How many times a day and what to feed red-eared turtles at home?

In nature, red-eared turtles find a wide variety of food for themselves. They are omnivores. They can feed on fish, beetles, mollusks, crustaceans, water snails, algae, and coastal plants. The only danger is from “delicacies” found in garbage dumps near human habitation. Oddly enough, at home the risk of eating something harmful or poisonous is much higher than in the wild. Inexperienced owners offer their pets human food prepared with salt and spices, canned food, sweets, and industrial food intended for cats and dogs. Curious turtles try everything. As a result, disorders and poisoning are possible. But it is much more dangerous when unacceptable foods are included in the diet on an ongoing basis. An unbalanced diet leads to irreversible consequences. Therefore, at home you need to carefully monitor the nutrition of the red-eared turtle. What to feed red-eared turtles to keep them healthy and active?

Basic principles of feeding

The main requirements for a turtle's diet are balance and variety. Homemade food should be as close as possible to the natural food of the red-eared turtle. You cannot accustom her to one type of food.

In captivity, regularly receiving food without effort, the animal becomes picky. Choosing the most delicious morsels, he refuses other products necessary for proper digestion and growth. For example, receiving a portion of nutritious soft meat every day, the turtle refuses plant foods and shellfish in hard shells. Obesity is progressing rapidly. Rickets develops. Curvature of the spine is accompanied by pressure on vital organs. Without enough minerals, the shell softens and flakes off. Without receiving the proper load, the beak grows, which interferes with feeding. The quality of life of the animal leaves much to be desired. Its duration is reduced significantly. Attempts to improve the situation with the help of complex vitamin supplements often lead to hypervitaminosis, which brings even more trouble.

What to feed a red-eared turtle at home? It is necessary to create a varied, balanced menu that will meet the energy needs, age and physical activity of the pet. The diet should include plant and animal foods, vitamins and minerals. Part of the food should be hard (shells of mollusks and snails, sepia) so that the turtle can grind down the beak that grows on the jaw.

What not to feed

These aquatic reptiles eat whatever is offered to them. But they cannot digest all the food they eat, which leads to disruptions in the gastrointestinal tract and, consequently, to diseases.

What not to give to a turtle:

• fruits and berries with seeds;
• food from the table;
• sea ​​fish;
• fatty freshwater fish;
• citrus peel;
• flour products;
• onion, radish;
• Turtles have difficulty digesting pork and lamb fatty meat;
• poisonous elodea;
• amber snails.

You should not give a lot or often tomatoes, cabbage, legumes, spinach.

Feeding process

Reptiles feed in water, since saliva does not form in the mouth, and there is nothing to moisten the food with. In order to swallow food, the turtle needs to dive headfirst. Reptiles can swallow small prey immediately. They tear large pieces with their claws and beak. Most of it becomes unusable and the turtle cannot pick it up. Therefore, the food should be finely chopped. Many breeders place turtles in a separate container with warm water during feeding so that the water in the aquaterrarium is less polluted.

Products should always be fresh and at room temperature.

In a warm aquarium environment, food spoils quickly. Therefore, you cannot give the whole portion at once; it is better to offer one piece at a time.

How can you hand feed a red-eared turtle? Any pieces of solid food are suitable for taming, except ready-made dry food. The granule should get wet so that the turtle does not injure its oral cavity. The animal will not be able to take a slippery small lump of food from the hands without biting the owner’s finger. Red-eared turtles are active, strong and fast. You should remember this when giving your reptile a treat.

How long should you feed your red-eared slider? Food is usually offered within 15-30 minutes. During this time, the reptile can become sufficiently full. Remains of food must be removed from the aquaterrarium. If your turtle is active and appears healthy but refuses to eat, there is no need to continue feeding or replace the diet with a favorite treat. Most likely, there is no appetite due to lack of exercise. However, it is worth checking the temperature and quality of the water, as well as continuing to monitor the turtle.

In aquaterrariums with several inhabitants (especially those of different ages), competition should be limited. All pets should receive enough food during feeding time.

How many times should you feed your red-eared slider? Although turtles spend all their time searching for food, digging up the soil and turning over rocks at the bottom, they should only be fed once a day at the same time. It is advisable that it coincides with the period of greatest activity of the reptile. It must be borne in mind that digestion in cold-blooded animals is slow. Feeding is done several hours before bedtime so that the food has time to digest.

How to maintain?

If you want to get this animal, be prepared for the fact that you will have to purchase a separate large aquaterrarium for it. In the summer, she will feel great in the pond, but with the onset of cold weather, she will have to be moved home. Keep in mind: if you want to release a turtle into a pond on your property, this predator will destroy all its inhabitants, including fish and other turtles.

This turtle is insensitive to the composition of water, decor, etc. The main thing it needs is a lot of space and good filtration, since these predators have an excellent appetite and, accordingly, defecate often. Uneaten food left after a meal spoils and the aquarium becomes dirty, which can cause the turtle to get sick.

The snapping turtle needs a shore. In nature, they rarely bask in the sun, but often crawl onto land. It is unlikely that the aquaterrarium is large enough for your pet to crawl along the shore, but she will need a place to warm up sometimes. The aquaterrarium should be equipped with a heating lamp (place it high enough so that the turtle does not overheat) and a UV lamp to absorb vitamin D.

Diet

How often should you feed your red-eared slider? Young and actively growing individuals are fed every day. Up to a year, protein must be present in the menu (60-70% of the total diet). Upon reaching the age of 2-3 years, growth slows down. The body's energy needs decrease. For an adult turtle, it is enough to eat a large meal once every two to three days. The amount of protein consumed is reduced to 40%. On fasting days, only small quantities of green food are offered.

Errors

1. Feed your reptile too often. This will cause overeating and indigestion.
2. The reptile body is adapted to consume a certain type of food. You cannot feed a herbivore only meat, and a carnivore only fruits and vegetables.
3. Giving your pet food too rarely. The individual will be weak, lethargic, inactive and susceptible to disease.

If you follow the rules of feeding land reptiles, they will have good health and longevity.

Sources:

https://hvost.news/animals/reptiles-feeding/kak-chasto-kormit-cherepakh/ https://myturtle.ru/skolko-raz-v-den-nuzhno-kormit-krasnouxuyu-cherepaxu/ https:// rybkies.ru/obitateli/chem-kormit-suhoputnuyu-cherepahu-v-domashnih-usloviyah.html

Protein sources

The basis of the diet of a young turtle is low-fat fish. Raw fish contains an enzyme that selectively destroys and inactivates thiamine (vitamin B1). Therefore, before feeding the red-eared aquatic turtle, the fish is scalded or even kept in boiling water for eight to ten minutes. It is not recommended to cook fish for a long time, since long-term processing deprives it of most of its beneficial properties.

Is it possible to feed a red-eared turtle unpeeled fish? In nature, the reptile eats small fish, caught in proportion to its capabilities. Saltwater fish bought in a store have a backbone that is too powerful for a turtle's jaws to handle. Large bones are removed to prevent the pet from injuring the larynx or choking. Fish entrails may contain fragments and larvae of various parasites and should not be offered to the turtle. Only small river fish can be fed whole, remembering to scald them first.

Aquatic turtles happily eat all types of seafood: shrimp, squid, octopus, mussels, oysters, and crab meat. Shellfish should be offered with the shell.

Meat is a very nutritious food. It should be offered in small quantities and not every day. Beef, chicken, turkey, rabbit and horse meat are all types of lean meat that are suitable to feed red-eared turtles. How else can you diversify your diet? You can use the heart, liver, lung, and gizzards of birds.

Meat and offal are offered both raw and scalded.

Live foods are especially useful in the diet. In addition, hunting is an excellent activity to entertain a bored turtle, improve appetite and tone up in the autumn-winter period.

What can you feed red-eared turtles? Depending on the size of the turtle, you can use the following as live food:

• aquarium fish (livebeards, characins, barbs);
• snails (land snails, pond snails, mariza, coil, ampularia);
• insects (in the summer these can be beetles, grasshoppers, grasshoppers, hairless caterpillars, and throughout the year - mealworms, bloodworms, gammarus, daphnia, coretra);
• naked mice;
• frogs.

How does it reproduce?

Unpretentious snapping turtles are ready to mate at any opportunity. In nature, the breeding season begins in the spring, as soon as it gets warmer.

In captivity, the male and female are kept separately, and with the onset of warm weather they are transplanted into the same body of water. We need to watch them so that they do not injure each other. The female has a very strong instinct for reproduction, so watch her doubly carefully: she can even escape from a closed terrarium to lay eggs.

On average, the female lays up to 15 eggs; after 80 days, the young hatch from them. At first they are timid, but with age their natural aggressiveness takes over. You can feed them with live food - worms, small fish, or switch them to an artificial diet.

Plant food

Throughout life, it is a necessary element of nutrition. With age, it becomes its basis. Vegetables and fruits are given in small pieces directly in the water. Grasses are fixed in small bunches (three to four stems) above the surface of the water. Various algae can be planted directly in the aquarium, protecting the roots and stems with decorative ceramics.

The list of permitted green feeds is very extensive:

• fruits (apple, pear, plum, apricot, peach, melon);
• vegetables (white and cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumbers, milk green peas and beans);
• herbs (lettuce, spinach, celery, dandelion, clover, sprouted oats);
• aquarium plants (spirogyra, anacharis, ceratopteris, hornwort, edogonium, common duckweed, pond algae, dried seaweed).

Vitamins and mineral supplements

Under natural conditions, the turtle eats small fish and shellfish along with bones and shells. This provides the body with building material for a strong shell and skeletal bones. Mineral supplements help bring home feeding of purified fish and meat closer to natural food: bone meal, crushed eggshells, pharmaceutical preparation of calcium gluconate or sulfate. The powder is usually mixed with soft food before feeding to red-eared turtles. You can dip pieces of meat or fish into the mineral mixture and offer the treat from your hands. Young animals should be given 5 g daily, adults – two to three times a week, 10 g of mineral supplements.

To compensate the red-eared turtle for the lack of sun, a UV lamp is placed in the aquaterrarium and the diet is enriched with vitamin D3, A, C, E. To do this, “Trivit”, “Tetravit” or other multivitamin preparations are added to the food once a week, three to four drops.

Pet stores offer complex vitamin and mineral supplements: Reptile Calcium, Reptile Multi-Vitamins, ReptoCal, ReptoLife, ReptoVit, Reptilife and others. For picky reptiles that won't accept food with additives, there is Nature's Reptile Vita-Spray for topical use. The turtle's skin and shell are sprayed with it every day. It affects bone tissue, being absorbed throughout the entire surface of the body.

Such drugs are given without a veterinarian's prescription, but strictly according to the instructions, in accordance with the weight and age of the turtle. Vitamin complexes designed for warm-blooded animals are strictly contraindicated.

You can compensate for the lack of chlorine ions by adding 0.5-1.5 liters of still mineral water to the aquaterrarium.

Caring for your turtle

The first thing you should pay attention to when purchasing a pet is its appearance and size. A turtle that is under 5 cm in size at the time of purchase will be very difficult to raise.

At this age, small individuals are susceptible to various infections and diseases. This is how natural selection takes place. Therefore, a turtle 5–7 cm in size will be the best choice when purchasing.

You should also carefully examine the color of the shell. The claws and tail must be intact. The skin looks healthy and the eyes shine. After the pet is in the aquarium, watch how it swims. A healthy turtle should swim smoothly, without leaning in different directions.

Healthy turtle

Features of treatment

After purchasing a pet and moving it into an aquarium, it may go through an adaptation period. Typically it will take 2 to 5 days. At this time, the animal becomes a little inhibited, or, conversely, very active. There is no need to panic and pick up the animal. Give him peace and time to adapt to new conditions. After a while, the turtle will get used to the new environment and become calmer.

When trying to pick up a turtle, do it very carefully and always with both hands. Not all representatives are willing to make contact. Some may flounder, hiss, and defecate in fear. The shell becomes slippery in water; keep this fact in mind when removing your pet from the aquarium.

After you hold the turtle in your hands, be sure to wash them with soap. Despite being kept clean, turtles are often carriers of salmonellosis. To avoid the spread of infection, you must always monitor the condition of the aquarium and the quality of the food.

Cleaning the shell

Since green algae in an aquarium is a source of infection, it is important to regularly clean not only the container, but also the turtle’s shell. They can't do it themselves

During the decomposition process, algae also fall under the surface of the shell, and as they decompose, they harm the shell.

You will get used to the fact that once every 3-5 days you need to take the turtle out of the water and wipe its shell with a clean cloth, a special soft napkin, or gently brush it with a toothbrush. During the process, you should try to remove all small particles of algae and other dirt.

Cleaning the shell with a toothbrush

Some unscrupulous owners try to make the turtle's shell beautiful and lubricate it with various oils or creams to add shine. This is strictly prohibited, as it harms the skin and interferes with the healthy “breathing of the body” of the pet.

Ready-made feed

Creating the right menu requires a competent approach. Daily food preparation (defrosting, scalding, removing bones, slicing), feeding and cleaning the aquarium itself takes a lot of time. To make caring for your pet easier, you can use industrial feed mixtures. Well-known manufacturers of ready-made diets for reptiles - WARDLEY (USA), TETRA (Germany), SERA (Germany) and Biodesign (Russia) - offer complex products developed by veterinarians that fully satisfy the body's needs. You can choose well-balanced food in all price categories.

The diets for young and adult turtles differ significantly in composition. Before feeding red-eared aquatic turtles, you need to carefully read the purpose and composition of the food. Baby food is rich in protein and has a strong, attractive smell. Diets for adult turtles consist of 70% plant ingredients and are almost odorless. An actively growing individual will not be able to fully develop while eating adult food, and will most likely refuse to eat it. A large turtle, on the contrary, will happily feast on “baby food”, acquiring excess weight and associated health problems.

How much to feed red-eared turtles with “baby” food is determined individually. Size cannot be a sign of age, since turtles grow very quickly under favorable artificial conditions. If the diameter of the shell increases evenly, then daily feeding and a protein diet are required. In the first year of life, the turtle doubles in size. The growth rate slows down over the next few years. Normally, the shell should increase by about two cm per year. If the stripes between the scutes on the carapace become very wide and light, it means that the turtle is overeating and it is time to switch it to an adult plant diet.

Three groups of turtles

Based on the type of nutrition, turtles are divided into three groups: carnivores, omnivores and herbivores
. Each of them corresponds to a certain ratio of animal and plant foods. Feeding inappropriate food for each group of turtles is fraught with diseases of the internal organs, digestive complications, and metabolic problems. You also need to include calcium and vitamins in your diet weekly. What food should be given to each group?

Predatory

The food of predatory turtles should consist of 80% animal food and 20% plant food. This group includes almost all aquatic species and all young aquatic ones, such as young red-eared, caiman, trionics, swamp, musky, etc.

The main food for them is:

• lean fish, live or thawed, with entrails and small bones. For young turtles, the fish should be finely chopped (spine, excluding ribs) with bones, for adults - whole or large pieces. Large bones can be ground or finely chopped.
• beef or chicken liver is given once a week;
• seafood such as green (not pink) shrimp, sea cocktail;
• mammals (small): naked mice, rat pups, runners.

The turtle can eat all seafood, as well as fish, only raw; heat-treated food should not be given;

Additional food

, which should be given once a week, serves:

• Dry food for freshwater turtles, for example, in the form of sticks, tablets, flakes, granules, capsules, Sulfur, etc.
• Insects: moth, food cockroaches, grasshoppers, bloodworms, crickets, earthworms, gammarus and so on;
• Mollusks, amphibians, invertebrates: slugs, frogs, small snails with shells, tadpoles and similar swamps.

It is prohibited to give to predatory turtles:

meat (beef, chicken, pork, lamb, sausages, sausage, any type of minced meat, etc.), as well as fatty fish, milk, cheese, bread, fruit, dog or cat food, etc.

The diet of this group of turtles should consist of 50 percent animal food

and 50 - vegetable. Omnivorous turtles include semi-aquatic and adult aquatic turtles, some types of land turtles: spiny turtles, coora turtles, adult red-eared turtles, Spengler's turtles, red-footed turtles (coal turtles), etc.

Their menu consists of half animal food, see the list above, and half plant food, the list is below. Aquatic turtles are pampered with fish

and seafood (as animal food), and mice are given to land animals.

• Plant food for aquatic species are plants growing in water conditions,
• Land animals are given plants that live on the ground, and fruits and vegetables are added to them.

Herbivores

The menu of this group of turtles is based on plant foods, which make up 95% of the total diet, animal food consists of 5%.

Herbivores include: all land turtles, including radiated, flat, Central Asian, Greek, spider and others.

The main food of this group is:

• greens, it makes up 80% of the entire menu (semi-dry or fresh salads, edible leaves, flowers, succulents, herbs.
• vegetables - 15% of the diet (pumpkin, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots...)
• fruits that are not very sweet (apples, pears, etc.) are represented in 5% of the menu.

Additional food

once a week, it includes:

• non-poisonous mushrooms, such as russula, boletus, champignons, etc.
• dry balanced food for land turtles of the brands “Sera”, “Tetra”, “Zumed”.
• other: soybean meal, dry yeast, raw young sunflower seeds, bran, dried seaweed...

It is prohibited to give meat; this category includes: any minced meat, sausages, sausage, chicken, beef, pork, etc.). Also fish, milk, cheese, cat or dog food, bread...

Canned food for turtle

Pampered pets often refuse pelleted food. Soft, fresh food tastes much better. You can prepare a delicious and aromatic combination food with your own hands. It will help save time on daily cooking for young animals.

Grind 300 g of vegetables (carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, cabbage, apples) and 300 g of seafood or fish in a blender. 300 ml of milk and four eggs are poured into the mixture. According to the instructions, gelatin is diluted in 300 ml of water. A few drops of Tetravit will balance the composition of the feed. The hardened mixture is hermetically sealed with a lid. It can be stored in the refrigerator for several days. Before feeding red-eared turtles, the product is warmed to room temperature. The amount of food is designed for approximately a week for two average individuals.

Dangerous products

Despite the fact that these reptiles are omnivorous and unpretentious, their capabilities are not limitless. You need to remember this when getting a red-eared turtle.

So. What should you not feed red-eared turtles? First of all, this is human food: sausages, canned food, dairy products, cheeses, flour products. You should not feed red-eared turtles just anything. The small amount of food they eat per day should bring maximum benefits for growth and proper development.

Foods and vitamins designed for fish, cats and dogs do not meet the needs of reptiles. They can cause severe disorders, and with constant use - irreversible consequences.

Fatty meats and fish will not benefit digestion. They are harmful to the turtle's stomach and liver. In addition, the fatty film can harm the health of the skin, eyes and shell, and spoil the water in the aquarium and the biofilter.

Among plant products, all types of citrus fruits and other sour fruits, spicy vegetables (onions, garlic), and spicy herbs are dangerous. Some types of algae (Elodea, Ambulia and Lagenandra) are toxic to reptiles.

Reproduction of representatives of the species

Representatives of this species mate from the age of 4 (males) and from 5 years (females). In order for animals to produce offspring in the future, you need to prepare an aquarium in advance. The water level should be at least 10 cm. This is necessary so that the female does not remain without water for a long time during the mating period. Then you need to prepare a dry place where the female will lay eggs in the future.

For proper mating, there should only be one boy and one girl in the aquarium. Otherwise, male turtles will fight, and they do it very aggressively - they bite off each other’s tails and paws. After the female lays eggs, they must be transferred to an incubator - a container with sand. The layout is similar to a chicken incubator. The ideal temperature for egg maturation is 25–27 C. On average, it takes about 5 months for a turtle to be born.

Incubator container

After hatching, the babies should not be allowed into the aquarium with adults, since the latter do not have developed maternal and paternal instincts, and they can attack turtles.

If turtles are properly cared for and feeding recommendations are followed, they will delight their owners for decades.

Dreaming of becoming the owner of a reptile, pet store visitors often opt for the red-eared turtle

This animal does not require careful care, but feeding the turtle must be approached with special attention. The harmless reptile is a real predator, so you need to feed it not only plant food, but also protein food, which will make the red-eared turtle healthy