How long can a turtle go without eating?

Question

How long can a red eared slider turtle go without eating?He's about 5 or 6 inches wide

Answer 1

A month or more. See my answer to your similar question above.

Answer 2

Until what?  It dies?

Turtles do not need to be feed daily.   A healthy 5-6" specimen should be feed only a couple times a week, if not just once or twice.

Until death?  It really depends, in warm water it could be a month, a couple weeks, a couple months.  In colder water, more.

If you're in an emergency and do not have access to food, and were not able to feed it for a week or two... while not recommended it would probably survive, if at least being a little less happy about it (to say the least).

Answer 3

It depends on his condition was when you found,caught or bought him. A healthy slider would take 2 weeks with no food or water. A sicklly one less than a week cause his sytem has already been starved of vitamins and proteins and calcium.

The bigger the environment the bigger the healthier the turtle.

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA for 8 to 10 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow. So that means getting a turtle dock also.

Leave the heater on 75 to 78 degrees always.

Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they p**p allot.

Total Body length: 5-8" average, up to 12 inches max. Life span: 15-25+ years

Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about 3” across.

You need a good filter system! Gravel larger than they can swallow.

You need to feed them feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows for protein and calcium daily drop 20 or so in the tanks and watch them disappear!

This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also! They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes, foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass.

TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium. it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it that’s fine!!

They can have garden worm, meal worms, crickets, flies, crayfish and anything that moves!

They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.

You probably already know that they get sick easily, shell rot, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, blowing bubbles from their nose, Swollen cloudy eyes means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google ‘vegetables with Vitamin A.

Contact the “www.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet / rescue in your city and state

I wish you luck.