The feeding of aquatic turtles | Pet care.

The feeding of aquatic turtles

Food items

For any fan who wants to have a terrapin, luck will be on your side in regards to food for their animals. The Trachemys not only are turtles that eat with appetite, but that their diets are also very varied. In their natural state they are mainly herbivores, but in captivity it can teach them to eat a lot of things, what is naturally very important to keep you healthy.

Commercial food

For most fans, the easier to feed a turtle in captivity way is to give canned food. Currently in pet shops it is possible to find many suitable products, and most of them have proved to be safe and reliable.
The problem that is often presented is that often a turtle that has been recently captured does not respond to these commercial foods and need to stimulate your appetite with something that is more familiar.

For example, once had a beautiful specimen male Yellow-bellied elusive, Trachemys scripta scripta, got from a vendor on the northeast coast of USA It was clear that the animal had been captured in nature and seemed to feel upset by this. I knew that this could bring problems, but despite all the turtle looked very healthy and I was attracted by the challenge.
I brought the animal home and left it only in a moderately warm water tank for about four days. After I changed the water and dropped three sticks of a commercial well known turtles feed on it. I did not expect the turtle to attack food with special interest, but I was surprised and disappointed when she was not even fixed in food.
It was clear that I had to try something different because it already saw that it could not resort to the easy solution. I consulted a good field guide to find out what was eating that type of turtle in its natural habitat (aquatic plants, some small insects, worms) and desperate, I decided I had to get some of these foods to get the turtle to eat something, although this require me quite a few difficulties.
Finally I could get a nice and fat worms in the garden of a friend, and, clearly, the turtle replied. Unfortunately, during a time the only thing that ate were earthworms, so that after a few ten visits, the garden of my friend seemed to have been bombed.
This continued thus for two long and laborious months, and suddenly, finally, the tortoise began to eat something different: crickets. That was certainly an improvement because the crickets are readily available at any pet store. But despite everything, my ultimate goal was to get to eat commercial feed.
Each week testing with something different - some pieces along with the crickets - but without results. So I stopped giving pieces of commercial food for a month, and then something surprising happened.
I tell the turtle their usual food of half a dozen crickets (every four days) then threw two pieces of commercial feed inside the tank, and this time he ate it. In addition, it must have have them found to your liking, because less than two weeks later first commercial food I ate, and then focused on the crickets.
The conclusion that can be drawn from this story is that the fact that you have a turtle that appears to reject commercial foods, does not mean that in the future it won't change your mind. Keep trying to eat canned food; Maybe one day the animal devore it warmly.

Crickets

Crickets are probably living food that is most often give the turtles. This is good, because the crickets are also an excellent food for these turtles. It is not difficult to get them, and they constitute a complete and nutritious meal.

Most of the stores dedicated to reptiles sold crickets; these insects are relatively inexpensive and are sometimes offered in different sizes.
If in your pet shop they have problems to get crickets on a regular basis, can you order them in quantities to a kennel. You can contact a Kennel through the ads in a magazine dedicated to reptiles, or herpetology Club. Prices are usually reasonable and delivery is normally quite quick.
Some fans have the chance to live in areas where there is abundance of crickets. If you are one of those lucky, can capture crickets (during the warmer months, of course) by putting some chunks of black tar paper in places where it is known that these insects abound. After about three days, lift those pieces of paper because the crickets will use them as shelters. Remember that you have to be quick, because crickets will certainly be. To capture a cricket put the Palm of the hand almost flat on the insect as quickly and as carefully as you can, and then close the hand: should have one. Put them in a small container with a secure lid and give them enough oats and a damp sponge that will provide them with moisture; go after removing them as you need them.

Earthworms

Another super breath for the diet of the turtles, and that enthuses also most of the turtles emididas (elusive, turtle box, etc.) are the earthworms. Earthworms are a nutritionally adequate food even if I do not complete for aquatic turtles, and like the crickets, often it is possible to get them in the garden.

To capture worms should be a moist piece of cloth of linen or a similar fabric on Earth in a place where the ground is quite soft and fertile (e.g. compost). Make sure that the fabric stays moist, and every two or three days raise it and reap earthworms. It is possible to given them to the turtle immediately (although I would suggest washing them before to eliminate residual land), without having to maintain them. If you must travel to get them and find it necessary to keep them at home, simply fill a tank with about 10 cm of potting and cover the surface of this earth with fresh leaves, which will have to be replaced more or less every week. Keep fairly moist soil.
If not have you from a natural source of worms, but you want to get them to feed their turtles Trachemys, attempt to locate a store that sells bait for fishermen. Can you buy earthworms in large quantities, and then either keep them as we have explained before, or freeze them and defrost them as you will need them. If you decide to the ultimate solution, be sure to wrap each worm individually before freezing them, because if not all stick together forming a large mass. Also, don't forget to save a good amount for the winter months, because not only you can not capture them in nature, but it will not get in stores of baits or in pet shops.

Larvae of the flesh moscarda

Another article that may be sold in pet shops are the larvae of the flesh moscarda. This is larval beetles that can be used as a supplement to the diet of many animals in captivity, including the turtle aquatic. Frogs, lizards, salamanders, toads, birds, fish etc., all profit from the moscarda larvae.
A drawback of the larvae of the moscarda is constituting an incomplete food and in the best of cases should be given only as a complement of the diet. They do not provide them the turtles the calcium they need primarily for the development of the carapace and bones.
Larvae can be purchased at pet shops, either, if you space and if it believes that it can withstand the smell, you can try to raise them yourself. This pretty easy if it is first purchase some 200 larvae and let them become well-developed adult beetles. Put them in a cardboard box opaque with a substrate of about 7-8 cm of oats or bran. Close the lid (leaving one or two ventilation holes) and wait. Within a few weeks the females would have to start to lay eggs, which, in turn, incubated, and it will have begun a new generation. If you leave a part of these offspring to start another colony, the time that will have a continuous and abundant source of live food for their turtles come.

Fish oil/carrion

Some aquatic turtles like to eat some fish in your diet and they shall devour it greedily. The fish may be dead or alive, and in different places, from a pet to a supermarket shop. Obviously its turtles you will find it easier to pick up the dead fish that live, but once in a while I like to give them to my turtles the opportunity to do a little exercise to forcing them to hunt their food instead of simply give it prepared.

Avoid too much salted fish, as much as possible because this is unnatural for the freshwater turtles. If you have purchased a fish that seems very salty, can soak in tap water for some time, squeezing occasionally and changing the water. This should not only much salt but also oils extract.
Goldfish are an OK variety and are quite cheap; also in fish stores and markets you can buy fish of different varieties. This food is relatively cheap and can buy it all year. If you have purchased a piece too big and you want to save a part, cut it into pieces of the right size for a week (pieces that help you keep cool and usable at temperatures of the refrigerator) and freeze the rest, wrapping each piece separately to avoid that all portions adhere to each other. So can you take out each piece when you need it and thaw it in a bowl of warm water.
A final remark with regard to the fish: another reason that fans do not give what is turtles too often consists of causing havoc on the sanitary conditions of the water from the tank. Much that has been washed and dried a piece of raw fish, always appear a greasy film on the surface of the water, and it will be dull and dirty. Is it safe every time you give you raw fish for your turtles, you will need to change the water in the tank as much as a day later. Although give to eat separately into another tank and take you to each one of the turtles , an amount of sufficient oil will adhere to its shell to pollute the water in the tank permanent.

Vegetables

In their natural state the aquatic turtles are basically herbivores, in general they would like to receive many pieces of plant material with their meals. Fortunately for the owner, the vegetables can be purchased at any supermarket, market, or, if their turtles like vegetables, you can even you plant your own garden in your garden.
Carrots, lettuce, cabbage, beets, radishes, cucumbers, etc., can be counted in small pieces that they will lay inside the tank. You may even want to invent a special "recipe" that can develop in number and keep in a separate container in the refrigerator. Vegetables are wonderfully nutritious and can offer the animals at all times.

Various live foods

If you have an Aquatic Turtle that likes to eat live foods and has a tendency to be more carnivorous to herbivorous, you should try to please her. Crickets and moscarda larvae are not the only creatures that a turtle can eat. I have given my own exemplary spiders, slugs, grasshoppers, and even large ants. Probably at some point in their life its turtles will feel the need to vary their diet in this way. The signs of this attitude are easily detected: the animal is simply released on anything that floats in the water, without bothering to check before what this is. If you find a spider in your cellar or catch a fly without it is too squashed, throw it inside the tank.

Other various foods

Once a terrapin accustomed to captivity and begin to trust you, he will not reject many things in a matter of meals. When you have arrived at this point, you can begin to offer foods that are not necessarily normal for the species, but which in any case will be helpful. For the sake of variety, you may occasionally offer up chunks of lean beef, ham, Turkey or chicken. With vegetables can be fruits, as well as pieces of whole wheat bread and cereals. Don't be afraid to experiment. If you think that a food can be helpful for the turtle, give it to him, but be sure to avoid the too fatty.

Vitamin supplements

The final factor in the feeding of aquatic turtles is the vitamin supplement. Sometimes this type of additives is absolutely necessary to ensure the health of the animal, to compensate for a possible lack of something.
In the market there are several such products, but the best are the multivitamin complex called. These products can be supplied to the turtle well orally either mixed with food, more or less once a month. There is always the risk of giving too many vitamins (hypervitaminosis), which can cause disorders of the liver and kidneys, which must be very cautious and measured. Powdered vitamins work best when supplied together with the food, but liquids are most suitable if you have to supply vitamins orally.

The food program

Like all living creatures, the turtles Trachemys eat relatively organized way. They are generally active during daylight hours, and therefore also eat mainly day.
An owner should establish a meals program that is not only appropriate and practical for the turtles but also for himself. Personally, I like to give my aquatic turtles a good meal every other day. It seems to me that this not only meets their dietary needs, but that leaves them with the appetite right so that not only do not reject the food at the next meal, but also get it with great enthusiasm. A reptile that show have appetite is a cause of great concern for its owner, and one that always-hungry is, on the other hand, gratifying.
The amount of food depends on the size of the turtle. You have to determine the amount of food that each turtle should eat. A young turtle needs to eat more frequently than an adult turtle (because it is in a stage of growth), but obviously the amounts will have to be lower. Experiment with different amounts, carried away by their instincts, and review the results. Look at the extremities of the animal. Is the skin bulging and stained? Perhaps it has been giving too much food to your turtle. On the other hand, it is possible that the legs are too thin, and rather loose skin. In that case, it may be time to increase rations.

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