What do you feed your turtles?

[key west chick]

yep, true dog alligator snapping turtles get very big and are very nasty! Sure wouldn't want one as a pet!

 

[redhen]

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I was just going to say that..i bet they'd looove some raw hamburger..Not sure if its safe for them though..

 

[McCord6]

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That is NOT a snapping turtle! I have one JUST like it and it's a SLIDER. There is turtle food that you can feed them. DO NOT PUT ANOTHER FISH IN WITH THE TURTLE! I made that mistake and the gold fish became dinner for my Slider! ARGH! I got a thing of turtle food from Walmart, I don't remember how much it was. If I run out of turtle food, gold fish food feeds them just fine as well. They are not picky eaters, they will eat pretty much any type of aquatic animal food. These guys are SOOO easy to take care of. I'm trying to find another one to maybe breed with. Right now it is the size of the palm of my hand but beware, they will get bigger by the years (THEY DON"T STOP GROWING FROM WHAT I WAS TOLD)!
We named it Ratty cuz when we first got it (we don't know if boy or girl, bad!) it got out of the tank and was walking from my bedroom to the livingroom. I had a friend over and she thought he was a RODENT!

I noticed that you have it in water. Is it in a tank of nothing but water? If so, you would need to make some adjustments. They are SIMI-aquatic animals, they need land as well as water. My tank has 1/2 water, 1/2 land. We made a landscape for it out of what we found around the property. Use stones and pebbles to do this or you can go to the pet store and get a "Platform" that they can get up on to "REST" from swimming. I made my aquarium look like a pond. Wish I could show pictures but my camera is broken.

 

[buck-wild-chick]

I do have a have a platform and basking light. I know he isn't a true snapping turtle but the other one is but I cant post pics of him for certain reasons....

 

[buck-wild-chick]

I looked up turtles native to Florida and the picture I posted is indeed a "Suwanee cooter".

 

[quailraisingMan]

snapping turtle eat just about any meat product. hope you dont get too close :] they bigger ones likes human fingers

 

[Rising_Phoenix]

Just as a side note only feed the turtle food from Walmart to them if you have nothing else for them to eat it contains almost no nutritional value there are some good turtle foods at pet stores if you have a good reptile orientated one in your area you can ask their advice. And since they are cooters instead of snappers they would also like some greens they are omnivorous try some Romain lettuce.

 

[3goodeggs]

You are in Florida, so that means there is a pond, or creek, or lake ,or river near by. Our little musk (WAS little) turtle loves snails. They will crunch them and gobble them up. I would think that the shell calcium would be helpful as well. Keep some around in a small aquarium for treats. It's fun to watch...but snails aren't on my cute list, some may disagree with me. Then just turn and look away.

 

[animalboy91]

i used to have had red eared sliders and mississippi map turtles before, and heres what i fed them:


-pellets
-goldfish
-insects (crickets, meal worms, etc. nothing wild caught though all bought)
-fishfood
-chicken/beef.

i wish i still had them. i didnt have time to take proper care of the cage (waterchanging and raising other animals is tough) but that list is a basic list of food they'll eat that i know off the top of my head.

 

[LV426]

Sliders and cooters can eat vegetables too. Just thaw out some frozen carrots or broccoli or green beans and toss them in. Romaine lettuce and collard greens can be eaten. Cooked chicken or ground turkey (I tend not to feed raw because of salmonella issues). Feeder fish, earth worms, superworms, and crickets.

Also if you want to keep your tank cleaner I would feed them in a separate container like a rubbermaid with some water in it and then put them back in the tank when you are done feeding.