Learn what your pet turtle likes to eat!
And, best of all, your pet turtle doesn’t leave any mess around the yard; looking after a pet turtle is about as easy as having a pet rock … Except that he does love to eat!
If you have a pet turtle you will know the truth to the saying, ‘the way to his heart, is through his stomach’. Red eared slider turtles are notorious for their appetites. These pets are known to beg and beg for food and are at high risk of being overfed.
There are a lot of misconceptions as to how much one can feed and what is safe to feed to one’s pet turtle. This simple guide will help you to discover what is essential in your turtle’s diet for its health and also some easy ideas to safely add variety to your turtle’s diet.
Red eared slider turtles start out mostly carnivorous and become more herbivorous as they grow in age and size. The protein intake of your pet turtle will be higher when it is younger. Calcium is essential throughout the red eared slider’s life to keep its shell hard and accommodate for growth.
Fundamentally, your turtle’s food should consist of commercial pellets and the appropriate vegetables and calcium. Turtle food needs to be presented to your pet inside water because turtles cannot produce saliva to swallow with. You can choose to feed your pet turtle inside a separate container from its tank, which will leave less waste and mess in your turtle tank.
So here are some turtle food ideas and guidelines broken into step by step instructions.
My Pet Turtle is a real show off, especially after a good meal!
Pet Turtle Pellets
Pellets should make up most of your turtle’s diet. For hatchlings and under one year turtles, feed them daily as they need the food to grow! One yearling and older turtles should be fed every other day.
The guidelines on turtle food packets vary, so a standard you should apply for your pet turtle is one feeding in the size of your turtle’s head (excluding the neck). Red eared slider turtles always beg for more, but it is very dangerous to indulge them. It will create an excess of protein that will damage its growth and more waste in your turtle tank.
Greens and Vegetables For Pet Turtles
Vegetables have great offerings of calcium, vitamin k and a. As red eared sliders get older they should be offered more and more vegetables in their diet, 75% of its diet can be plant based. Here are suggested veggies and greens your pet turtle will like to eat:
- These plants are beneficial and can be offered daily: dandelion leaves, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, turnip greens (the leaves only).
- Other vegetables and greens can make up a moderate part of your pet turtle’s food: carrots, green bean, kale, celery, pumpkin, squash, sweet potato, and zucchini.
- And a rare part of your turtle’s food: iceberg lettuce, mustard greens, red pepper, and tomato.
- And these foods should be avoided as they can be harmful to your pet turtle: amaranth, beet greens, bok choi, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, chives, mushrooms, parsley, peas, rhubarb, spinach.
Always at home in the water, a pet turtle is about the best pet you can have in my opinion!
Red eared sliders love eating live prey. It can be a lot of fun for both owner and turtle, but this food doesn’t necessarily offer any nutritional benefits to your pet turtle and could harbor parasite or diseases. This section is best to make up a rare treat portions of your turtle’s diet.
This can introduce some interesting entertainment to your turtle tank, but should be kept to limited amounts. Be careful that what you offer won’t be difficult for your pet turtle to swallow. Also be aware of taking worms from a neighbor’s garden that may use herbicides, pesticides or chemicals.
- Limited use live prey your pet turtle can eat include: apple snails, pond snails, guppies, red rose minnows, crickets, earthworms and silkworms.
- Live prey you can feed your Red Slider turtle rarely: mosquito larvae, ghost shrimp, brine shrimp and waxworms.
- Live prey not recommended for your pet turtle include: crayfish, goldfish, mealworms, slugs and tubifex worms.
Commercial Pet Turtle Treats (canned, processed, frozen)
- Frozen foods are a fairly safe turtle food because they should be parasite free. They can be a good treat to entice your red eared slider to eat.
- Moderate: bloodworms and crickets.
- Use rarely: brine shrimp, feeder fish, gammarus (shrimp) and krill.
- Frozen foods not recommended: mealworms, snails and tubifex worms.
So there you have a few ideas to keep your pet turtle happy through its stomach. Remember, feeding time is one of the most exciting times inside a turtle tank so a healthy variety will not only keep him healthy, but happy too. Follow these tips and your pet turtle will love you dearly for feeding him with an amphibian gourmet diet!
raelyn fielding
June 27, 2008
hey guys i remember my turtle wen it was just teny weeny
but now woho i folowed these stuf and it grow incrediply
THANKS to this site
July 26, 2008
TYVM 4 helping me understand my little hungry clown!!! I will stop over indulging him now…lol
July 26, 2008
oops…
teach much on computers???
lol
Nice job on your site
August 2, 2008
Does anyone know if Mosquito eating fish are harmful to my turtle if I were to put them in her tank and she ate one? We have her n a pond tub on my patio & it attracts alot of mosquitos since it’s still water.
August 28, 2008
i got those little fishes in the pet store 10 for a dollar ones and he loved it, what about dried shrimp
September 15, 2008
dried shrimps maybe additive for your terrapin causeing your terrapin not to eat food pellets or other food i encourage you not to feed it dried shrimp
September 15, 2008
Enter Your Comment I just got two baby sliders and they wont eat at all and i have had them for three days and i am getting concerned can you help
September 23, 2008
wow! now i know soooooooooo much more facts about my turtle. i’m am sooooo glad. i just follow these steps and whooshhhh my turtle will be as healthy as ever!!!! this wesite roolz!!!!
September 23, 2008
thanks to this website and all it’s sponsors!!
September 23, 2008
take them to a vet!!!
November 24, 2008
actually you can feed your turtles small amounts of broccoli and celery, just dont make it a staple part of the diet as these foods can interfere with thyroid function. Also feeder goldfish should actually be ok to feed, Rosy Reds are better
November 28, 2008
My turtle was small when i got him and now he is HUGE!
December 16, 2008
errm..my baby red ear slider doesnt want to eat floating foods,how do i feed them?
December 29, 2008
leave bloodworms on its turtle dock.
December 30, 2008
Enter Your Comment
Question – I was told by a Veterinarian, that certain dry dogfood pellets would be good for my red eared sliders (I have 2 for 15 years). Anybody else tried this??
December 31, 2008
I recently rescued a baby slider from a friend who could no longer care for it. The baby slider was in very poor living conditions and is now enjoying a large habitat with land, water, and a heating lamp. The thing is I’ve noticed that its shell is broken and missing a small part on the back right above the tail. It has been eating and enjoying swimming, so I haven’t worried much, but is there something I should do?
January 2, 2009
In the article, it states that celery makes up a moderate part of the daily diet, then in another paragraph, it states that celery should be avoided as it is harmful to the turtle.
Can someone verify which is correct.
January 13, 2009
That how the turtle grew!
January 22, 2009
i was the first 1 to commet……
my turtle is now like 44cm tall and 60 cm long….
March 9, 2009
We got 2 baby sliders and we dont kno wat 2 do
March 22, 2009
I am going to get a Red eared slider, and i was wondering, what should i put on the bottum of the tank? What should i put in the tank?
April 14, 2009
Hey Amanda… I have had my red ear slider for 17 years. Throughout her whole life, she has been in a 36″ long tank with a ramp, submergible heater and filter. The heater is used to keep the temp at a consistent 76 degrees. You will also need a basking lamp so he can sun himself after eating. The tank should NOT be full. Fill it up enough that he can climb up on the ramp to sun but can also go completely under water. My only additional advice is your turtle will grow to adapt to the size of the tank u have him in. If you want to keep the turtle on the smaller side, I suggest a 10 gallon starter tank. I got my little girl at the size of a quarter and she is now the size of a cake plate!!!
April 26, 2009
i have to change the water ever 3-4 days for my turtles is this normal i even have 2 pump filters nad the slim i get out if the is a mess. any ideas
May 28, 2009
ya. thats fine. my turtle has been alive for 2 years and i feed her mosquito eating fish all of the time!
May 30, 2009
I always feed my turtle my sperm. They always drink it and have not grown to about 30 cm in 2 years.
Has anyone else tried this before?
May 30, 2009
put rocks
May 30, 2009
ihave a red slider too but it is in a food container what should i do plus it wont eat i dont know any thing about turtles plz help me
May 30, 2009
i have a poor turtle red ear kind it lives in a food coantainer it has coldosh water wat should i do:(
June 13, 2009
We are a volunteer group that cares for abused and starving pets. We can use all the support we can get and it will cost you nothing. Please visit our website for details if you are interested.
August 10, 2009
i feed mine to the wife, none left over for turtle.
August 14, 2009
i got a baby slider an don’t no what 2 do
August 15, 2009
jesus u should take some water out and put some warm water in
August 21, 2009
you say you should feed a turtle the same amount of food as about the size of its head. how often should you feed your turtle that amount and should that contain a mix of turtle food and vegetables?
August 28, 2009
this website helped me so so so so so much! i fed my turtle a slug i he’s a great turtle i hope he’s ok!
October 8, 2009
Ive seen some weird stuff and am capable of weird stuff…but dude thats just plain bizarre!!!!!
October 8, 2009
i forgot about feeding my daughters turtle after I saw the way most people here spell on a 1st grade level,,,,damn I must be a genius
October 17, 2009
I have 2 small red ear sliders and i do feed them pellets but how many pellets shoud i give them?
October 19, 2009
my turtle just stopped eating last night, don’t know why.
the tank is like a 15 gal. so not real big but it has a nice set up, have had it for about 9 months now. please help
October 21, 2009
I have a wild caught red eared slider and he’s about 8 inches big. I got a list on what to feed him, and when I do I fill the kitchen sink up with and inch or so of water and put him in it. Then I toss a few things in there like lettuce, peas, pellets and night crawlers, but the only thing he eats is the worms. How do I get him to eat the greens and other foods I give him? I have tried many many times to feed him just greens, but he won’t touch them! And I get so worried he’s going to starve so I throw a worm or two in their so he will eat something…
How do I get him to eat other things?
I’ve had him for a few months now, and he ate a goldfish out of my fish tank so I know he’ll eat other live food, but just nothing green
December 14, 2009
pleaseeeeeeeee somebody help meeeeeeeeeee….. !!!!! my turtle was just fine a few weeks ago.. eating a lott.. exept i never gave him food like this only the one i bought at the pet storee… but now he doesnt like itt.. doesnt eatt.. and worst.. he has red spots on his stomach and i dont know if thas something naturaall,… but i dont want him to dieee.. i love thiss pett very muchhhh seriously,,, someone tellme what to do pleaseeee.. =(=(
January 16, 2010
Enter Your Comment my big brothers turtle died! he tried so hard to avoid that from happening. sep-2-2009 to jan-16-2010…rest in peace !!!!!!