My baby turtle wont eat!?

Question

She's a slider, had her for about 2 weeks. & loves me to death, but just wont eat the pelits that i give her! what do i do!?

Answer 1

Baby turltes tend to do this alot.  Change her food up a bit.  I recommend crickets.  Turtles love live food. Live food tends to help stimulate the wild turtle inside them.  If a change of food doesnt help than check with a vet.  Not eating is usually the first sign of sickness.

Answer 2

did you try given it sausages

Answer 3

small gold fish, just slap them on a rock or the side to stun them, then drop or carefully hand to turtle. i hand feed mine but you have to be careful they will bite

Answer 4

Use live red wigglers,it will eat those.

Answer 5

The first things to be sure of are: Are you providing her with the habitat she needs? Correct lighting, UVB, and heat? And are you offering her the right foods, and as often as she needs them? If her environment is too cold, or she's ill, she won't eat.

Baby RESs are more interested in protein items like small fish and crickets, as well as aquatic plants/vegies. A good staple pellet (such as Reptomin floating food sticks) should be part of the staple diet. And, as the name indicates - they should be dropped in the water, when offered to the turtle. Just break them into bite size pieces for her. They soften when moist, very quickly.

I'll paste a basic recipe for gut loading insects for you, and also provide some information on RESs. Below, I'll paste a few sites you might want to check out, when you find the time.

GUT LOADING CRICKETS for REPTILES:

The number one problem:

Dried up and malnourished pet store crickets and mealworms. These food items are essentially useless. A dehydrated and unfed cricket contains almost no nutrients at all; refrigerated mealworms are even worse. A lot of the variety in nutrients found in wild insects is actually in the stomach content - usually plant material. We need to duplicate this to provide the best for our reptiles; without the risk of illness/disease/parasites which can result from feeding our pets wild insects.

Please note that wax worms, while fattening, are not nutritious.

Basic Dry/Staple Cricket Food:

Equal amounts of dry Iguana food, dry dog food, chick starter mash, oatmeal (you can add dry baby food wheat/rye/barley, etc. as well; even shredded wheat - no sugar).

Grind these items together. Place in a small lid/bowl for the crickets to eat. Store the unused portion in the refrigerator or freezer, until needed.

Supplement daily with one of the following: sweet potato, bananas, zucchini, oranges, carrots, strawberries, assorted squashes (acorn, yellow, etc.), grapefruit, green beans, apples, kale, spinach, cactus pads, and just about any other nutritious item you can think of (do not use white/yellow potatoes - these are starchy and only good if used as a moisture source during shipping, and NEVER use Avacado - it's poisonous to most animals).

Provide the dry food and kale at all times (kale is readily available during the winter months, too), rotating the other food items through in succession. The key is variety, and to provide an assortment of varying nutrients. What you are trying to do is offer your reptiles crickets with guts 'loaded' with fresh foodstuffs.

The crickets should be gut loaded for 2-3 days prior to offering them to your reptiles.

Also, provide fresh clean water in a lid/bowl, adding a sponge or folded paper towel to prevent drowning.

Don't offer more crickets than the reptile(s) will consume within: 1.) a few hours if it’s a lizard, salamander, frog/toad, or 2.) a few minutes, if it’s a water turtle, so you know the crickets will still be full of the good stuff when eaten.

Be sure to remove any uneaten crickets so that they do not soil your pet's environment/water or bother your pet, once it is full. Crickets CAN turn the table - and feast upon your pet! Or aggravate them, causing stress and even cessation of eating.

There are many opinions on how to meet the dietary requirements of your RES (and other water turtles). You can consult your vet for their recommendation, too, and google turtle breeders/sites to see what they feed. This is what I have found to provide a happy/healthy reptile:

In the wild, red ear sliders eat both animal and plant sources of food. However, juveniles are mainly meat eaters, and eat less plant matter than they will as they grow.

In captivity, the diet for juveniles should consist of a commercial aquatic turtle pellet product (like Reptomin floating food sticks); aquatic plants (research which are safe for consumption); gut loaded crickets; and very small feeders guppies/goldfish/minnows. Hatchlings should be fed small amounts spaced several times over the day (they are growing quickly) and juveniles should be feed on a daily basis. The diet can be supplemented with frozen tubiflex worms and earthworms. Plant matter, in the form of leafy greens (like curly kale) or finely chopped mixed vegetables, can be offered once weekly but may not be readily accepted until they grow a bit older, or curiosity sets in.

Get a cuttle bone from the bird dept. at a local pet shop (you can easily cut this to a desired size or use whole for larger turtles/tanks) and drop it in the water for added calcium. Turtles are curious, and eventually they'll bite at it.

For adults the diet is relatively the same (amounts increased as they grow), but more of the diet may consist of commercial turtle pellets and plant items. All my turtles, regardless of age, enjoy their gut loaded crickets. Offering fresh live fish supplements their diet, and provides a good source of exercise as they swim, stalking and catching them. Adults should be fed assorted greens several times a week. Adult turtles may not eat daily, but most will if offered the opportunity.

Alternate/rotate the greens to provide a variety of nutrients: kale; romaine/red leaf lettuce; mustard greens; dandelion greens/flowers; watercress; parsley; Swiss chard; shredded carrots; shredded squash; mixed vegetables (fresh is better, but thawed frozen can be used) and miscellaneous fruits. NO iceberg; brussel sprouts, or cabbage!

You can reduce your task of keeping their environment clean by removing your turtle(s) to a small tank/plastic water filled container (water turtles primarily feed in the water) for feeding. Turtles shred their food with their beak and front claws, and tend to be quite messy eaters.

If none of this gets the lil darlin eating; then for a turtle vet in your city and state, contact “herpetologicalsocieties.com“.

Good luck, and enjoy your pet!

I hope this has been helpful.

Answer 6

Are you feeding her baby REPTOMIN pellets?

That is what all turtles will eat.

Try that.

And if that doesnt work, you need to soak the pellets in tuna juice.

They will always eat that.

Go to the forum and ask this question-

http://www.redearslider.com/forum

REad through this-

http://redearslider.com/entice_eating.ht...