone in all the time

I added a small amount of duckweed which has been eaten and find it hard to get round here, so can you tell me which pondweeds are the best to try to get to have in there all the time.....is Elodea Densa classed as a pondwed?

I will get some trout for them soon, but my main concern is that i am not feeding them a daily balanced diet at the mo.......i think i am but just want to make sure

Dp you guys supplement with Nutrobal and Calci Powder or do they get enough of this from their diets?

Oh yeah, is feeding baby's once or twice per day recomended, as i dont wnat them to grow too quickly, to be honest for the past week or 2 they have mainly been fed once monday - friday and twice per day at the weekend?

Just wanting to cover my bases that the turts are getting the food intake in the right quantity's and not overfeeding 1 particuar item, ie. repti-mon pellets etc etc

thanks

[Graham]

Feed them once a day with pellets or other high protein food, if they will eat veg then they can have as much as they like, it's not fattening and the fibre is good for their digestion.
A good guide for quantity of pellets and other protein, is an amount equivalent to the volume of their head.
If they're eating the pellets and getting a good balanced diet otherwise, then supplements are not neccessary, you can give them a calcium block or cuttlebone though, they can't OD on calcium.

[Geomyda]

Please remember, that these turtles also require live food. Fresh water inverts, such as Snails, water Shrimp and other small crustaceans. You can sustitute earth worms, wood lice, and even crickets and micro mealworms which are commercially bred for the Reptile food trade.
Foraging for live food is also a good source of natural activity, which should also be encouraged in captivity.

[labmad]

Cheers guys - i managed to get some snails from the lfs today, so will add a few now and then into the turts tank........

will also get some small live food for em, crix etc when i get to the shop, will give them some courgette to much on also

Thanks for the help

[Graham]

Mine love Watercress, £1 for a huge bag from the greengrocers in the high street. Being an aquatic plant it lasts several days in water if they don't eat it immediately, and it may even start growing!

[labmad]

Originally Posted by Graham

Mine love Watercress, £1 for a huge bag from the greengrocers in the high street. Being an aquatic plant it lasts several days in water if they don't eat it immediately, and it may even start growing!

Nice one

will get a bag for em

[Graham]

You can always eat it yourself if they don't! I'm planning to grow some in my pond filter this summer, it grows best in clean flowing water so it should be ideal, not only can I feed it to the turts, but it also helps to remove nitrates from the water to reduce algae.

[labmad]

Originally Posted by Graham

You can always eat it yourself if they don't! I'm planning to grow some in my pond filter this summer, it grows best in clean flowing water so it should be ideal, not only can I feed it to the turts, but it also helps to remove nitrates from the water to reduce algae.

Job sorted

[labmad]

oh yeah - i forgot

i got a load of aquatic plants from Java for the fish tanks, but have more than required, if i put a load in the turtle's tank is there a chance they will gorge on them and eat too much?

Also will it be safe to weight them down with lead weights, also is it ok to do this with the courgette so it sinks?

Thanks

[Graham]

I would remove the lead weights, if they eat all the plants they won't get fat, no more than if you ate a whole box of lettuces!